RMGS ‘cyber-bullying’: redressing the balance for the under-16s

A harmless joke, or something more sinister? There are two ways of looking at the ‘cyber-bullying’ at Rainham Mark – and whichever choice you prefer, one side is bound to come off worse.

However, the Yourmedway article is, without a shadow of a doubt, wholly unbalanced and solely aimed at attacking youngsters who seemed to be merely after a bit of harmless fun – which admittedly went too far.

Whilst Medway Council tried to gloss over the fact that, yes, it could be classed as bullying, but it was outside of the school gates on a social networking website, and so the school are powerless to do anything about it, John Walder of the Kent NUTs was more than happy to use the opportunity to gripe about how awful today’s teenagers are.

Yes, Mr Walder, it is tragic that no longer do pupils merely sit around in groups and complain about their least-favourite teachers, but instead decide to take a light-hearted approach to the situation and make a harmless quiz on Facebook.

But it is nothing short of insulting to tar everyone under the age of sixteen with the same brush and to insinuate that, until the day they reach that magic age, they must surely be mindless yobs!

Apparently, ‘young people up to the age of 16 do not know how to distinguish between what they should and should not do’.

It seems Mr Walder seems to be forgetting that his own members teach some of the brightest – and wisest – minds in the country. He seems to be forgetting that not everyone under the age of 16 hangs around on street corners with aspirations of maybe one day being given the huge responsibility of sweeping them.

Worst of all, though, Mr Walder seems to imply that as soon as one hits that magic age – that sweet sixteen – then they can not only differentiate between right and wrong, but also act upon their newly-acquired knowledge. By his logic, our prisons should be ghost towns!

Different people act in different ways. We have different levels of intelligence. Different aspirations. Different ways of thinking. Yes, the people who created the Facebook quiz were school kids – but just because they were under the age of sixteen is no reason to go around insulting their intelligence.

At the end of the day, the Facebook quiz was meant as a joke – a harmless piece of fun. It went too far, according to the Kent NUTs Secretary, but until the teachers return from their summer holiday, there is nothing to suggest they haven’t spent one summer’s afternoon glued to their computer screens completing the Facebook quiz ‘What RMGS teacher are you?’ … and laughing at the result!