The video below is disturbing. It shows a poor child suffering a broken ankle and a probable concussion. Right-thinking people, and those who care deeply about children in general, should turn away in horror.

Of course I can't stop watching the video, because I'm not right-thinking, because I don't care about children in general, and most importantly because the little shit had it coming.

According to the Facebook page where this video originated (it's since been removed because it graphically depicts violence against children), the fat kid, a sophomore at a high school in Sydney Australia, had been bullied by schoolmates such as the kid depicted slapping him, for years. Some time in the past week, the fat kid "snapped," as the media put it, or decided he'd had enough of this shit, as I'd put it, and treated himself to the justice his school had denied him.

And well everyone loses their minds!

Commenters on Facebook numbered in their hundreds and sided overwhelmingly with the older boy. "I think it's great that he's standing up for himself. It just sucks that schools don't even try and stop bullying," said one. "This kid is my hero," said another. One said they knew the older boy personally and that he had been a victim for some time. "I find it disgusting that he was suspended for it," they said. "I understand why he was but he still shouldn't [have] been." Their triumphant response to the older boy's retaliation surprised seasoned experts.

Of course it surprised seasoned experts.

It surprised them because seasoned experts in schoolyard violence lack common sense.

We've built a society in which, under the doctrine of zero tolerance, seasoned experts and school administrators have lost all perspective: They have autistic children arrested for wearing a hoodie. Kids are prosecuted for denouncing scientology. Girls are strip-searched by the ibuprofen police. Boys are suspended for opening the door to help a lady whose hands are full. "Good students" and "nice children" are arrested for carrying nerf guns to class. If our schools are an asylum, the inmates are truly running it.

Meanwhile, somewhere right now, a fat kid is being slapped. And no one will do anything about it. Because it's all part of the plan.

[P]olice and bullying experts are concerned by the video's publication on Facebook and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the older boy's retaliation against his attacker. "We don't believe that violence is ever the answer," [seasoned bullying expert John] Dalgleish says. "We believe there are other ways that children can manage this." … "The longer term way is about developing better relationships between kids in the school, that will then empower young people to not be passive bystanders when these acts occur but to stand up and say 'this is wrong'," Mr Dalgleish says. "The short term solution is to have individual counselling with each of the children."

Don't you see, fat kid? When that little monster threw a jab at your chin, you were supposed to explore alternative paths of conflict resolution. You should have dialogued with him, as seasoned bullying experts would say, and tried to understand what made him punch you in the face:

In other words, that he's a bully, and you're a fat nerd. And that's what bullies do to fat nerds. Because our teachers, and seasoned experts, have more important things to do with their time than to stop bullies who know just where to step, close to, but not quite over, the line.

Or you can take your chances with the invisible line youself, but if you step over it, you'll be the one who's "snapped." And you'll be the one who goes to jail.

St Marys Police duty officer Inspector Jason Green said posting the video had the effect of glorifying violence in schools. "…Whether it causes other incidents or not I don't know but it seems to be a trend of late," Inspector Green said. "It may incite other violence but that's something that we can't comment on." … "But we have to deal with them as there still is some criminality with regards to their actions," he said.

Why? If this had happened in a bar instead a schoolyard, no jury would convict the victim for what seems a measured, appropriate response to being punched and slapped in the head.

Why not leave the fat kid alone? The bully who slapped him certainly will. If something must be done, why not give the fat kid a stern talking to? Why not give him individual counseling, as seasoned bullying expert John Dalgleish suggests?

Or why not give him a medal?

Via Crime and Federalism.

Last 5 posts by Patrick Non-White