The letter of Mr. Doug Hansen printed March 25 requires a response. Mr. Hansen (and I will show you more consideration than you showed me as I am one of many male Gails), you have missed on about every point. Freedom of speech does not extend to doing damage to others; it does not guarantee that victims should be fair game.
One cannot hide behind the Constitution in committing damage to others. One may say what they please but the law makes them responsible for what they say. A law professor at the University of Utah a number of years ago, in a class I took, stressed that one person's rights end where the other person's nose begins. If damage is done to another the one committing the damage may be held responsible under the law. So you propose that teasing and other abuses do no damage? Were you one who did the teasing and entertained yourself at the expense of others? Have you ever been teased and felt its hurt?
You talk of working harder in homes, neighborhoods and communities. Fine, to the extent that it works but it certainly does not always work to the extent it should. We found that much of what we taught our children in our home was negated by what parents down the street allowed their children. Children do talk of and compare these things. We also noted that the parents of the more popular children all to often seemed to condone these actions so long as it did not happen to their children.
Damage done to victims of teasing is incalculable. How many more Einsteins might we have to make positive contributions to the world if peers left them unteased and not feeling incapable, useless and unwanted? With all of what we are now seeing in the schools of the teased ones striking back, you would propose this is acceptable?
Gail Nielsen
St. George