Times Editorial : Billy the Kid
Posted on Sunday, March 30, 2008
This week, the Northwest Arkansas Times received angry letters angrily denouncing members of our community from Austin, Texas; New Brunswick, N. J.; Cape Cod, Mass.; Charleston, S. C.; Boise, Idaho, and what seems like a million points in between. Each one takes great exception with what they see as the Fayetteville School District's utter failure to protect its own students from the wrath of bullies.
Together, they represent evidence of Fayetteville's suffering in the face of a six-day assault at the hands of the national media that grabbed hold of one sophomore's accusations that he was bullied, beaten and berated, and that nobody - especially the teachers and administrators of the Fayetteville School District - did anything about it.
Of course, the story's specifics are not new to our readers. On March 10, the Times first reported that Billy Wolfe and his mother, Penney, had filed suit against other teens he accuses of bullying him. Among the accusations was the creation of a Facebook page entitled "Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe. "The family's attorney, Westbrook Doss, says numerous incidents have taken place over the years, ranging from the discovery of obscene comments written about Wolfe in school textbooks to physical attacks.
Certainly when that lawsuit was filed in Washington County Circuit Court, it was news, but far from potentially becoming the news story of the year. After all, bullying happens everywhere. Recognizing that doesn't mean it's right or that it should be ignored. But what could possibly make Billy Wolfe's story so special that the Fayetteville School District would find itself inundated with critical e-mail from around the world.
The New York Times, that's what.
After coming across this bit of news, America's newspaper of record published a front-page columnist's take on Billy Wolfe's tribulations last Monday entitled "A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly. "The author, who collected information from the Wolfes and the school district during spring break, wrote up a one-sided piece that makes the school district look like a place where decision-makers are hospitable to thugs and bullies alike, and the Billys of this world are in trouble from Day One.
In light of this development, Billy, his mother and the family's attorney were extended invitations to appear on several national news programs, including NBC's "Today. "So Wednesday morning there they were, live and in high definition, telling the world about a life of abuse. The word was out: Fayetteville supports bullies and turns its back on innocent victims.
This must be made clear: Nobody deserves a beating. Fayetteville is a community that, for anyone who spends any time real time here, clearly repudiates such behavior. Regardless of what detractors might say, it's clear that somewhere along the way this young man was deeply hurt by the crass and inexcusable behavior of immature classmates.
But let's also be clear about this: The actions or inaction of the Fayetteville School District remain an unknown. The general assumption across the nation has been that administrators did nothing. Maybe. Maybe not. The federal student privacy laws that most people appreciate being in place most of the time stand as an unwanted barrier to the free flow of information in this case. But what are school district officials to do, violate the privacy rights of the students accused of bullying Billy Wolfe simply to get the school district out from under this black cloud ? We'd like to see how these situations were handled, but it's certainly understandable why any student records aren't made an open book to the public and media.
We don't defend the school district or the bullies. We don't condemn them entirely, either. If our search for information last week tells us anything about this case, it's that there's a lot of the story that has yet to be told.
Right now, the standards for conviction in the public arena are very low; thankfully, the benchmark for judgment in a court of law are more rigorous. The family may be absolutely correct to pursue litigation. And in the months to come we look forward to getting at the truth about Billy Wolfe, and learning if the school district has done what it should.
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