Last Wednesday, Alison Despathy reported on the nightmarish bullying suffered by a girl at a public school in a small town with no real school choice options. That evening, she was a guest on a VDC-TV interview by social media director Paul Bean.
A few quotes from the interview with Danville resident, wife and mom, State House environmental activist, clinical nutritionist, and VDC columnist:
“The bottom line: chronic bullying not being dealt with. A lot of students unhappy, not feeling safe and not getting educational opportunity. And that’s a problem. It’s a huge problem.”
“The piece that I think is so frustrating is we can do something about it. We need to do something about it. Iit can’t just come down to, ‘well, sorry, it’s got to be about funding, and you have to stay here. It has to be about the student. And that’s what’s not happening right now.”
To learn more about the no-way-out scenario facing Bryeanne Russillo and her daughter, watch this video. Please like and subscribe to the Vermont Daily Chronicle Facebook page.
Categories: Video
Bullying is vicious and always injurious to one degree or another. It depletes a child’s (or an adult for that matter) soul and spirit of its natural joy and its dignity.
Decades ago, school administrators & teachers considered bullying, no matter how hostile & harsh, to be normal behavior that kids engaged in to establish some kind of “pecking order” that was somehow deemed normal.
Eventually we learned and acknowledged how harmful and how enduring the damage inflicted by bullying was, and it seemed as though our society was on the precipice of properly dealing with it and eradicating it.
Instead, bullying has apparently worsened through the advent of social media and the systemic breakdown of our civil society which once established & enforced at least some semblance of moral boundaries and behaviors.
To know that teachers who act In Loco Parentis during the course of a school day are turning a blind eye to their wards who are being tormented in their presence is disgraceful and intolerable.
Regardless of whether we have children in the public school system or not, we the people are the employers of public-school personnel and we the people demand that our employ always act as the unwavering protectors and caregivers of these precious charges while on school grounds.
To not protect these innocents is to yourself be complicit in the abuse of a minor child and the societal ramifications it entails for us all. To all Parents, Guardians, and Educators: Teach Your Children Well!
you can tell the clowns at the vermont state house were victims of bullying/// now they are getting back by kicking vermonters in the wallet by all their actions and taking all of their bill of rights////
With all due respect folks, the answers to all of your questions, all of them, are based in the continuing decline of free markets.. period.
“The key insight of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.”
“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.” – Milton Friedman
Unless and until you begin to couch your conversation in this single context, you will continue to spin your wheels.
I fully agree Jay, thank you. And this plays out again and again in our Vt legislature as they work to limit options and force products and services on people by raising taxes and creating new taxes and subsidies to push behaviors and spending a certain way even when it makes zero sense for the people, won’t work, doesn’t serve and isn’t a fair exchange. They are meddling in our economy and creating massive problems for businesses and the people. This is fully playing out as you point out with education, energy, health, school meals, transportation. I was able to talk about this a small bit in relation to energy. It is a highly dangerous trend and it doesn’t allow for a natural evolution of innovative tech that could offer real solutions. It is ultimately a destructive approach and the supermajority is steamrolling the people with their “answers” and favored special interest.
BTW – Jay – thank you so much for all your help and guidance with the Cabot situation- as usual- very much appreciated.
On free markets: “I fully agree….”
Well, then, Alison, that makes two of us. And therein lies the problem. I wonder if Mr. Bean would care to weigh in with his thoughts on the matter.
I always appreciate your drawing regularly from the tried and true principles taught by the best teachers and statesmen from American history and European enlightenment. These are the truths that are left out of public schooling by the education establishment, and too many people don’t understand economics as it relates to human nature. The two are inextricably connected.
Almost all of societies’ economic disfunction can be laid at the feet of ideological communism. Bill Rice, Jr. has a started pretty good substack discussion describing history’s numerous and famous examples of its common features and failures and how we are now succumbing to the same effects.
https://billricejr.substack.com/cp/143892939
Re: “… too many people don’t understand economics as it relates to human nature. The two are inextricably connected.”
Bingo!!! Check out ‘Self Determination Theory’ when you can.
I heard a good one yesterday, “narcissicm on parade.” Proverbs 16:18 ” Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall”
Once the economic calamity starts hitting more households, brace yourselves for hyper-inflation as the dollar rises and then craters. Ten year bond rate closing in on 5% – some say it will surpass that rate – the powder keg is about to blow and the war drums is the last option to hold the cover down….some opine that is not going to work this time around – the balance sheets are too far out of balance…get prepared.
On the other hand, with rising interest rates you can buy FDIC insured short term CDs (Certificates of Deposit) yielding more than 5% instead of leaving whatever cash you have sitting in a savings account earning ½ of a percent.
Again, it’s all about ‘the market’. I remember visiting friends in Argentina in 1979. CDs there were paying 80% interest at the time because their inflation rate was so high. The caveat was, of course, that if I put my money in an Argentine bank, I wasn’t allowed to take the interest it earned out of the country.
Everything is relative. While the concept of a free market is, in itself, a simple prospect, it is the only economic system that can handle the infinitely complex transactions that occur between one person and another… which is why our legislators, and those who support them, get so much of what they do wrong.
Yes, the CD rates will climb assuming one has the money to deposit and restricted access (or be penalized!) over the term. Seeing reports people taking funds from 401Ks and IRAs doesn’t bode well to reap the return – if one is leveraging or depleting the nest egg just to make ends meet is a bad sign for economic stability now and going forward. Above all, before opening any type of deposit account – read the fine print regarding “buy-in” clauses. The current currency is a federal reserve note – a debt instrument. It belongs to the Fed, not you. They can seize it and restrict it – FDIC is underfunded so they can’t and won’t replenish any losses.
The great ponzi scheme is coming to an end. All indicators are pointing in that direction. If one has tangible assets they may ride it out until the new system is put in place – the great question no one can answer – what is that new system?
The free market is anything but free in this current system of illusion. It is all leveraged and current government spending to the tune of $1 trillion every 100 days is beyond comprehension and beyond correction. Carry on!