Violence and Bullying

Violence

Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Honor and Violence in the Old South (1986)

James Atwood, America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé (2012)

The State v. Buzzard, 4 Ark. 418 (1842) [Shepard’s records 68 subsequent citations of this case, including the case below.]

McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020, 177 L. Ed. 2d 894, 2010 U.S. LEXIS 5523, 78 U.S.L.W. 4844, 22 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 619 (U.S. 2010)

“Incorporation Doctrine,” The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, 2d ed, (2005), 491.
John Thomas Shepherd, “Comment: Who Is the Arkansas Traveler?: Analyzing Arkansas's ‘Journey’ Exception to the Offense of Carrying a Weapon,” Arkansas Law Review (LXVI, 2013), 463.

Bully exists as both noun and verb. From my Funk & Wagnalls’ Standard Dictionary(1906) comes the following:

Bullying as verb: “to intimidate or overawe by threats or by a menacing, blustering manner; terrorize.”

Bully as noun: “an insolent, quarrelsome, threatening, generally cowardly fellow; one who tyrannizes over or terrorizes others, especially those weaker than himself; a browbeater; blusterer”

One quite different meaning: “first rate” (slang) Theodore Roosevelt popularized this usage, used the presidency as a bully pulpit and in life had a bully good time.

Second different meaning: bully boy – “jovial” but not very bright

Selected quotations:

Emerson: “Far off, men swell, bully and thunder; bring them hand to hand, and they are a feeble folk.”

Swift: “I can discover no political evil in suffering bullies, sharpers, and rakes to rid the world of each other.”

Lady Holland, Sydney Smith: “There is nothing (if you will believe the Opposition) so difficult as to bully a whole people; whereas in fact there is nothing so easy.”

Bullying and School Liability Case Summaries.

Some interesting specifics include:

National surveys indicate a rise in bullying. Is the continuing decline of the family a possible explanation in Arkansas?

Enough to start a flight in a Blytheville Kindergarten: “Yo Mama…”

Does your school celebrate Kick a Ginger (Red Head) Day?

Measuring bullying:

Interview students – does bullying peak in the middle school/junior high? Does it change in content and method over time? Is it true that females are the most vicious bullies and those most likely to use cyber bullying? Is it true that bullying gets worse if a parent complains?
Interview teachers – can they be divided into three categories? those who observe and report, those who observe and do nothing, and those who remain in their classrooms so as not to observe.
Interview bus drivers -- Is bullying more common and more difficult to control the longer the bus is on the road? Is afternoon worse than morning?

Different seating patterns have been reported. One has the goodies in the front, the nerds in the middle, and bullies in the back. Another pattern is by age group. What dynamics are present on the buses?

Interview administrators. Is it true that as a class they are reluctant to act except as a last resort? Do teachers fear to report incidents because they would be punished? Is this why teachers won’t talk or don’t want their names or their school mentioned?

Preventive measures:

No high school should hold more than one thousand students; some put the figure at 750. Any smaller number makes it difficult to offer advanced classes; any larger means lack of control, the formation of gangs, and a generally hostile environment.
There is less bullying of special needs students when they are integrated into the classrooms rather than being segregated.
The best way to prevent bullying is to allow students to carry knives and guns to school and teach them how to use them.
One reason for ineffective control of the problem is that the tendency of administrators is to punish equally the offender and the victim. Children even at a very early age appear to have an innate sense of “fairness,” and bullying stories remain imbedded in minds of elders for this reason. Should state law require administrators to file reports on every recorded case? Would