Frumteacher struggles with a spiraling, race-tinged bullying situation in her class. Back when she was a student teacher, she recalls, she had vowed she would take a stand against student bullying and “make it stop.” But now she realizes that’s not so easy:
Yet I feel hopeless. Hopeless for witnessing senseless hatred in my classroom, hopeless because apparently the system did not provide the bullied student with enough care and support, leading him to think that he needed to solve the problem with his fists. How can teachers protect the bullied student, and combat bullying, without setting the student even more apart and without causing the bullying to shift from the classroom to the schoolyard, or the streets?