'Hardy Boy' outrage on both sides(Related Story,
Boy, 11, suspended for defending his friend, unavailable)
Today we return to the "Hardy Boy" saga, "The School Bus Stop Scuffle," which began in this space last Wednesday.
Many of you reacted quite strongly to the report detailing the three-day school suspension of 11-year-old Rhodes Hardy, a sixth-grader willing to defend his chum from violence.
This Hardy boy, as you may recall, violated Henrico County school policy 10 days ago by pushing a seventh-grader attempting to give Rhodes' much-smaller pal, also a sixth-grader, a knuckle sandwich.
"Rhodes Hardy for president!" responded one older woman who lives in a nursing home. She was referring to Rhodes' dream of becoming president of the United States one day.
Callers and e-mailers by the hundreds expressed anger and frustration that public schools such as Pocahontas Middle School have zero tolerance, one-size-fits-all physical-contact policies that punish those who physically intervene in fights the same as those who start them. (All parties in the scuffle saga got the same suspensions.)
Many of you say you've taught your children to defend themselves and others, regardless of school policy.
"I teach my kids to do the right thing and act like a 'Hardy Boy,' and they are both girls," said a reader in Urbanna.
Numerous parents from across the state wrote of their children's suspensions for defending themselves or trying to stop bullies.
Reactions from area school employees indicate this policy (one that doesn't reflect society's legal differentiation between aggressor and victim) is borne out of legal concerns that school officials would spend too much time in court responding to parents' complaints.
Kerry Hardy, Rhodes' dad, wonders at what point schools would condone physical intervention.
"What if it's a middle-school girl on the way home being dragged away by high school boys? Do you teach the boys just turn your head and look the other way? They're supposed to go find an adult and let the girl be raped?"
I asked Mychael Dickerson, spokesman for the Henrico school system, when it would be OK for a student to intervene in a fight situation. When blood is spilled? When bone is sticking out?
His response: "We encourage the students to find an adult not to get involved."
Which would seem to indicate that Henrico would've preferred that passengers aboard Flight 93 stayed in their seats, called for help and then watched the plane fly into the White House.
But then, some of you were livid that I would suggest that violence is an answer to anything.
"Working out conflicts without violence is not being a sissy, overly feminine, or 'yellow.' It is indicative of being a thinking, sensible member of society," one Henrico educator wrote.
Scores of you were angered or confused by my blaming our "feminized" society for unrealistic no-testosterone zones.
Friends, we have come to celebrate and cherish our feminine traits, as well we should.
But we don't celebrate masculinity much any more. Any display of testosterone is a no-no, unless it's on a football field. Even Boy Scouts are suspect these days.
Well, chums and chumettes, that stuff doesn't flush. Boys will be boys.
It's our job as a society to encourage them to serve, to protect, to work hard, to be Hardy Boys.
What's that? You disagree, and can't stand someone voicing a politically incorrect opinion different from yours?
Come on now, take it like a man.
http://timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128767485505&path=%21news%21columnists&s=1045855935174*FW Note:The guy's got a point...
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