After reading David Rask Behling's March 18 commentary ("In our antibullying zeal, don't trample students' rights"), I think he's continuing to be intimidated, this time by the prospect of the educational bureaucracy instead of the more traditional playground bully. The thing is — from Vladimir Putin stomping all over Ukraine to the big kid stomping all over his smaller classmates — bully behavior is so pervasive that it is difficult to know how to reduce it. "The Godfather" is a classic American example; so are idolized corporate executives like Jack Welch. Sociopathic behavior is admired from a safe distance by shareholders and political partisans who stand to gain, but it has real consequences for the victims. So would it be better to have a flawed process passed into law or continue to let thugs have their way?
Letter of the Day (March 19): Antibullying legislation
Intimidation is pervasive in our society, and we should stop it where we can.
March 18, 2014 at 11:22PM
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The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another crawled to officers in surrender Sunday after they located him in the woods near his home, ending a massive, nearly two-day search that put the entire state on edge.
