Mr. Tussaint stood in front of the students, his serious mien changed. He was looking at them with anger in his eyes now, anger which was apparent to all. He was normally a friendly, outgoing man, and widely liked. The figure standing before the kids now bore little similarity to the man they’d grown accustomed to.
The students stared back at him. He’d called for this assembly, and had had the students gather in the cafeteria instead of the auditorium, something he’d never done before, something the students hadn’t ever done before either, because he wanted the setting to be different. He had a lot to say, and he wanted to say it not standing on a stage, elevated and separated from the kids. He wanted to be among them, and to have the greatest impact he could.
He stared at them, both gathering his thoughts and letting them see his seriousness and feel his anger.
“Okay,” he said at last. His voice wasn’t overly loud, but its vibrancy penetrated the silent room. “I’ve got much to discuss here. I’m going to talk to you today not as children. I’m going to respect you as responsible teens and treat you like that. I’m going to say things that aren’t said by principals to their student bodies, and you’re going to listen to them. I hope this will go as I expect it to, and you to be mature and attentive. What happened today was violent, disturbing, and must not happen again.
“I’m proud of this school, and I’ve been very proud of you. Not right now, however. I’m not proud of what happened today, and neither should you be. What happened today was all of our faults; your fault; my fault. We’re going to talk about that, and you’ll leave here knowing about how this was your fault, and mine. We had something happen here today that I want to do my best to see never happens again. To make that real, I need to do a better job, and by damn, you do too. So, we’ll talk. And when we’re done, you’ll know what I expect. We’re going to take steps, we’re going to change some things, you and I together.”
He began moving as he was saying this. He slowly moved so he was in the middle of the tables of students. He turned as he spoke so he was facing different people throughout. He moved during his entire talk so he was within touching distance of every student in the room at one point or another. He was including everyone in his speech, and they were all intensely aware of his presence.
“First, the facts. I’m sure you all have heard about Jake Andersen and Jeremy Sweeney being attacked by Paul Timmons. Just before I came here for this meeting, I was on the phone to the hospital. The latest word is, both boys should recover. Jake apparently has a severe concussion and a sprained neck and they’re still checking him over. He regained consciousness, but then has been slipping in and out since. Jeremy has a concussion as well, and also a broken nose. He too has a sprained neck. He is alert and responding. He is frustrating the doctors, because they keep asking him questions about how he’s feeling, and he keeps asking about Jake instead of answering. He’s feeling some guilt, for some reason. Further testing will be done on both of them, and they’ll both be in the hospital at least overnight. We need to know more about Jake, and he needs to wake up fully and be able to stay that way. At this point, the doctors are guarded but optimistic about both.”
Mr. Tussaint allowed a few moments for reactions, then continued. “Paul Timmons is under arrest for assault.”
This statement brought some murmurs from the tables in the crowded room. Mr. Tussaint stared at the kids doing the talking and silence was quickly restored.
“He’ll be held at Juvenile Hall until it’s decided what’s going to happen with him. I have preferred charges against him for assault on school property. It’s very likely he won’t return to this school. Even if he does, his football career is over here. He was being considered for scholarships from at least three colleges I know of. They are all being notified of what happened today, and if things work as they usually do, those offers will be withdrawn. Colleges are not interested in taking on prospective players with felony assault charges in their backgrounds. So, for Paul, it’s very likely his entire football career is over, and perhaps, without a scholarship, college itself will not be possible.
“What Paul did today changed his life. His life, as of the moment he hit Jake, changed forever. He went from being one of the most popular kids in high school with a promise of playing football for a big name college on a full ride scholarship, to being charged with, at a minimum, assault on a minor. He’s eighteen, Jake is fifteen, and that adds to the severity of the charge. He said, just before he hit Jake, that Jake would never perv on anyone again. That statement constitutes intent to harm, and could be construed as intent to kill. Paul weighs 225 pounds, more than one hundred pounds more than Jake. He’s also six feet four, and Jake is probably more than a foot shorter than that. Paul is an athlete, in top physical shape, someone who does weight training and conditioning drills, and Jake is small, nonphysical, and didn’t try to defend himself. Many witnesses said he appeared to be too scared to try. Paul may go on trial. What the charges will be, what the penalties will be, that all has to be worked out, but—and this is the important part—Paul’s life won’t be the same again.”
