As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
So when Reddit user and mother NoMarket159 learned about her daughter being wrongfully accused of bullying at school, she decided to help her in every way she could.
But as the woman explained in a post on the subreddit ‘Am I the [Jerk]?‘, her initiative instantly received pushback from the parent whose kid ended up in her crosshairs.
This mom knew just how much effort her daughter had put into studying
So when her grades dropped considerably, she felt like something was wrong
Unfortunately, this incident is just a drop in the bucket
Izzy Kalman, a nationally certified psychologist who has been working in schools and private practice since 1978, says that many serious cases of bullying begin with a false accusation.
“Kids and adults alike have become victims of relentless bullying, and some have even taken their own lives … Lawsuits against schools for failing to put a stop to bullying have proliferated,” Kalman explains. “In virtually all such lawsuits, the school is accused of doing little or nothing to stop the bullying, while the school insists that it has zero tolerance for bullying and followed mandated procedures.” Judging from the Reddit post, this particular school wasn’t taking the girl’s version seriously, either.
So how should we help a child who finds themselves in such a difficult predicament?
Kalman believes the answer to this question is through empowerment rather than protection. “We will never put a stop to the pain and tragedies resulting from bullying as long as we believe our duty is to protect kids from each other and to act as courts of law whenever a child complains about another,” he says.
“It is so much more effective to teach them how to handle hostility on their own. Furthermore, the lessons will empower them for a lifetime, because accusations and bullying are, unfortunately, not limited to the school years.”
Luckily, since this girl took a proactive approach and recorded evidence, it appears that she’s already on the right path.
Image credits: Ivan Aleksic (not the actual photo)
As the story went viral, the mom provided more information in the comments
People thought the author of the post did nothing wrong
