It gets better, unless you're the parent of a bully

[doggie]

I can see fundies getting their hackles up with this one.

http://hypervocal.com/news/2013/wiscons ... ordinance/

Common sense or over the line? A new ordinance in one Wisconsin town allows authorities to fine parents if their child bullies another student.

The city of Monona passed the “parent-liability†clause that states police can issue tickets to parents of bullies, according to Madison.com, and that those parents can then be fined in municipal courts.

But what would classify as bullying? 

The ordinance defines bullying as “an intentional course of conduct which is reasonably likely to intimidate, emotionally abuse, slander, threaten or intimidate another person and which serves no legitimate purpose.â€

The fine would be $114 for the first offense, then $177 for each repeat offense within a year of the first.

Monona Police Chief Wally Ostrenga said he feels the parent-liability clause will be used sparingly, if at all, and only in cases in which the parents are “obstructiveâ€Â or “uncooperative.â€

Officials said that the ordinance was in response to school violence around the country. It was Monona Police Det. Sgt. Ryan Losby who lobbied for the “parent-liability clause†because he was motivated by research that showed almost all the recent school shootings were performed by someone who had been bullied themselves.

[Mama Mia]

I think fines in general are extremely unfair and senseless as a system. If a family makes 10,000 a year that fine could cause a huge hardship. If a family makes 50,000 it might cause them to have to miss out on an outing, if the family makes 100,000 it will probably have no real impact at all. A system that attempts to modifies behavior based on income is wrong.

The financial issue aside. I think possibly requiring counseling or parenting classes or something might be appropriate in some cases - but nothing more than that. And I think it is unreasonable to assume parents can necessarily control their child's behavior while they are at school - why is no one talking about fining the school that allows the behavior? Also, I would be very worried about how broad and vague the wording is.

[DarkAnts]

I think fines in general are extremely unfair and senseless as a system. If a family makes 10,000 a year that fine could cause a huge hardship. If a family makes 50,000 it might cause them to have to miss out on an outing, if the family makes 100,000 it will probably have no real impact at all. A system that attempts to modifies behavior based on income is wrong.

The financial issue aside. I think possibly requiring counseling or parenting classes or something might be appropriate in some cases - but nothing more than that. And I think it is unreasonable to assume parents can necessarily control their child's behavior while they are at school - why is no one talking about fining the school that allows the behavior? Also, I would be very worried about how broad and vague the wording is.

Because teachers have little power of the students.

[AVENues]

Also, *some* teachers prefer bullies over smart students or quiet students and they contentedly look the other way while bad things happen to some children, and they are very likely like the bullies they cover up for.

[Mama Mia]

Because teachers have little power of the students.

And parents have little power over the children while they are at school. The parents can impose consequences, or go to counseling, or talk to the kids and attempt to intill values etc etc .... but if you get a pack mentality at school with children - sometimes that goes right out the window.

And I would be concerned that you would have two types of parents who wouldn't respond well to this. One is the type who encourages bullying because they are defensive and feel their kid needs to claw their way to the top no matter what -- if they get fined the kid will probably just increase the bullying. The other kind of parent might abuse their child because of it.

The parents who are most likely to respond with concern/worry/shame because their kid is being a bully are also the most likely to have kids who aren't chronic bullies but are caught up in the "mean girl" mentality and they will do their best to get their kid to stop as soon as they find out, or whose kid has impulse issues that they are more than willing to address. So the fine isn't going to do anything helpful anyway.