ZeroIntelligence.net

SORRY..IT JUST ALL GOT OUT OF HAND

Two girls from Bournemouth’s all-girl Glenmoor School were arguing over their common two-timing boyfriend and they gathered a crowd of onlookers and hecklers. Head Pam Orchard was summoned by one of the teachers watching the commotion and she suspended every student there for bullying.

Forty girls were suspended after it was caught on CCTV but yesterday another girl, Chelsea Collins, 14, said she and many others simply “went to have a look”.
…
Chelsea said: “I was just walking past the crowd and went to have a look at what was going on.

“I was on the edge of the group. I didn’t say anything to anyone and I didn’t attack anyone.”

This is not a “good samaritan” punishment, it is a “guilty by proximity” decision.

Chelsea’s mum, PR consultant Jakki Collins, 34, has taken legal advice in a bid to clear her daughter’s name. She said: “What the school is saying is that there cannot be such a thing as an innocent bystander.

“I have respect for Ms Orchard but she has handled this wrongly and owes an apology to those girls who did nothing wrong.”

The incident at the school gates on Tuesday happened during the government’s Anti-bullying Week.

You would think that in the middle of Anti-bullying Week the Headmistress would have a better conception of the difference between a bully and a passive onlooker. Punishing every student in the area does nothing to curb bullying. What it teaches the students is that administration is arbitrary and that justice takes a back seat to the appearance of order.