When this school banned a boy from bringing his backpack to school, they had no idea how big this battle would become…
There is a kid in America with a My Little Pony backpack.
It’s a blue backpack with an elaborately decorated winged pony on the front.
All this child wants to do is carry it to school.
But he isn’t allowed, because he is a boy.
Nine-year old Grayson Bruce’s school have banned him from using his favourite backpack because it is a target for bullying.
Grayson says he has been kicked, punched and called names, all because he has been carrying the bag.
The school – Buncombe County School in North Carolina in the US – have told the boy and his family that the My Little Pony backpack is a “trigger for bullying,” WLOS-TV reports that Grayson had been facing verbal and physical attacks from tormentors who called the backpack “girly.”
The school’s decision process was that by banning the backpack they would stop the bullying.
School officials told WLOS-TV they made a decision to “immediately address a situation that had created a disruption in the classroom."
It was simply harm minimisation.
It’s a tough call. The consensus in the US seems to be that banning the backpack isn’t really addressing the issue.
What about banning the bullies?
But truth be told, it is an obvious solution to the dilemma. If Grayson leaves his backpack at home the bullies will back down. You do have to wonder whether it is a practical one though.
The message it sends the bullies and anyone at all who condemns another’s choice is blatantly wrong.
We all know that, don’t we?