Friday, March 15, 2013

Charlie Sheen, bullying and dog feces

Charlie Sheen is claiming his daughter was bullied at an exclusive private school in Calabasas. I don't know if it is or isn't accurate. Usually when there is an accusation of bullying, there is something to it on some level. It may be nowhere near as bad as the victim claims, or it may be even worse. Most of the time it's tough to investigate allegations of one-on-one bullying because of the lack of an objective witness.

But his Twitter rant:

"Cadre! This is a legitimate call to arms. My daughter Sam was bullied out of Viewpoint school and then called a liar. It's on!" he tweeted. "If you have a rotted egg a roll of toilet paper or some dog s--t; I urge u to deliver it with 'extreme prejudice' to their KamPuss run by trolls and charlatans Make me proud."

is just wholly inappropriate.  Having spent 17 years working at an “exclusive” private school in the L.A. area, I can imagine the reaction of the administration quite vividly.  I can also see where he might feel that his daughter’s allegations may not have been fully investigated.  Not because the other child’s parents carry a lot of ‘weight’ with the administration or school’s board of trustees.   Again, because without a third party who witnessed the bullying, or computer records of emails, texts and the like, it’s really tough in a “she said vs she said” situation involving pre-teens.

Without identifying the parents or the child involved, I’m going to tell a story that was told to me in confidence to give an idea of what good parents do in a situation like this.  The female student in this story was of an age to be enrolled somewhere between the 8th and 10th grades (I won’t be more specific).  According to her mother, who spent the better part of 45 minutes telling me this story, she was taunted, insulted and shunned.  Some of the shunning was done by other girls who had been her friends until they’d met other girls that weren’t previously part of their circle of friends.  Ultimately the parents decided the environment wasn’t healthy for their daughter and they pulled her out of the school.  Today she’s a happy, healthy, well-adjusted adult and doing quite well.  Because her parents were involved in her life, even though both have very busy lives and one or both are very well known in the entertainment industry. 

Now I’m not saying I think Charlie Sheen and/or Denise Richards aren’t involved in their daughter’s life.  But did they know what was going on as soon as their daughter was willing to speak up about it?  Does Charlie Sheen really have his daughter’s interests at heart in urging people to engage in vandalism?  I think not.  I’d tell him to show some class, but perhaps it was sucked up his nose or downed with too much alcohol.  Maybe once he started to buy his own hype, he lost what little he had.  His parents are classy folks, but the apple fell far from the tree in measures of behavior and how he conducts his personal life.

Then again, trying to tell “The Warlock” to do the right thing is pointless.  Whether or not he knows what that is, he won’t do it.