French on Bullying

French and I wandered into the staff room earlier this week.  He'd been booked to work as a substitute at the school where I work.  We took a seat for a bit and listened to a rather intense discussion on bullying.  Most of the teachers were calling for committees to be formed, or to revamp the anti-bullying club, or to teach more core-values.  One teacher even suggested monitoring the student's online activity.

The debate raged back and forth.  It is such a complex issue.  Someone asked French what he thought. He said: "I'd better not say, I want you all to hire me again."  He said this in a joking tone, so he should be okay.

French had an interesting method in dealing with bullies back in high-school.  It wouldn't work anymore, due to the anonymity of the Internet and the advent of zero-tolerance fighting policies.  When someone bullied his good friend and neighbour, Bruce Fish, his first step was to beat the bully up a little.  French called this step "the humbling".  Usually this just involved his uncanny wrestling ability.  French would find the bully and cinch him up in a painful grapple and then "talk sense to him".  There were times when he'd resort to fists too, but that was rare.

Then  he'd move on to the second step: "breaking heads to breaking bread".  French would bring the bully over to Bruce Fish and force them to make-up, and shake hands.  French would hold the bully to a promise to stop bullying anyone.  He'd even check in often with Bruce Fish, any other victims, and the bullies.  Some of the worst bullies become our good friends: Mean Dean and Fat Dog to name two.

This method cleaned up bullying in our high-school, but it wouldn't translate well into a policy.