Sheesh. Why Take Offense?

August 14, 2012 — Kaye

I swear some people just live to be offended by others.

There is a facebook page I liked called “Not Being Pregnant“.  As the name implies, it’s about enjoying that you’re not pregnant. Not necessarily that you don’t have children, just that you are not pregnant.

Unsurprisingly, a few mothers (why is it always moms?) took offense. They saw it as an attack on their roles of being mothers. Why and how, I do not know. One of the accusations made is that the “likers” of the page bash young mothers.

I looked through the page and did not find any bashing. What I did find was some users saying becoming pregnant and having a baby while still in high school is not smart, which I agree with. Most likely, if you’re still in high school, your parents are still taking care of you and I don’t think someone who’s still a dependent his or herself should be creating MORE dependents. Yet, it seems to these mothers who have taken offense to this page see that opinion as an attack on them.

I’ll continue to view that page. However, if someone does bash young mothers, I will disagree because I don’t believe in attacking parents.

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Being Good Sucks

May 23, 2012 — Kaye

No, really, it does.

Today, MSN has a story on its homepage about a high school freshman who was suspended for five days. Her crime? Creating an anti-bullying video.

More specifically, the girl, named Jessica Barba, created an anti-bullying video and a facebook page that tells the fictional story of a fictional 12-year-old girl named Hailey Bennett, who lost her mother at 3, was abused by her father, was left alone after her only friend moved away and was bullied everyday. It ends with her committing suicide. The project was a school assignment.

Apparently, the reason for her suspension is that the video and FB page caused a disruption at her school. I guess school officials don’t like acknowledging serious issues that relate to school. The school found out from a concerned parent who reported the page, but didn’t scroll down far enough to see where Jessica stated that it was fake. Jessica’s mother tried to show printouts with the disclaimer to school officials, but, in her words, “they didn’t really care too much about that.”

I’ve been going to school for 13 years now. I am not surprised by a story like this. To me, this is typical. The last words of the article, stated by a director of the NYCLU in that particular county, really sum it up:

As students prepare to participate as full citizens in society, schools should encourage independent thought and dialogue about political and current events, even controversial ones. No school should ever punish a student because they disagree with what she’s saying, which appears to be exactly what happened here.

If only schools did that. It’s a fact: schools do not like confronting issues and prefer to ignore them or cover them up. They don’t want their students to have free minds. They don’t even want them to be different! I’ve got more than enough experience to know that.

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