Bystander Intervention At Work

There is joy in Mudville folks because bystander intervention is alive and well on the elementary school playground.  I am a proud mother of a ten year old social activist who is engaging in bystander intervention.  My son came home on Monday to tell me that the boys in his class were playing a game of tag on the playground and they were calling the game “rapist.”  Game goes as follows – run up to someone, tag them, and say “I raped you.”  New rapist is it! 

So the great ten year old activist proceeds to tell the boys that the name of the game is inappropriate and that they need to change the name because it’s bad.  The boys respond to him with disdain saying they were going to keep on playing the game and not changing the name.  The activist says it’s not appropriate and goes off to play somewhere else on the playground!  End of Day 1 advocacy.  Day 2 on the playground is a repeat of the boys playing this game of “rapist” to which the 10 year old activist again confronts and tells them they need to change the name of the game because it is inappropriate and adds that they probably don’t understand what a rapist is but that he does and it’s bad.  Boys respond saying that they are going to play anyway.  This time the activist goes to the teacher on duty and tells her what game is being played and what it is called.  Teacher says they probably should just call it tag and tells the boy to go tell his own teacher. 

Now while there was no joy in Mudville when the teacher failed to take action we can be assured that the story isn’t over.  When the news reaches home about the events on the playground, Mom steps in and asks if it is okay to send an email to the teacher and principal.  The response to the email was quick and strong with both indicating that they would take care of this and that they agreed that this was inappropriate and needed to be addressed right away. 

So I’ll be anxious to hear how the situation was resolved with the boys on the playground and if they got the message.  Until then I am the proud mother of a ten year old social activist!  Now there’s a bumper sticker for you. 

Anita Carpenter, INCASA CEO