Mr. Toussaint paused to take several deep breaths. The students were completely silent.
“So, how is this your fault?” He stopped, scanning the crowd, letting those words sink in, letting them feel the shock of them. “Yes, it is your fault. Many of you, at least. Well, we’re going to talk about that. Because I truly believe most of you here don’t want it to be your fault. You hate the idea that two young boys lie seriously injured in the hospital and that you’re a causative factor in that. But it is indeed true.
“And we’ll talk about it, and because we need to change our behaviors, I’ll make you see how, and what to do so this sort of thing doesn’t occur again. We all were party to this happening, and we all need to be part of it not happening again.
“But first, there’s some other business I want to deal with.”
He stopped then, turned to look around, then began moving. “I’m going to embarrass some of you. You deserve it. Two boys could have died here today, and I’m not in the mood to pull any punches. You’re going to hear things, and you’re going to listen, and I think, with two boys in the hospital and one in jail, that laughing and giggling will be out of line.”
He was now approaching one of the tables near the windows. He stopped beside it, then turned so he could better address the rest of the tables.
“I’ve spoken to staff members and a lot of you before getting you all here. I compared what everyone said. I know what happened today. And now we’re going to talk about it. First, there was a radio program Friday night. Many of you listened to it, and by today most of you knew about it, either from listening yourselves or through having heard about it.
“This was really great stuff for you guys. Exciting, stimulating, just great stuff. You heard a kid tell you he masturbated a lot, he described sex in the back seat of a car very graphically, he talked about his sex ed class and made references to the behavior of a teacher, he talked about a guy naked in the shower whom you all quickly identified as Paul Timmons, and he admitted over the radio he was gay. And then he was accidentally identified so everyone knew who he was. Wow, how great was that? Damn, that was just wonderful! I’ll bet the phone of everyone in school was busy after that. I’ll bet you guys couldn’t wait for Monday.”
The anger and sarcasm in his voice kept the room still. No one was even looking at anyone else. All eyes were on Mr. Tussaint.
“The problem I see here is, you guys forgot something. You were so busy thinking about the sexy parts, you forgot Jake is a kid, just like you. With the same feelings you have. The same wants—to have friends, to be liked, to be safe, to have fun, to be part of this school and what goes on here. The same fears—that he’ll be made fun of, that other kids won’t like him, or will tease him, or embarrass him, or that he’ll be considered a nerd or get beaten up on or all the other things that worry you guys, that you never tell anyone about, and hope no one will find out, because you don’t know how you’d handle it if they did.
“Now, here was a kid where everything he wanted private was out in the open, and he’d have to deal with it. If Paul’s life changed today, Jake’s changed Friday night. Absolutely. And how many of you felt sympathy for him? How many of you put yourselves in his shoes? Or instead, how many of you thought gleefully about seeing him squirm when he came back to school today? How many of you thought you might see him punched around, or made to cry, or humiliated, and you’d get to watch? How many of you entertained thoughts about maybe joining in the fun? Exciting, thinking about that, huh?
“I said a few moments ago I wasn’t very proud of you. This is one reason why. Why I’m especially not proud of you today.
“When I think about it, I can’t believe the courage Jake showed, coming in to school today, after having the weekend to think about what he’d be facing. He knew, and he came in anyway. Think about that. Could you have done that?”
While he gave them time to think, he moved again, walking to the middle of the table he’d approached. He now stood next to a boy he’d spotted when he was looking around. He let the silence in the room linger, then resumed speaking.
“All right, I’m going on. Jake got out of his car with Jeremy at his side this morning, and probably with his heart racing 120 beats per minute and feeling a little nauseous, he started up the walk to the school. And what happened? Why, Robbie Gorman met him on that walk. Robbie Gorman started saying things to him, then started doing a jack off motion with his hand while laughing at him. Isn’t that right, Robbie?”
He looked down at the boy in front of him, a very red-faced boy whose eyes were focused on the floor in front of him.
“Yes, Jake had a lot of courage, walking up that walk this morning. Robbie, why don’t you stand up and show us all the kind of courage you have. Show us what you were doing with your hand. Come on, Robbie, you can do that for us, can’t you.” Mr. Tussaint’s voice was angry, and everyone could hear it clearly.
