Bullies may lose driver's license (finally)

It's about damn time!

Why is it that, over the past 20 years or so, lawmakers have been so eager to criminalize poor academic performance - while not batting an eye against school bullies? If you fail even one class in school, it follows you around for life. But if you're some spoiled, violent brat like the assholes I had to deal with at my first high school, you're not considered a pariah, but a hero.

Fact of the matter is that school bullies generally do not have poor grades, because they have a lot of pull with school administrators. Their victims, however, tend to have some of the worst academic records imaginable - not because of their own actions, but because of the environment that the school force-feeds them.

Right-wing politicians know this. Their bratty kids are usually the ones doing the bullying. And the politicians' cronies are usually the ones running the school system, so not only do the serial harassers not get punished, but they also have it made academically. They coast through school from kindergarten to college, and no rules govern them.

That's why so many states have laws to revoke driver's licenses of students who receive bad grades - even though I don't think there's a single state that revokes licenses of serial bullies. America is the land of special rights for Nazis.

It's enough to make you scream for hours on end.

West Virginia, however, may become the first state to end Nazi privilege by revoking bullies' licenses. Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, has proposed some ideas in his State of the State address about teen driver's licenses. Some of his ideas are good, and some not so good.

First, the not so good. Manchin proposed revoking the licenses of teenagers who are failing in school. This would be unconstitutional and would violate federal educational privacy statutes, but I thought West Virginia (like so many other states) already had this rogue law. In other words, nothing new here.

Now, the good. In fact, the excellent. Manchin also announced he wants to revoke the licenses of school bullies.

Finally!

Been reading The Last Word, haven't ya, Joe? What's amazing is that it couldn't have been any later than 1989 when I thought of this very idea, but it's taken another 19 years before any powerful political figure even dared to propose it!

When I was a teenager, I again and again witnessed the sproggen of privilege breeze through life, receive a new car from their rich oldsters on their 16th birthday, and promptly abuse their new "toy." They weren't the 'F' students; I was. Nobody ever once set boundaries for these brats in their whole lives. (And now they're "values voters.")

Manchin quite accurately observed that even a suspension isn't enough for serial harassers. He says you have to be tough on violent thugs masquerading as students. Taking away their license to wield a 4,000-pound weapon is a step in the right direction.

Naturally, the spittle contingent at Free Republic is complaining about this proposal already because it violates bullies' "rights." Oh well. What did you honestly expect from a terrorist website like Freak Rethuglic? They don't seem the least bit opposed to the proposal to take licenses away over bad grades though.

Congress needs to withhold federal highway funds from states that do not revoke driver's licenses of serial harassers.

(Source: http://www.wtov9.com/news/15023853/detail.html)