Bullying victim in line for $1m payout (1 Viewer)

[_dhj_]

This case was pretty extreme though. I mean he was really brutalised. It's not like "well people used to me a fatty when i was in primary school so now im scarred for life." They really beat the shit out of him.

The thing is, I suspect many of the people posting on this thread saying he needs to toughen up, would also be big law and order type people supporting the rights of victims of a crime. NEWSFLASH: this kid was the victim of a serious crime. There seems to be a common misconception that if vicious assaults like this are committed by primary school students it is somehow less harmful. If anything this sort of attack is more harmful in this context because it affects the victim at a most vulnerable stage in their lives. It is also more shameful that this was able to happen in a school which should be a safe place.

The $1 Million dollars was well spent because it serves not only to compensate the victim but to motivate authorities like the Department of Education to take greater care in future to prevent such incidents. Government departments are experts in promising to do things, but nothing motivates real action like a significant monetary insentive. Yeah you can resent that fat shit for getting a million dollars while you have to work for a living. But overall I think this case will have a positive effect on society.

I totally agree with you on this one.

 

[Serius]

I will deal with these unfathomably stupid remarks briefly since I suspect they may be troll comments.

Firstly, regarding your comment that the victim should have done something to defend himself. He was a young child being attacked by older and stronger bullies, and given no support by teachers. There is little he could have done, and to expect a five year old to do this is unreasonable.

Regarding your "mate," this story sounds made up or exaggerated. If it is true and it happened to work it is very fortunate for him. Sometimes fighting back may work but others "standing up" to the the bully may result in the situation escalating. I find it hard to believe that he took the threat of poisoning his family seriously, and if he was serious, he is deeply disturbed.

The point is: young children cannot be expected to defend themselves. In a school environment this is the teachers' responsibility. They failed dismally. They breached their duty of care and are liable to the bullying victim.

Your own defence is always your responsabilty. It isnt anyone elses, its yours. Sure someone might protect you or save you, sure the police have a duty to help you but what happens when they arent around? punishment afterwards does no good, because you have allready come out of the situation damaged [or dead in more extreme cases]

The story might have been exagurated, its hard to tell but thats what he told me and i dont know why he would make it up. Its escalating the situation exacly what you want to do though? either your way by telling the police, the teachers, whatever or doing it my way by bringing friends to school and intimidating them. Iam 100% sure he wasnt serious, but 90% of a threat is the delivery, if they think you would do it then they will back down... theres no real way for a bully to deal with a threat like that, so they have to back down. This was in early highschool [yr7 i think], so when your dog has just been poisoned and someone knows about it when you havent told anyone, well you are going to be pretty intimidated.

 

[sam04u]

One point to the fat guys! ZINGGG!

 

[Serius]

I dont think its contrary at all, the law makes provisions for defending yourself, and where it doesnt, well... your own safety should still be your number one priority, dont let a few laws prevent you from looking out for number 1.

Retrospective punishment is a deterent only, once they have made up their minds to commit the crime it does nothing to protect you, and it doesnt fix your psychological wounds.

Theres no way i can know if the story was exaggerated, like most things in life there was no real proof, and the only people who would know about it is him and the bully. I think everyone in their right mind would be intimidated, those who get aggressive...well then unforutnately its time to step it up a notch until all the fight is gone out of them. Little kids would get nothing but a slap on the wrist if they were even found guilty, i found it to be a good example of an effective threat. The bully leaves you alone, you are not the one who is coming away from the situation the most hurt, its win win.

 

[ElendilPeredhil]

A good story my friend has is he used to be bullied in school by some dickhead with a sense of entitlement, he walked past this kids house every day on the way to school and bully's dog would bark at him. It was a big motherfucker of a dog, i think he said rotwheeler but might have been something else, anyways it was a violent dog and the family had been in shit for it biting people before. One day he stuck some pills in a hunk of cheese and threw it to the dog. Next day, no bully at school, no dog barking. Later he let him know in no uncertain terms that he killed his dog, and if he fucks with him anymore he will poison his family next . Thats the way to handle it if you arent tough or you dont have tough friends.

Is this a true story? Because if some little shit had poisoned my dog, then told me he'd kill my family next I'd call the police ASAP and get his ass in gaol or a mental hospital. He killed a dog whose major crime seemed to be...it barked at him when he walked by?
Psycho!

No-one wonder he got bullied if he was that kind of nut job.

 

[Born2baplacebo]

This is pathetic. Now everyone else who is obese and has been teased about it now can gain a profit from it.

 

[jeremymebitch]

This is bull shit! If its anyones fault its the parents. If the child was getting bullied then why didn't the mum move him to a different school? Or Talked to the principal or the teachers very seriously. What happened at my school was the Mum (of some kid we all made fun of) walked in and had a long chat to the principal. The next day a head teacher came into our class (when the student of topic was not there) and talked to us about how unfair our teasing was. The next day, lesson learnt, we all became friends with him. And EVEN if the mum did not do that - she still could have offered large social support to her child in the time of crisis and help him get through it.