Robbie continued sitting, and after giving it some time, Mr. Tussaint said, “No, I guess you don’t have that kind of courage. You have the courage to pick on a scared, brave young boy who’s smaller than you, but not the courage to show us what you did. I think you’d better do some serious thinking, Robbie. Think about who you are, and who you want to be. Think about whether it would have been better to tell Jake that you were sorry about what he’d have to go through, and if he needed you, you’d help any way you could. Told him he had some support, you were behind him, instead of just another guy who was going to harass him. At the very least, Robbie, think about compassion, and whether you have any at all, for anyone. Think about if you’re the kind of guy, when he sees a stray puppy that hasn’t been fed enough and that is hurt, are you the guy who picks it up and hugs it and sees it gets help, or are you the guy who kicks it?”
Mr. Tussaint looked down on Robbie for a few more moments, the silence in the room palpable, then moved on. He found another table, and resumed his comments there.
“Okay, let’s move on. I’m sure Robbie will think about his behavior; I can only hope he’ll learn something. Let’s move on with Jake’s day. He went to his homeroom, and before he even sat down, he got his second message of the day telling him how people felt about him. Robbie showed him the face of hatred and cruelty within a minute of arriving at school. Now, about ten minutes into his day, he found his second lesson. His backpack was transported to the hospital with him, and his mother gave us permission to go through it. We found this note, and I learned he picked it up from his desk in homeroom. I’ll read it to you.”
Mr. Tussaint took a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it. Then he read, his voice loud and bitter, “Go home, Fag. Nobody wants you here. Go home and jack off some more, you fucking faggot.”
When he was done, he folded it up as it had been and slipped it back into his pocket. The silence when he finished was absolute. He stared at them, making as much eye contact as he could.
“This pretty obviously was put on his desk by someone in that homeroom. Would that person please identify him or herself?”
He waited, and there was no sound, and no one stood up.
“I hope you’re all getting the message here. The brave one today was Jake. No one else is willing to stand up to what they did. They thought it was fine to attack one lone, small boy. But not fine enough they want to talk about it in front of everyone else. There’s a real, powerful message there, and I’ll come back to it later.
“Okay, so Jake read this, folded it up and put it in his backpack. After homeroom, he had to walk to his first period class, something that would have taken him less than minute to do. He probably thought he’d be safe in that time, walking down a school corridor full of other kids walking to class. Should be safe to do that, right?”
No one responded. Mr. Tussaint looked around the room, and then his eyes dropped to the two boys sitting in front of him, where he’d just positioned himself. Neither one was looking at him.
“I’m not hearing anything. Maybe no one agrees with me that they should be safe. Let me ask directly. Rex Matthews, what do you think? Should a boy be able to walk from one classroom to another safely, without fear, without anything bad happening to him?”
Rex didn’t look up or speak, and after a few seconds, Mr. Tussaint said, very loudly and angrily, “Rex, answer me! Now!”
Very meekly, Rex said, “Yes, sir,” without looking up.
“And Tom Tonner, do you agree with that?”
Another meek voice. “Yes, sir.”
“Then why the hell did you two push, grab and hit Jake?” Mr. Tussaint’s anger was not softened, and both boys in front of him, hearing it directed at them, began trembling.
“What was this, an opportunity? Was that it? You thought you could beat up on a kid and get away with it because he’d told people he was gay? That made it okay with you? You not only hit him, knocked him down, but also told him he could expect this again tomorrow, didn’t you? It wasn’t enough to hurt and humiliate him, you had to make him scared about tomorrow, too.” Pause. “DIDN’T YOU?”
Rex said, “Yes, sir,” just as softly as the first time he spoke, and Tom merely nodded.
“Do you realize this is a hate crime? You assaulted a boy because he was different from you, because his perceived sexual orientation was different from your own. Do you know the penalties for that?”
He watched them looking down and not saying anything for a few moments, then looked back up at the rest of the students, and began moving again.
“So now Jake’s been at school for maybe fifteen minutes, been accosted outside, been given a hate note inside, been attacked and knocked down, and he’s not even made it to his first class yet. No, I’m not real proud right now. But let’s continue. Jake makes it to his first class. His stomach has to be hurting from where he’s been punched, but he’s still being brave, and goes to his first class instead of calling his mother to come get him, or going to the nurse, or coming to see me. He was still standing on his own two feet, with no help from anyone except his friend Jeremy. No one else even considered helping him, patting him on the back, telling him they were okay with him, maybe being kind and caring enough to walk to class with him to make sure he’d be all right, so he’d know he had friends.
