Unfettered Letters

Ban intoxicated bus riders

Recently I was catching one of the buses from the Plaza to an appointment, when an unruly and belligerent passenger refused to leave the bus and walked over to a fellow passenger (a senior citizen) and started yelling, cussing, calling her names and threatening to hit her. The driver told him that the police were on their way. They hadn’t even been called upon.

What the driver should have done was call her supervisor, then the police. The passenger appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

A week before that I was on a different bus when a teenager boarded who reeked of marijuana. The smell was so overwhelming that a group of us quickly departed.

To protect the public, bus drivers should refuse service to passengers who have been drinking or using drugs.

Diane Aliason
Kansas City

Stop bullying

Restorative justice (RJ) practices, especially “circle processes,” have been found to be very effective for adolescents in bullying. These practices are used at the federal level and by the Department of Public Safety in Missouri.

RJ is more effective than traditional counseling or punishment. The goal is to heal the harm, while holding the offender fully accountable. Missouri is considered a forerunner in this area with juveniles.

We are attempting to set up RJ program for adults in Sedalia, Mo., to try to keep the prison population from ever expanding and to address the recidivism rate (estimated at 60 to 70 percent) in our prisons.

For specific information, contact me, the Community Mediation Center in Independence or the Juvenile Justice Specialist (State of Missouri, Department of Public Safety) in Jefferson City.

Margaret L. Harlan
Licensed psychologist
Sedalia, Mo.

Bullying in school

I support the efforts of Dakota DeRemus’ family in putting an end to bullying (2/8, A-1, “An age-old problem turns tragic; As Dakota DeRemus’ family prepares to bury him, they call for more ways to fight bullying”).

I, too, was teased nearly all day, every day by classmates in my fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The teachers had to have seen it; one even perpetuated it by ridiculing me loudly and often during class because of my inattentiveness.

I know now that I could not attend in class because of depression, for which I am being treated.

I can still hear the taunts and feel the pain. The experience, however, has made me, as a teacher, tender and protective toward those who suffer this kind of abuse.

I believe that schools should be held accountable for the bullying that takes place on campus. Child and parent should have their report of abuse go on record with an administrator’s signature and receive a copy themselves.

The school’s efforts to resolve this problem should be recorded as well, with scheduled meetings to review progress made.

Unfortunately, none of this will be taken seriously until someone files a lawsuit that brings a law holding schools responsible.

Judy Jordan
Blue Springs

Regarding the tragic death of Dakota DeRemus: The school district says that it is only concerned with the safety of the children, but if you ask any parent of a child who is bullied or harassed you will hear a very different side of the story.

Part of the answer is that all schools need to take responsibility for what they allow to go on. To claim that they have no responsibility because something occurred off school property, or because there were no witnesses, is an outrageous failing.

The fact is that these kids normally meet each other in school. Their relationships are formed and reinforced on school grounds, and within the school community with all sorts of witnesses through the years to their interactions.

Whether or not some act has actually occurred on school property, if there has been a history of difficulty between those children at school that has not been addressed, the school is participating in the offense.

Brad Barnwell
Ottawa, Kan.