If you ask me, People that blame others for ther problems are the number one thing wrong with this world.

 

[Forbidden.]

i deserve a payout coz ppl here r cussin me out here and there

 

[ari89]

i deserve a payout coz ppl here r cussin me out here and there

hahaha...and you blame them because?

 

[TDjie]

Yeah. You can't just generalise and say this guy was discriminated against in the same ways you are. I have been a victim of discrimination, everyone has at one point, does that mean we get a $1m payout? No. Not unless it's so serious it gets to the point where it's taken to court like this kid. It's obviously done some serious psychological/mental damage to the child at a young age, leading to "permanent damage". Don't you think the court would consider all these circumstances of bullying and the seriousness of the crime?
I personally believe the court could have addressed this in a more efficient manner if they wanted to place a "deterrence" factor on it to tell people bullying is not acceptable. They could have even offered to give the kid some free psychological assistance and direction and not such a large payout. It merely opens doors for abuse within the system, but then again, you need to look at judicial discretion.

 

[ari89]

They could have even offered to give the kid some free psychological assistance and direction and not such a large payout.

I'm sure the compensation would have made allowance for psychological treatment costs. The courts don't organise free psychiatrists for each individual person, they award the damages for that purpose. There's no free lunch.

 

[Ranger Stacie]

I disagree. Fat morons deserve to be bullied.. They need to be bullied. We can't let people think that being fat and stupid is acceptable in society. It is not.

how is bullying going to do anything positive? severe bullying, is only going to make life more difficult and any problems worse.

besides that, what gives anyone the right to decide to make someone elses life hell?

if that kind of behaviour went on in your workplace, would that be ok? because the person was overweight?

 

[ari89]

Everyone seems to be on the topic that the kid was bullied from being fat. As I remember from the photo of him in his school photo that appeared on the front page of some paper, he wasn't actually fat. (But he did have orange hair and that imho is a reason to tease someone)

 

[Ranger Stacie]

Everyone seems to be on the topic that the kid was bullied from being fat. As I remember from the photo of him in his school photo that appeared on the front page of some paper, he wasn't actually fat. (But he did have orange hair and that imho is a reason to tease someone)

i dont know why the child was bullied, i was just referring to iamsickofyear12 saying that 'fat people deserve to be bullied'

 

[ari89]

i dont know why the child was bullied, i was just referring to iamsickofyear12 saying that 'fat people deserve to be bullied'

It was a general comment...a lot of people seem to be relying on the fact that he 'was fat'.

 

[ur_inner_child]

The bigger problem, in which I assume the court strongly took on aboard, was the absurd lack of help from the school themselves to prevent the bullying. Now I'm not saying that schools are responsible for any bulling, but in this particular case where it is very brutal and repeated several times is astonishing. For God's sake, the bully tried to stuff a jumper down the boy's throat, resulting into broken teeth. Why didn't the bully get expelled? Why didn't the school investigate? If the bully (as they are claiming) is a disturbed child, why wasn't there adequete monitoring of his behaviour?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...income-for-life/2007/05/14/1178995042035.html

"The school authorities responded quite inadequately to an escalating problem and failed to take such steps as were reasonably required to protect [Mr Cox] from the conduct of a plainly behaviourally disturbed older pupil."

Having said this, I would say that $1 million is far too much as compensation. I would argue that pulling him out of that school and homeschooling him made matters worse. He was not able to face his fears, which ultimately means he gets a shit self esteem, and become socially disadvantaged. I believe that his social incapabilities as a result from his experiences should not be blamed on the school alone.

Also, I would hope that people replying are actually reading the article, rather than basing their judgements over a mere thread title, which appears to be the case for some.

 

[ari89]

Everyone seems to miss the distinction (zimmerman and I have the advantage of torts)


MONEY FOR PAIN AND SUFFERING: $220,000+
It is reasonable. There is no doubt that he has suffered and is suffering from the bullying. Do you think that the professionals who analysed him were so wrong and that the judges have no idea on what is reasonable to award?

MONEY FOR LOSS OF INCOME ETC: +- $780,000
If he can't work because of what happened due to the schools negligence he should be compensated in order to live. Follow zimmerman's chain of thought for that point. "Also why does everyone think $1 million is such alot of money? Most of us will earn far more than that in our working lives..."

 

[_dhj_]

If he was permenantly physically disabled and unable to work people would not have such a problem with this judgement, but because most of the damages are for mental conditions caused as a result of the bullying people find it excessive. Because he is fat and likes playing playstation everyone sees him as a lazy freeloader. If he was some pretty girl who had been beaten and ended up a quadroplegic no one would have a problem with the payout.

The pretty girl would receive higher compensation in principle though, because she would have had a high chance of entering a financially beneficial marriage but for the injury. Conversely, a fat person who is prone to bullying would have earned less but for the injury given the cruel society we live in. I agree that $1 million doesn't seem excessive in this situation though.