“He goes into his first period class, hurting but with his head up, and what happens. Well, he runs into Ben Johanson, Tyler Wang and Jason Medalius.”
He was now standing in front of the three boys just named. They were all doing imitations of Rex and Tom, looking at the floor.
“What did they do? Well, Ben acted like he was jacking off, and then tripped Jake as he walked past. Jake fell, hitting his already sore stomach on the desk. Then Tyler picked him up, twisting his arm, and when he’d pulled him off balance enough, dropped him back on the floor pretending it was an accident. I don’t know, I haven’t been able to talk to Jake, but the pain or the humiliation or the rejection of his peers or all three brought tears to his eyes, which Jason quickly pointed out to everyone so they could all join in the fun of laughing at Jake. You boys must be very proud of yourselves. Your parents must be too. I’ll be talking to them later, so we’ll find out. Ganging up on a scared boy who was already hurting, one who’d never caused you any problems, feeling no compassion at all for his situation. No empathy. Just happiness over hurting him even more. Happiness seeing him lying on the floor, hurt and crying.
“Nope. I just can’t find it in me to feel proud today.”
Mr. Tussaint took a deep breath, and again looked over the group in front of him. And walked some more. This time he stopped in front of a table of mostly seniors.
“So let’s continue Jake’s day. It hasn’t been going very well, has it? But his second period class is over, and he’s off to his third. Still hasn’t given up. Still at school. Still showing more courage than the kids who were making his day so miserable. So, he’s off to his next class, and before he can get there, he runs into Paul. And a whole lot of the rest of you. You’re all gathered in the front hall by the front doors, probably a third of the student body.”
He stopped and stared, and a lot of eyes dropped from his.
“You know what Paul did. If you don’t, I’ll tell you. He said some things while poking Jake. From what I’ve been told, Jake looked terrified, and didn’t do anything to get away or stop the poking. Then Paul grabbed hold of Jake, lifted him up, and smashed him in the face. In so doing, he severely twisted Jake’s neck. Then he tried to hit him again, even though Jake was clearly hurt, probably unconscious, from the first blow. The only reason he didn’t hit him a second time is because his friend Jeremy came to his rescue.
“I find this extraordinary. Out of a whole school, one kid stood up for Jake. One kid. He got there just in time to stop Paul from hitting Jake a second time, and quite possibly killing him. We’ll never know, but from what I was told, Jake was out of it at that point, and his head was hanging down, and another hard blow could have done the ultimate damage to his neck.
“What did Jeremy get for maybe saving Jake’s life, and in the process incidentally saving Paul’s as well? He got thrown into the lockers, a broken nose, a concussion, and we’re hoping that that’s all at this point.
“Three boys were seriously damaged by this. Jake, Jeremy and Paul. And why? Because Jake told people he was gay? That he liked looking at Paul? That’s worth this tragedy, which could so easily have been even worse?
“We need to get something out of this. We here, all of us. We need to learn something. And we’re going to. But first, I don’t want to forget two more boys that I’m not feeling terribly proud of right now. I saved them for last because they’re as much of the problem here as anyone, and in some ways the worst part of it, and as responsible for this as Paul was.
“Jeff Fondecki. Mike Rupert.” He looked down at the two seniors. For the first time, two of the boys he addressed looked back at him. They were seniors, they were big, aggressive football players, and they’d gone through school being at the top of the heap, as much due to their size and willingness to mix it up with other boys as anything else. Like some of the other athletes at the school, they had bought into the jock mentality; they felt above the rest of the students here, better than them, and they had long ago stopped feeling any shame about anything they did.
Mr. Tussaint saw them looking back, not the least intimidated by their being called out.
“You two were with Paul today, weren’t you?”
Both boys were outspoken, neither was a bit shy or afraid of the spotlight, but Mike was the more gregarious of the two. “Yeah, we were. All weekend, too.”
“So you talked about this, about what you heard on the radio. You talked about Jake finding Paul attractive. That right?”
“Yeah, we did. Paul didn’t like it, and we didn’t either. No way some punk gay sophomore was going to do that to Paul. No way. We’ve got our reps. We’ve earned them. We don’t let someone put us down like that.”
“So you talked about it and decided Jake had damaged your reputations and that he needed to be shown?”
