What? Did I read the White House Office of the Press Secretary release dated March 10 right? Did President Obama really hold a White House Conference on Bullying Prevention? Indeed he did. And, in the process, he made this rather revealing assertion:
“If there’s one goal of this conference, it’s to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up. It’s not. Bullying can have destructive consequences for our young people.
“And it’s not something we have to accept. As parents and students, teachers and communities, we can take steps that will help prevent bullying and create a climate in our schools in which all of our children can feel safe.”
So Obama would dispel one “myth” — that “bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up” — and replace it with an even bigger myth: that the office of the president of the United States can actually prevent bullying.
In the real world — where I live, and where our chief executive clearly does not — most bullying doesn’t even occur in the schools. It occurs outside of our schools. Take it from me: I was practically a professional bully-ee when I was growing up.
I saw other kids bullied. We handled it as best we could — some of us by ultimately standing up to the bullies, which is really the best and sometimes only way to handle them — and without those “destructive consequences” that our president mentioned.
Later on in the press release, someone is being quoted, although it’s not clear who. Perhaps that’s for the best, because this one’s a humdinger:
“Every day, thousands of children, teens, and young adults around the country are bullied. Estimates are that nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each year — upwards of 13 million students.
“Students involved in bullying are more likely to have challenges in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have health and mental issues. If we fail to address bullying, we put ourselves at a disadvantage for increasing academic achievement and making sure all of our students are college and career ready.”
The italics are my way of emphasizing all that is wrong with this quote. First of all, no source is quoted for the figure of 13 million students being bullied. The phrase “students involved in bullying” is nebulous. Define “involved in.”
The ones doing the bullying? The ones being bullied? Both? What’s the source for the assertion that either or both are “more likely to have challenges in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to have health and mental issues”?
Let’s cut to the chase here: This isn’t about preventing bullying. It’s about liberals once again trying to create a new class of victims, because not every student being bullied will be treated equally.
Does anyone really believe that the devout Christian student who’s harassed, taunted and bullied because of his or her religious beliefs is on the radar of anyone who attended that White House conference?
In the press release was a section entitled “enforcing civil rights laws,” which is supposed to be one bullying prevention tactic. It reads, “last October, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights issued guidance … to clarify issues of bullying, and violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. The guidance explains educators’ legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment.”
Notice the phrase “religious harassment” is conspicuous by its absence. That kind of reveals Obama’s real agenda, don’t you think?
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
