Richard Kinsey: Take a step back and let the authorities complete their investigation in the Skyline High student assault case

Commenters: You were quick to complain about the bus driver, the schools and the police. OK, let’s take a time out. The most important entity here is the victim. Let’s all take care of her and make sure she feels safe going to school. We can point fingers later, but let’s take care of her first.

Let’s make sure she talks to the school social worker. If she's scared, it’s our collective job to figure out how to calm her about attending school. If she has to be driven to school for a while, let’s do it. If it takes parents or adults monitoring that bus stop to make her feel safe, let’s do it. If it takes the Skyline police officer riding the bus until we figure this out, let’s do it. Let’s take care of the victim. 

Next, let the system work through this problem before we start slinging blame. Let the school system complete its investigation and handle this as they see fit. I assure you they have the students’ best interest in mind as they investigate and correct the problem. Educators by their very nature care deeply about their students. School administrators necessarily care about the students and keeping them safe because of the risk of possible civil litigation. No parent, administrator or educator wants to hear about any child being terrorized. Let them study the situation and make corrections if necessary.

Criticism of the bus driver's actions is counterproductive. Bus drivers have a tremendous responsibility. Their focus should be on getting students safely from point A to point B. They are not trained to be crisis counselors or police officers. They are trained to transport our kids safely to and from school and maintain a safe environment on the bus. From my read on this incident, regardless of the specifics, the bus driver was put in a no-win situation.

Do we really want our bus driver getting off a bus with students still aboard? Do we really want a bus driver handling a situation he or she isn't trained for? Bus drivers aren't trained in conflict resolution, defensive tactics and arrest techniques. If that bus driver had grabbed a student or two, knocked their heads together and told them to knock it off to prevent this incident, the community would have been outraged a bus driver viciously assaulted “innocent” students.

There were upsetting ethnic overtones to this attack - or were there? Remember, these are children we're dealing with. When conflict develops, the first weapon most people use is their mouth. Humans usually want to strike quickly and verbally “hurt” someone before the fight gets physical. Emotional people say stupid and hurtful things when they're in conflict. 

Most family fights I responded to started when someone said things that were guaranteed to enrage or hurt the other party. Most of those incidents were between “adults.” We're talking about children in this incident. Kids can be especially cruel because oftentimes what they think they say. Many lack the appropriate social filters most adults should possess.  

One agitator in a group can say something stupid, in this case ethnic, and others will pile on. By their very nature, racial, ethnic, sexist, and religious slurs hurt and cause great pain. These epithets and associated actions can also be illegal and called ethnic intimidation. The question here that must be asked is: Did race, religion or ethnicity cause this assault or was the assault the result of some childish grievance or perceived injustice, and the words and actions were just used in anger born of ignorance?

Throwing epithets is a product of stupidity and a lack of guidance and self-control. Let’s all face some ugly truths here and admit that we all have biases, prejudices and default judgments we make about the world around us. Those judgments have been absorbed in our minds by our upbringing, experiences, peers and the world around us as we individually perceive it. So it's ludicrous to believe that the schools alone can teach diversity and acceptance. We all have to teach it by being living examples. This, of course, is easier said than done. If it was easy, there would be no wars.

In the meantime, remember there's always a lot more to the story than the media portrays. Slow news days can blow relatively small incidents into media events based on inflammatory titles or teasers. Most incidents that indict our entire community and require blame to be cast immediately with a large net are much dumber than you can imagine. 

I’ve learned over the years to disregard complex motives and concentrate first on the simplest (dumbest if you will) motive. Be careful of people trying to force a social agenda or just inflame readers. The issue here appears to be a bunch of bullies picking on someone. That has to be dealt with. In this particular case, all the principles are known and it will be dealt with.

Let the police and school officials handle their investigations. In the meantime, as Cheri O’Teri on Saturday Night Live used to say in a skit, “SIMMER DOWN NOW!”

Later in the week I’ll discuss the crime figures reported this week and my theory on “The Perfect Storm In Law Enforcement.” In the meantime, protect yourself and your belongings. As reported this week the campus area thieves are back in business and day time burglars are hitting the west side of Ann Arbor. Keep it locked, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and look out for your neighbors.