Can Laws and Policies Prevent Bullying? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Case Study

Headline: July 27, 2023, Mallory Grossman’s parents reach $9.1M settlement with NJ school district in bullying case

The New Jersey news service Patch.com reported on July 27, 2023, “On June 14, 2017, Mallory took her own life after what her family called “horrific” bullying at school and online. She was just 12 years old.”

As a father and a grandfather who loves his family more than life itself, I have experienced the premature deaths of children and grandchildren. I know the sorrow Mallory’s parents and grandparents experience.

Government to the Rescue

Eight years ago, on April 27, 2015, Child Trends posted: All 50 States Now Have a Bullying Law. Now What?

There is a U.S. federal government website stopbullying.gov, with a disclaimer: “Although no federal law directly addresses bullying, in some cases, bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment when it is based on race, national origin, color, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), age, disability, or religion. Federally-funded schools (including colleges and universities) have an obligation to resolve harassment on these bases.”

Authority over bullying is not among the federal government’s enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. However, our bloated federal bureaucracy goes into overreaching authority mode to “solve the problem.” I remind the reader of Ronald Reagan’s wisdom. Reagan opined, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

In New Jersey slang, “Fuhgeddaboudit!”

How Big Is The Problem of Child Suicide?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, “Suicide is a significant cause of premature death because it is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10–14, 15–24, and 25–34.” 12-year-old Mallory Grossman’s age is in the middle of that 10-14-year-old bracket.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Statutes, school policy, and unconstitutional interference by the federal government cannot and will not end the horrific instances of child suicide.

An Alternative to Official Insanity

We do not have a bullying problem; we have a nationwide spiritual problem.

First, a denouncement of the claims of the ill-informed atheists who ignorantly claim America was founded on slavery. Neither are the denouncements of our Founding Fathers as deists, agnostics, and theists true. The facts of our nation’s Christian foundation are documented and irrefutable. Their personal testimonies are facts of American history. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, often described as “our least religious founding father,” was the man who called the delegates to the 1778 Constitutional Convention to pray and study the Bible. The outcome of those prayers and Bible studies was the creation of our present U.S. Constitution. Other documented evidence is within the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and Acts of Congress.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” — Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, September 17, 1787 [Blessings come from God]

“In God we trust” is the national motto. — An act of Congress, 36 U.S. Code § 302, August 12, 1998

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.” — Excerpt of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s public prayer on D-Day, June 06, 1944

President Ronald Reagan underscored the facts of our nation’s Christian foundation, warning us, “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

Christianity in Public Schools – A brief history

“Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was considered by John Adams to be one of America’s three most notable Founding Fathers, ranking alongside George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. ^[1] But his contributions to America were not purely political, even though those were very significant. ^[2]

For example, he is also known as the “Father of American Medicine.” ^[3] He was a founding member of America’s first Bible Society ^[4] and is credited with helping begin the American Sunday School movement. ^[5]  He helped organize America’s first Anti-Slavery society ^[6] and was a leader in the national abolition movement. ^[7] He held multiple university professorships, ^[8] and is properly titled “The Father of Public Schools Under the Constitution,” being an advocate for free public schools for all youth. ^[9]” — Wallbuilders Archive, Dr. Benjamin Rush

Throughout my elementary school years in the 1950s, my teachers openly professed their faith in God, and one, my third-grade teacher, daily read the Bible to us after lunch.

On June 25, 1962 (my wife’s birthday), the U.S. Supreme Court opined, “state officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the state at the beginning of each school day — even if the prayer is denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain silent or be excused from the room.”

SCOTUS did not outlaw prayers in public schools. It only outlawed an official prayer, but the rising atheism among educators seized the opportunity to broadly apply a ban on all prayer in public schools. Reference: Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962)

Due to the unholy nature of official atheism that promotes the sexualization of public school children, the Home School phenomenon has provided an alternative to parents who fully understand the perils of official atheism. The explosive growth of homeschooling continues in 2023. Several of my grandchildren enjoy the Classical Conversations curriculum.

Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Garfield, and William McKinley were homeschooled. The famous Mount Rushmore monument features presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

• George Washington was self-taught. Let’s call this homeschooled.
• Thomas Jefferson‘s education was not public, but small-group Christian, much like Classical Conversations Community homeschool education.
• Theodore Roosevelt, a sickly and asthmatic child, was homeschooled.
• Abraham Lincoln’s formal schooling was limited to three brief periods in local schools, as he had to work constantly to support his family. Lincoln was a self-educated man. I mark him as homeschooled.

What’s the Cure for Public School Bullying?

Detectives look for the facts of a crime by returning to the scene of the crime. The crime in question is not bullying but official state atheism. If you want to get America back to its fundamental freedoms and civility, you must return public education to the original intent of our Founding Fathers: A defence of the use of the Bible in schools : a letter by Dr. Benjamin Rush

The solution to school bullying is found in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. Dr. Rush states in his letter DEFENCE OF THE USE OF THE BIBLE IN SCHOOLS, “That the Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state, than any other book in the world.”

This PDF copy of Benjamin Rush’s letter has searchable text and can be downloaded for the reader’s benefit.

Now that you know the cure, you can participate in the restoration of wholesome, historically correct, God-honoring public education. God’s Word has the answer to end bullying and the sexualization of vulnerable young Americans.

Find a Bible-teaching, God-fearing, people-loving local church. Join a Life Group. My local church has a place for you.

Lakepointe Church features a Life Group to match your needs. Off-campus and on-campus Life Groups for adults, Lakepointe Kids, and Lakepointe Students ministries serve our people from the cradle to the grave.

Soli Deo Gloria

John White
Rockwall, Texas