“Yeah, he needed a beating, and he got one.”
“So what Paul did was premeditated, all planned out, and you two were in on the planning.”
For the first time, Mike hesitated. But his attitude of superiority was too well-entrenched. He wasn’t about to pussyfoot around here. He didn’t have to. Still, something was telling him in the back of his mind, very quietly, to shut up. He ignored it. He had other kids watching, other kids who admired him, and he wasn’t going soft now.
“We had to do something, we all knew it. Paul had to stand up for himself and show everyone he wasn’t going to let a fag punk him out that way. Me and Jeff had his back today, made sure no one stopped him.”
“Stopped him giving Jake a lesson. Beating him up?”
“That’s right. We were there for him.”
“And this was all planned out.”
“Yeah, we talked about it.”
“That’s about what I thought. Premeditated assault, conspiracy to commit assault, and since there were three of you and one of him, since you’re all over 18 and he isn’t, since, well—you guys are in deep do-do, you know that? The cops can hold you to the same charges they’re holding him on. With a hate crime enhancement. And you have, what, probably a thousand witnesses here?”
Mike’s aggressive, finely honed confidence started to slowly slip, and that was apparent from his face. Jeff was looking at him with a slight scowl on his face, not quite understanding, but feeling something had just gone wrong. He didn’t understand it at all. Over the weekend they’d gloried together, thinking how they’d do a number on Jake, how they’d show everyone how tough they really were, and everyone would be clapping and cheering for them. But when it had happened, most everyone had been silent right away, and then instead of high fives, Paul had turned and run away, and now, Mr. Tussaint was talking about the cops and Mike was looking sort of sick, and, what the fuck, man?
Mr. Tussaint stood looking at the boys, then said, “The cops are going to want to talk to you. I’d suggest you be home tonight when they come. You really, truly don’t want to add evading arrest to the world of hurt you’re already in.”
He turned his back on the two boys and moved back towards the front of the room.
“Okay, I think I’m done with the worst offenders here. Now let’s talk about why you’re all to blame for this. And me. I haven’t forgotten my part in this. I doubt I ever will. Maybe that’s the best place to start.
“I’ve tried to set a tone at this school, for us to all feel we’re part of something here. I set out with some lofty goals for this school. I’m going to tell you something here you might not understand entirely, but I want you to know, the way this school is run is by design, not luck, not accident, but by plan. There was a psychologist who correlated a lot of research into human motivation. He came up with what has become a well-known theory that is used in dealing with the psychology of education. His name was Abraham Maslow, and what he said was that people have needs, and these needs relate to each other. Some basic needs must be satisfied before other needs are addressed. Our most basic needs are our physiological ones. These are our needs for air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, really basic things like that. They include sex. Sex is basic to human existence, and even at your age, you’re starting to feel or have already felt the urgency of the need for sexual gratification.”
He stopped and looked hard around the room. If there was a tendency to giggle or tease about this, his look stopped everyone.
“I told you we’d be doing some pretty basic talking in here today. I expect you’re adult enough to handle it. All right, moving on. And I really am trying to keep this short, but I want you to understand, really understand. Okay, next, after those basic physiological needs, which means the needs our bodies have if they’re to survive, come our needs to be safe. Included in these needs are safety for us, safety for our families who support and love us, having good health and bodies. Having a safe home where we live. Having our property safe from theft or vandalism. It’s having a feeling of security. We cannot come to school and learn until our physiological requirements and our safety and security requirements have been met.
“I have tried to structure this school so it is a safe environment, where you all feel secure, your things are secure, and you don’t feel any need to worry about that. I know you cannot learn if you’re hungry, or if you’re worried about your safety. This has been one of my goals. And until today, I thought I’d been doing a pretty good job of it. But I forgot something. I forgot a pretty important something. I forgot to get your help. And for that, I’m to blame.
“In any environment that is full of teens, there is the likelihood of bullying. It goes with the territory, because many kids aren’t mature enough to understand that they do not get their personal power by being able to intimidate and hurt other people. Not only that, but in many instances, they do receive some strengthening of their egos when they do bully someone. They feel powerful, and even more, they feel they’ve gained acceptance and support when others watch their bullying. Where I failed is, I didn’t address this problem. I’m going to address that today, with you.
