Recently students at Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia made national and some international headlines with a brilliant response to bullying in their school. Their high school is an nearly twin like version of our own regional high school here where I live - similar in size, economic and social makeup. Now our regional school is poised to make a media splash of its own, but for an ironically opposite reason.
While students at the Nova Scotia school have spent time and their own personal resources to stand up against bullying the students at Greenall are doing the same in order to beat each other senseless.
Today I was standing in line at the local Subway during the lunch hour and overheard four lads from Greenall discussing the fascinating and finer points of fisticuffs. Youthful male exuberance is one thing but in our day and age it seems to me that teachers and authorities are hamstrung when it comes to responding to this issue. "Consensual" fighting is OK, or at least not a chargeable offense.
Parents may be able to influence some of their children, but frankly in my experience, if your young man or woman has a particular personality and perspective by the time they are 14 or so there is little if anything that can be done to change their way of behaving until they do something that truly has serious consequences. Some adults I know would even be of the opinion that the kids involved in these "cage rage" fights were showing good sense by wearing protective gear. The mind boggles.
While I have some thoughts on solutions, anything I might suggest wouldn't be worth two pins. What I wonder about is whether or not there are any senior students at Greenall with imagination, creativity and courage to match their peers in Nova Scotia. Are any of the senior class at Greenall upset by their sudden infamous notoriety - or are they all a little proud of their school's fleeting moment of media attention? Are there any students at Greenall who know why the fights going on among their peers are wrong - without having to have it explained to them?
The story from Nova Scotia was one of those ones that tends to restore my faith in the future and in the next generation. My own sons also frequently give me reasons to hope. I know that there are always some bad influences in every community - that is the reality - but we can make our communities better and give hope to ourselves and others when there are people of vision and courage in our community who will stand up to evil where it lives. I'm praying the Greenall story is in it's first stage - that the students who care are formulating their response. I'm waiting to see what the real character of the student body at Greenall is.
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