Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes

Never devoted a whole blog post to one book before but this one deserves it. It’s a chillingly accurate description of secondary school bullying - based on school social constructs – right down to the useless bullying policies, selectively blind staff, headmaster in blustering denial… Thank you for writing it Jodi – people need to wake up to how things really are. Read an article this morning about why and how she wrote it – looking from a ‘bigger picture’ perspective of how people sometimes come to do things that make a difference, I can see that there were ‘right time and place’ things happening to aid her in this task.

I was taken by surprise with the subject of the book – I knew it was about an American high school shooting. I didn’t know about the close links with bullying and school shootings. Dunblane didn’t seem to fit that pattern with an older man and younger kids and this was the one I knew most about being this side of the big blue pond. Given the level of bullying in our schools now and the complete apathy to do anything about it how long before this happens here? I think it’s a ticking time-bomb though I would like to be proven wrong about that.

I sat up into the early hours of last night reading and finishing it. Peter (the boy who ultimately takes guns into school and shoots people) reminds me of me… and of Daniel. We never shot anyone but who knows what we could have been driven to do, if like Peter, there had been no escape for us? I do remember fighting back once – in doing so I avoided an incident that would have resembled Peter’s final humiliation in the school cafeteria. I punched the bully who was holding me down very hard in the face. His mouth poured with blood. It felt good – I’d hurt him for once.

In one scene in the book Peter actually tries going over to the other side, becoming a bully too. He gains acceptance and is freed from being the victim. It is very short lived though as when he sees the effect the abuse is having on the girl he tells everyone to stop and is at once returned to his former position. This ‘be against us and we’ll get you’ thing happened to both Daniel and I. In fact our refusal to go along with the crowd and laugh with everyone else was what started it. After that we were the targets. We both had the experience of seeing those who we had stood up for join in and laugh at our degradation. It’s a neurotypical trait of course to go with the mob for self preservation. Those of us with aspie leanings seem much better at doing what we believe to be right, even if it’s scary, even if it earns us disapproval… Picoult does explore the harm that ultra-conformity and pleasing your friends does people too with Josie’s facade she puts on to the world… but I won’t reveal all the plot twists (I guessed that one right though!)

Bullying is not a creation of schools (oh my, I’m letting them off the hook – only a little) though peer segregation and the institutionalisation of children creates the perfect environment for it. It’s no coincidence that those parental cliques by the school gates are matched by the children in the playground. The mothers who look you up and down with disdain for not wearing their uniform of the latest fashions are mirrored by their children bullying others for not having the right trainers. Parents who stand aside, not wanting to join the nastier gossiping groups, no doubt distill these same good values in their children. They get gossiped about and their children get picked on. However, sitting back and doing nothing, will of course acheive nothing. Bullying should not continue to be an accepted norm. Schools should not continue to blame the victims, whose only crime is often having behaved like a decent human being. Gotta learn to stop doing that little Johnny, become a bully yourself instead! It should be treated as the very serious abuse it is. I really admire headteachers who manage to do this – remember the news stories about a huge number of pupils being excluded for bullying – they’d been caught on camera. Parents were enraged because their kids had only laughed along, not actually physically hurt anyone. We need more teachers like that. We also need to tear up the pathetic bullying policies. Pieces of paper were never going to save anyone – only actions, truth, bravery, and goodness can do that.

So book link and the next post will be happier and picture filled - flowers are coming out again and I have some gorgeous feminine hygiene products in my possession – you’re all very excited now I can tell  

Edit: article on book and recent college shooting from beeb – Death in the Classroom

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