School bans boy from wearing MLP Backpack.

[theorph99]

So if you haven't heard about this incident yet I'll give a brief outline;


Grayson Bruce is a nine year old boy who is a fan of the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic series had a backpack that he wore to school. Well it made him the subject of bullying at school because he was wearing it. What did the school do? Ban the backpack instead of dealing with the bullying directly.


Okay even coming off of this as a brony I my sound biased, but this isn't the way the school to handle this for so many reasons.


They didn't do much of anything by doing this. He can still get bullied and made fun for this. The school is also saying that it's his fault for bringing that to this school at all. Yes, it's odd to the general public to see this sight. However he's just expressing his love for the show, and is anything wrong with that?


It's just really sad that this situation was treated poorly. The mother of the child did pull him out of school, and started homeschooling him so luckily bullying won't be an issue with school anymore. We've already had an incident where an 11 year old boy tried committing suicide when being bullied over liking the show. He ended up in the hospital in a coma due to brain damage. Gladly though the fans pulled together and started a fund for him, and quickly spread the word to the point where major news companies started covering it.


Really though is there no end to this bullying to the point of what kids wear makes them a target? It's pretty saddening to hear, and even if you aren't a fan of the show at all this is something you just really don't want to hear.


I've rambled on long enough so voice your opinions. Was the school in the right, should the mom had kept for son from wearing the backpack out in public, or do you agree that this was handled poorly?


Article: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/18/my-little-pony-backpack-banned-school-north-carolina/6565425/

 

[Melix]

No, the school should have dealt with the bullies. I don't really care about that show whatsoever, but if anyone is bullied for any reason, it is the parents right to expect the school to step in, and it is the school's duty to step in. If there isn't a lawsuit over this, I will eat my hat.

 

[bettsyboy]

I personally am one of those guys who isn't a brony, but understands the appeal to the show completely (Just doesn't have the same effect on me as it does on Bronys) and I can understand where this is all coming from.


you see schools, they LOVE to kick up a storm by saying "no bullying" but when it comes to handling it they only make it worse by punishing the victim, I myself was regularly referred to as "it" often in front of teachers and the school just swept it under the rug, beaten up, stolen from, you name it... of course the bullying never ended until I took matters into my own hands.


They were 100% wrong to ban that boy from wearing an MLP backpack, because all that does is give the bullies a 100% total victory, what they should have done is, for a week or more, make all the bullies come to school wearing the same kinds of backpacks, put them on exactly the same level as the bullied one.

 

[Lady Sabine]

It's the victim-blaming mindset that allows a lot of discrimination to continue. If he was bullied for being black, would they have handed him some skin bleach and told him to fix that? It would have been acceptable to suggest that he choose another backpack, especially if they provided an alternative, but requiring the alternative was entirely the wrong move. The direct message from this is that "we don't give a crap about right or wrong, we just want the complaints to stop". In other words, if you make it more trouble to deal with you, they simply won't.


Who in their right minds would give children the message that the harder they are to deal with, the more they get their way?

 

[ninbinz]

All the opinions above are understandable and logical. I am not playing the devil's advocate, I agree that the school is in the wrong for not standing in. If a child cannot wear a backpack (No matter what's printed on it) to school then what has the world come to?


That is all.

 

[LauraWA]

it's ridiculous it's making it seem like the fault is in the bullied and not in the bullies. *snort* I mean, when a kid is bullied for being overweight, you don't answer with "well it's your fault for being overweight" and you then proceed to forbid kids from being chubby!!! It's the same thing: he has the right to his likes and dislikes (as much as a nine year old can have) just like kids have the right to look whatever way they damn please and feel safe.

 

[TotallyNotTheDoctor]

I'm a big fan of the show myself, but even if I wasn't, my opinion would be the same. It's the school's job to deal with bullying at the source. The source isn't a damned backpack. They should have disciplined the bullies instead of the victim. I, myself, would've sued the principal for everything they owned. The solution they came up with is in no way a solution; it does absolutely nothing to fix the problem. Like @Lady Sabine and @LauraWA said, children should be able to look however they'd like and wear whatever they'd like and not be discriminated for it, or for their skin color, for that matter.


Stuff like this really makes me angry.

 

[Komeko]

This is coming from a person who's grown to hate the fandom and what seems to me as an overreaction of a show, and I say this having been a brony. I didn't think it's that amazing at all, and to me, at the end of the day when I looked back on things, I saw a show meant for little girls and their parents, nothing more. Still though, the fact that a school, instead of dealing with the bullies, actually gave them the victory, seems atrocious. On an actual note of reasoning though, if I was that boy, his choice you could say is less than prudent. This kid probably knows he's going to get bullied if he wears it, and if he doesn't know that then I'm in awe of the innocence and naivety a child can have, however, the First Amendment holds, and nobody can be persecuted for their freedom of speech. People do have the right to feel offended, and can even voice their anger, but cannot harm or threaten the right of that boy to express his love for the show. Seeing as literally every one here has answered the same thing, I had thought I would send in a reality check here, but the argument still stands, the kid shouldn't be banned from wearing the backpack. Technically he has the right to wear that backpack unless it is a private school, but private schools still fall under the 1st amendment so really, the only way it could be banned is if it and I quote 'provides to be a distraction to students' which it is not, as it doesn't curse or have neon strobe lights coming from it, or provides interaction that takes focus away from the class room.