I'm finishing up on some posts I'd started in the past and never finished. So, for those of you who are concerned I need to get outside once in awhile, fear not, I'm still seeing the light of day. :-)

I've been aware for some time of gender inequality and bias in our school systems. It manifests itself in many forms, but the one I'm interested in addressing here is in student reprimands and punishments. My best friend has three boys. As a mother of three boys, she is often angry at injustices she sees occurring within the school system. One example, on the bus one day, her oldest son was quietly sitting, minding his own business when a group of giggling, scheming girls decided to target him by throwing paper and pens at him. He told them several times to stop, to which he got a giggled response of, "make us". When the bus arrived at the school, the girls followed him out on the playground, continuing their antics until finally, at a loss he turned around, pushed on of the girls, grabbed the pencil another girl was holding, broke it in half and threw it at her. The girls ran and told the teacher on duty and my friend's son was hauled into the principals office. He told the principal the entire story but it was my friend who got called into the school about her child's behavior and nothing was done to the girls. My friend was very angry with the unfair treatment and threw a big enough fit that they dropped the punishment they were going to give him of in-school suspension. My friend told me that although it wasn't said in so many words, the attitude was obvious that it was different with the other children because they were girls. That her son shouldn't treat girls like that because they were probably only teasing him because they liked him and he should have taken their behavior as a compliment.

Keep in mind that my friend's son is a sensitive child. He's always been shy and struggled with anxiety. He's done wonderfully and gone from crying every day at school when he was little to doing quite well and having a circle of good friends. However, while sitting on the bus enduring the behavior of the girls, all he really wanted to do was cry. He's not a mean kid. In fact, he's a very sweet boy who, under normal circumstances would never consider pushing another child. He was pushed to this point by the girls and then, when an authority figure was alerted to the incident, treated like a trouble maker, threatened with suspension and had his mom brought into the school to discuss his behavior. Meanwhile, the girls, the instigators and real trouble makers, went back to their classrooms giggling about what happened. The message is quite clear to both my friend's son and the little girls. If you're a girl, you can do what you want with zero reprecussions and Heaven help anyone who should act up against you. Those in charge will make sure anyone who opposes you, even if in their own defense, is put firmly in their place. If you're boy, the message is quite simply that you are far less important and less valuable than a girl. This is the message, this is what our children are hearing loud and clear, not only in our schools, but in society as well. This is not an isolated incident I protray, either. It is representative of what you'll find happening every day, in every school in America.

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