“I want a show of hands. Now, people, I don’t want you to raise your hand because the people next to you do. I don’t want you to keep your hand down because they don’t raise theirs. I want you to act for yourself. I know some of you aren’t strong enough to do that. You’re more concerned with how you’re seen by others than with telling the truth and standing up for your own feelings. But I think most of you are that strong, and so we’ll get mostly the truth today. Okay, here’s the question. It’s a pretty simple one. How many of you want to feel safe in this school?”
Every hand went up.
“All right. That was easy. So is this, but I want you to think about it, not just react. How many people in this room would like there to be no bullying at all here?”
Again, every hand was raised.
“And how many of you think you’re the cause when we do have bullying?”
Some hands started to rise, but there weren’t many, and the ones that started up came back down.
“You don’t think you’re the cause, huh? You don’t think you helped Jake and Jeremy get beat up today? You don’t think that was partly your fault? Well, it was. And it was my fault too. It was mine, because I forgot to teach you how to act and respond if you saw bullying going on so we could all get it stopped. And since I hadn’t taught you, you didn’t do the right things. That was my fault, but yours, too, because at least some of you should have figured it out on your own. You should have done what your hearts told you to do. So I blame you, but me even more.
“We all agree we don’t want bullying, right? Show of hands again.”
All hands went up.
“Okay. Let me tell you something about bullying. Bullies need to feel power. They feel it when they beat up on kids that won’t hit them back, and they feel it from kids like you watching them and either rallying them on, which provides just tons of support for their egos, and from kids that don’t say anything at all. They take this as tacit support. Tacit means silent. Your silence means to them that you’re accepting what they’re doing. If you speak up, if you yell stop, and even more so if you all yell that, they’ll stop. Almost always. They don’t want you to do that, so they often do something so you won’t. Because teens love, even need, peer support, what bullies do is get a couple of stooges to back them. If the stooges are shouting, ‘Hit him, hit him some more, get him,’ the crowd sort of thinks this is all right, what’s happening, because other kids are saying it’s all right. Sometimes, to be part of the strong kids, they’ll start yelling encouragement, too.
“But it’s wrong. And it goes against what you want. You just said you want a safe school. You just said you don’t want bullying. And you can stop the bullying and keep the school safe, just by speaking up. JUST BY SPEAKING UP!”
He stopped to let that sink in. He waited till he started seeing the first signs of doubt creep into eyes. Then he started again.
“Some of you are now thinking, hey, it ain’t that easy, man. If I speak up for them to stop, and everyone else is saying to go on, beat the shit out of the kid, then I’ll be part of the group that gets bullied. I’ll be part of the weak kids. I might be next.
“Well, that’s where you need each other. You need each other watching out for each other. You need to have each other’s backs. And if you do, you’ll have a safe school you can be proud of. It works. Bullies need approval. If they don’t get it, they don’t bully. If you see someone getting attacked, if a group of you run over and yell at them to stop, if they feel no acceptance for what they’re doing, better still if you yell at them to stop by name, tell them they’re doing something wrong, tell them by name, the whole group of you, they’ll stop. Because they know it’s wrong, and they won’t do it if everyone is against them for it. If you run over yelling, “Fight! Fight!” then you’re supporting the bullies. They get empowered, thinking you’re rushing over to watch them, and that you think they’re cool. If instead, you run over yelling, “Stop! Stop! Don’t hit him,” there is a much different dynamic in place.
“Guys, this is a school. It’s a separate place from the mall, and your neighborhood, or your playground. We have rules in place here, and everyone knows them. The rules work because you follow them. If all of you didn’t follow them, often there wouldn’t be a hell of a lot we could do about it. But the rules are in place so we can keep order, keep control, and that’s for your benefit. I’ll repeat that: that’s for YOUR benefit. Now, I’m telling you how to be part of that control and order. You want a safe place, you’ve already said so. You don’t want what happened today to happen again. You can make sure it doesn’t. Just by how you act.
“You could have prevented what happened today. You didn’t know how, and that’s my fault. So I’m telling you how. So you’ll know how, and you’ll know it now and in the future.
“When you saw Paul, with Mike and Jeff behind him, waiting for Jake, you should have spoken up as a group. If only three or four of you had yelled to leave him alone, not to hit him, and then the rest of you had agreed with that, supported those comments, those three would have walked away. Better yet, if as soon as you saw what was going to happen, if a couple of you had run to get a teacher and the rest of you had shouted at the bullies, called them by name, and told them not to do what they were doing, that it was wrong, that they were wrong to do it, this wouldn’t have happened. You have that much power. You could have prevented it.
