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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMarch 24th, 2008
There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES
That was the heading of a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.”
The NY Times tells us that Billy “likes girls”, but that matters little to those looking for a reason to beat him. And they have beat him. Badly. And repeatedly.
So his family is suing one of the bullies. And they are considering suing his public high school in Fayetteville, Ark.
The school has a tolerance program. But somehow this didn’t stop Billy from being beaten. Nor did it stop some administrators from blaming Billy first (only to have to retract their accusations when presented with videotape). I don’t know if their policies specifically include tolerance lessons based on sexual orientation or if bullies and administrators just chose not to take them seriously.
Anti-gays tell us that kids get picked on for lots of reasons: wearing glasses, being a little heavy, or just no reason at all so we shouldn’t have anti-bullying policies that specifically protect gay kids. But it sure seems to be the gay kids – or those like Billy who are labeled “homosexual” by their tormentors – that end up bloody or dead.
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GDad
March 24th, 2008
Unconscionable. I think I’d have had a hard time stopping at a lawsuit.
gordo
March 24th, 2008
How does Randy Thomas sleep at night?
Jason D
March 24th, 2008
I really don’t understand the “kids will be kids” cop-out policy that so many people seem to subscribe to when it comes to bullying.
They seem to think that bullying is an unstopped fact of life, when in fact, it’s a symptom of a troubled child who’s likely to be society’s big problem later.
I don’t understand parents who don’t have any problem when they find out their own kid is a bully.
I’m sure this kid isn’t just being harassed at school and on facebook. This kind of thing gets viral, I’m sure someone has tried to hack more than one of his accounts, his email address, his IM screennames. You know how vicious adults can be when they can hide behind a computer, kids are ten times worse.
And the same people will be “shocked” next month when Billy (or a kid in the same situation somewhere else)offs himself, or comes to school and mows down half the student body with a sub-automatic.
Kid’s don’t settle this by the flagpole with fists anymore. Those days are long gone.
Did we learn nothing from the Columbine Massacre?
gordo
March 24th, 2008
“I don’t understand parents who don’t have any problem when they find out their own kid is a bully.”
It’s possible that bullies beget bullies.
David Roberts
March 24th, 2008
I don’t cry often, but that brought a tear – mostly because I see the past of several boys who have committed suicide while reading about Billy. The school has a chance to deal with this now, before that may happen, yet it seems they are trying hard to avoid that responsibility.
Good catch Timothy.
David
March 24th, 2008
The boy is beaten in a restroom by boys who threaten to kill him and is told by the assistant principal that nothing could be done.
“I guess death-threats are normal here,” Billy says.
What a wonderful place Fayetteville, Arkansas must be! Then there’s this:
“some boys in a wood shop class goaded a bigger boy into believing that Billy had been talking trash about his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the left cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.
“Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy’s cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved.” [emphasis added]
Jesus Christ! And they’re only considering suing the school? Hell, if he were my son I’d have killed someone by now!
Nate505
March 25th, 2008
This story pisses me off to no end. The kids I detest but part of me gives them the slightest pass because they are stupid middle school kids. But the actions from the adults who run the school are nothing short of dispicable. Those idiots should be fired. I would pull my kid out of that school and deal with the law and make this thing damn public if I were the kid’s parents.
Duncan
March 25th, 2008
At my school (the European School of Varese) we accepted bullying as a fact of life. Everyone got bullied, and pretty much everyone was a bully, on a vaguely defined rota system. We taunted each other no end, but soon learnt that violence would leave traces for the teachers to see. We kept adults out of the matter at all costs.
We did in fact use “pédé”, but it was years before I knew that it is an abbreviation of “pédéraste”, or knew the technical meaning of that word, and I think most of the class was equally ignorant. It was simply one of many generic insults that we used, without regards to semantics.
eric
March 25th, 2008
This is why every school needs a Safespace program, sexual orientation, or gender identity discrimination should never be tolerated.
SharonB
March 25th, 2008
I would sue for MILLIONS!!!!
These clowns just don’t get it. No one deserves to be treated like this. The bullies should be expelled. The administrators should be FIRED!!!
This reeks of the Delaware school case with the christianists telling the jewish family that it would just be so simple if they became Christian.
Adults don’t get to assault each other, kids shouldn’t be allowed to either. The bullies should be charged with a crime.
jonna
March 26th, 2008
i feel so bad about what is happening to this young man. i just saw the interview on the today show and was hoping to get a message to him somehow…i am a mother of 3 grown children and like billy’s mom i had to turn away from the video….actually the only part i could watch was billy playing his guitar and pink floyd was the perfect touch with such a mournful melody….please help this young man if you can he deserves better than that.
TJ McFisty
March 26th, 2008
Speaking of the interview on the Today Show…I totally missed any mention of the gay slurs, and it appeared to me they’d omitted the part on the Facebook page where they called him a homosexual.
laurel barnes
March 26th, 2008
My son was getting bullied and after talking to 5 teachers 2 councellors, the vice principal and the principal all I got was, “he better not fight back or he will get fined $500. When the principal confronted the bully, the bully said he didn’t know what he was talking about. What did they expect the kids to say, “yeah I beat him up everyday after PE for fun. Of course not. Then the principal said she thought my son was just making it up, but he had the bruises to prove it. I finally just pulled him out and now he is home school. This was in Klein, TX. Bullys are everywhere and seem to be getting away with it everywhere.
Timothy Kincaid
March 26th, 2008
Laurel,
Thank you for sharing your story.
LilMissSunshine
March 26th, 2008
OK.. I cannot find this facebook page.. If anyone has the link can you post it?
I hope Billy wins the lawsuit.. that way, when these kids are living out of a shelter eating Ramaan noodles for every meal Billy can taunt them with a sandwich and make fun of them… Bullies will continue to be bullies until they realize that they are only picking on other people because they know that are a nobody themselves… or until they get their a$$es kicked :)
Regan DuCasse
March 28th, 2008
Why let kids do what would NOT be tolerated in the adult world?!
Assault is assault. This is grounds for arrest and jail. If the school and police won’t settle this, they ARE lucky that Billy’s family is using litigation.
That is better than a gun. I saw Billy interviewed, and he painfully reminds me of a young friend I have who is now a grown man.
Fortunately S, wasn’t bullied. But he did have many friends who WERE vulnerable to suicide and fatal accidents that made S extremely depressed and suicidal.
The adults in this who COULD do something are so chickenhearted! Unbelievable. No wonder mass shootings at schools is like another day in America with such apathy as this.
To hell with the schools, put every one of those violent children in JAIL. That’s where they WILL end up anyway on a course like this.
warren
March 21st, 2010
I don’t have much to say! But I think your doing the right thing! He shouldn’t take that from nobody. Gay or not nobody should be treated like that! And the school should do something. Take them out of that school and take act!
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