tw bullying for entire thread
what is the zero tolerance policy for bullying within knox county schools?

since about 2013/2014, knox county schools has had a policy in place called the “zero tolerance” policy. now while there are other policies knox county has that also fall under zero tolerance, i’m focusing on the bullying one because it is so far from what the title is.

you may see this policy and think it’s actually something good, i thought that too! it sounds like schools are trying to get rid of the bullying that happens within them. this isn’t true at all. while the schools here fall under that policy, they do not enforce it. none of the

administration enforces it. why have a policy you don’t even enforce? i know plenty of kids here do get bullied for whatever reason it may be, & i know some kids to reach out. but what happens when these kids reach out? nothing. i’m speaking from experience, nothing happens

at all. the administration brushes it off like nothing happened.

tw gun, threat, death threat

now i’m gonna tell my part of why i know this policy does absolutely nothing. when i was in about sixth grade, i got threatened by this boy on my bus. he showed me a picture of his

tw gun, threats, death threat
gun and threatened to kill me. now i didn’t tell anybody at the time. the only people who knew about it were my two friends on the bus. i didn’t tell my parents because i didn’t want to worry them. but one of my friends told her parents and her mom

told my mom. she told the principal & nothing happened at first. he didn’t get pulled off the bus, he didn’t get suspended or expelled, nothing. my mom kept trying to make something happen & i had multiple meetings with the school principals about it. you would think something

wouldve immediately happen with a policy like that right? absolutely not. the zero tolerance policy even extends to the buses, but like i said, nothing is ever enforced. but after a couple of months he did get expelled, but it took that long for something to happen. & he still

lived in my neighborhood and eventually came back to that school, which i don’t go to anymore luckily. but it still happened. & when i was bullied for years, the schools never did anything about it. in fact, i was told i was in the wrong for defending myself. what was that about?

you can’t even defend yourself here. if you do, it’s automatically your fault and you are the one in trouble. i was bullied from kindergarten up until the beginning last year and it was awful. i feel for anyone who gets bullied because it’s genuinely a horrible experience.

now, you may be asking why did i include my story into this thread. i included it to show how the zero tolerance policy does nothing for kids being bullied. the schools do not care. they never have. there’s no resources for kids who are bullied or for kids who are LGBTQ+, poc,

kids w/ disabilities, etc. there need to be. there need to be resources for everyone. & the school guidance counselors aren’t it. trust me, i know they arent. i used to have weekly meetings with my elementary school one because of being bullied & all he ever told me to do was

just ignore it & it’d all go away. news flash! it didn’t. which is why there need to be actual resources for kids in school so they know they aren’t alone. & this policy needs to go away. there needs to be actual enforcement of no bullying rather than a sign with words on it

(yes, the policy is quite literally on SIGNS all around the schools in every classroom. way to go knox county! /s) which brings me to the end of this thread & a petition i’ve made that you can sign to help get this policy out & bring in resources for kids.

please sign & share this petition as much as you can, it really does mean a lot http://chng.it/BP6jVw2rzr