“You could have kept this a safe place for everyone. Everyone includes yourself.
“So now you know how to act. You didn’t before, but now you do. If you see a fight about to start, stop it. If bullies see you aren’t behind them, that you think badly of them, if you support their victim instead of them and let them know you think they’re bullies and you don’t like them or what they’re doing, they won’t do it. It’s in your hands. They need your approval. Don’t give it to them, even tacitly.
“And it goes even further than that. It’s your to stop them. Because this is your school, and you are needed to help make it safe. All of you. You are part of this. We all are.
“And yes, there’s a risk for you involved. But the risk in your acting with your friends and fellow students is much, much less that the risk you take if you go to a school that isn’t safe. You can make this school safer than it already is by protecting your environment. Don’t cheer on the bullies. Don’t stand quietly by as they beat someone up, or tease someone, or humiliate someone. That isn’t cool, doing that, and you have to tell them that. Tell them they’re wrong, they’re bad and to stop. They will if they don’t feel your approval.”
Mr. Tussaint stopped, and took a deep breath.
“Does everyone understand?”
He looked around the room. He saw uncertainty. He tried again. “How many people, show your hands, how many people here wish Jake and Jeremy hadn’t been sent to the hospital today, hadn’t gotten beaten up?”
Every hand rose. Some were slower going up than others, but all hands rose.
“All right, everyone’s unhappy they got hurt. Wish they hadn’t. You have to realize, you could have stopped it. That’s the message you have to receive here today. Those of you that watched it happen, you had the ability to stop it. But it goes further than that. Anyone who saw Robbie being a jerk outside the school this morning should have said something. If you saw that and didn’t say anything, you helped Robbie out, you hurt Jake, and you made the school less safe. Same way with Rex and Tom. Anyone who saw them in the hallway with Jake, and I know who you are, had a responsibility. If you want to attend a school that’s safe, you have a responsibility to speak up, to let the bullies know you don’t approve of what they are doing, and that you think people who behave that way are jerks.
“You kids in Mr. Thompson’s class. All of you. You should have said something to Jason, Tyler and Ben. You shouldn’t have laughed at Jake, lying on the floor, you should in fact have helped him up and said things to his tormentors. Because you didn’t, that allowed it to continue. It made Jason feel pretty clever, and proud. He thought you were laughing at Jake, and were part of the three of them, all you guys against Jake. He felt empowered, doing what he’d done and hearing your laughter and jeers. Is that what you want, to go to a school where kids are made to feel like big shots because they’ve hurt another kid? What if that next kid they hurt is you?
“It’s your own safety and security we’re discussing here. You have control of it. And you’re letting yourselves down.
“Okay, I think I’ve got my point across. And I can guess what some of you are feeling. You’re thinking, I can’t do that on my own, tell some bullies to stop beating on some kid. Well, I know that. I know it would be hard to do that on your own. But if only a few of you see something wrong, and tell the ones doing the wrong thing to stop, you’ll make a tremendous difference. You’ll also find that others are respecting you more and looking up to you, and you’ll be proud of yourself, and you’ll be making your own environment better.
“I’m just about done here, but I said something earlier, and I want to follow up with it, sort of in a ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ kind of way.
“Remember earlier, I was talking about Jake being the brave one today. I said something like he was the only one standing up for who he was, and that no one else here was doing that. That they had the great courage to attack a single small boy, but not the courage to stand up in front of you and talk about it. I said there was a powerful message there, and it’s this. You can see for yourself, these bullies that I’ve identified for you here today won’t stand up and face you. They are afraid of your opinion of them. If it’s them against one victim, they’re brave. If it’s them against you guys as a group, they have no courage at all. That’s the way bullies are. And that’s proof positive of how they’ll react if you show them your disapproval when you see them attacking some poor soul, someone who needs your help, as Jake so desperately did today. See how it works? These bullies are afraid of your scorn. So, give it to them if they keep doing what they do. They’ll stop, and you’ll have a safer place to go to school.”
He let that message sink in. Then, in a less angry and confrontational tone of voice, he said, “Now we have to talk about something else. We have to talk about Jake.”