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the bully's mom wants Casey to apologize for slamming her son

Peter Garrett praises girl who stood up to bullies in infamous 'Casey the Punisher' video
A HIGH school student who told her peers they should back off after a bullying attack in a Sydney schoolyard has been singled out for praise by Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett.

But he also chastised students who recorded the incident on their mobile phone.

In his launch speech for Australia's first National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, Mr Garrett referred to the mobile phone footage taken of the incident as "a timely reminder" that schools needed to be safe.

The YouTube footage, which has gone viral around the world and sparked intense debate over the right and wrong ways to deal with bullying, shows a Year 10 student - known as Casey -  lashing out at a smaller peer who had been tormenting and punching him in the schoolyard.


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After the fight, the girl can be seen putting herself between the boy who was originally being bullied and another student saying: "I think you need to back off and leave him . . .''

Mr Garrett said the girl did "the right thing''.

"I think when we looked at that footage in the bullying incident in a New South Wales school we saw extreme provocation from the bully, we saw the reaction of the student and unfortunately we saw images of young people who were simply observers, who were passive bystanders,'' Mr Garrett said.

"And the fact is that these aren't morally ambiguous situations.

"Holding up a phone to record a bullying action is the wrong response to that situation.

"It is one that makes the person whose filming part of the act of bullying that is taking place.

"Simply to observe and record is to be complicit. But, that footage also revealed one student who wasn't involved in the incident who did take appropriate and decisive action and I want to acknowledge that.

JUDGING from his face, you could not possibly guess at the trauma of these past eight years. He has a child's eyes; a broad smile, filled out by the gaps between his teeth.

But this is the same boy, 16, who last week retaliated as a schoolyard bully punched at his face; who hurled the smaller boy into the ground, and in doing so became an internet phenomenon. He had been picked on since year two, he said, but he had finally cracked.

''Once I hit, um, high school, one person started it,'' he told Channel Nine last night. ''I had about eight friends. My eight friends ditched me that first year, and then the teasing started from there.''

The teasing was fairly basic: other children calling him ''fatty'', telling him to lose weight, tripping him, slapping at the back of his head.

At one point, he was pelted with waterbombs. At another he was duct-taped to a pole. ''They put duct tape over my eyes first, dropped me down and then duct-taped me to a pole.''

At his worst, about a year ago, he said he contemplated suicide. ''I just started putting myself down, putting myself down to that level. And then all the crap just kept on piling on.''

Michael Carr-Gregg, an adolescent psychologist and founding member of the National Centre Against Bullying, called the interview reprehensible.

''All this is going to do is put more focus on this kid. I can't see this as a positive - he'll just be further victimised and his life made more difficult,'' Dr Carr-Gregg, who is also the Queensland government's adviser on bullying, said.

''Should this kid deteriorate and possibly harm himself, doesn't that sit squarely on the shoulders of Channel Nine?''

The boy, who this website has chosen not to name, said the support he received online had made him feel ''pretty good''. He did not regret lashing out, even after being suspended. ''All I wanted was it just to stop. So … I just did it.''

His father thought similarly. ''I don't condone the violence - it was a horrific thing to see, two boys fighting in a schoolyard and it ending like that. It is nothing to be proud of, but I'm glad that he stood up for himself.''

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bullied-boy-i ... 1c29c.html

The Hen wrote:Home schooling may provide an education for the bullied, but it doesn't address the problem which means it will continue to occur. Perhaps home schooling for the bully is more appropriate?

At another he was duct-taped to a pole. ''They put duct tape over my eyes first, dropped me down and then duct-taped me to a pole.''

Crackpot wrote:THe national centre against bullying has it's head completely up it's ass doesn't it?

California mother arrested for encouraging son to fight


The woman can be heard yelling "Beat him down. Body slam him,"

oldr_n_wsr wrote:
Sometimes I think the world is too concerned with making everything "rosey" for everyone, and if there is a minor (or major) problem the only way people know how to deal with it is to go to whatever admin there is be it a boss/HR at work or the authorities outside of work.

Some situations do need a higher power, but complaints about miniscule nature among neighbors often turn into police affairs. Some small disagreement at work often involve bosses, counselors and sometimes firings. People (young'uns especially and many of my peers) have not been equipped to handle some matters on their own. The first act is the appeal to an outside arbitrator and/or policy (zero tolerance aka zero brains) because that's who has been always called to resolve any problem they have had, never have they solved one on their own.

Sad cases all of them.

A screen grab from the Zangief kid video game.



The 16-year-old Australian schoolboy who garnered worldwide fame for laying the smackdown on a bully has joined the Star Wars Kid in the internet hall of fame - and he now stars in no less than two online video games.

On the internet, you're never truly a viral hit until someone has made a video game about you - whether it's Tiger Woods' marital tiff, the George Bush shoe-throwing incident or swine flu.

The Australian schoolboy, who Fairfax has chosen not to name, was dubbed "Zangief" by netizens after the large body-slamming Street Fighter character of the same name.


In one of the games, Zangief Kid: The Game, players take on the role of the schoolboy and beat up bullies, but only after they hit you first. The game even has its own leaderboard where player compete for high scores.

"Bullies, beware. There is a new hero in town. And he's not the captain of the football team," reads a description of the game.

Another game, Super Bully Fighter, puts you in the shoes of the accused bully. But the game is rigged so the player always loses - perhaps a moral lesson to bullies out there.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/techno ... 1d3g7.html