More Boys Like These, Please!
Have you heard about the group of middle school boys who took down their creeper teacher?
OK, get this. So, there was this middle school teacher and coach who was behaving very inappropriately with the girls in his classroom. He’d make them dance for him or show him their toes or he’d say stuff like, “Everyone in bathing suits tomorrow!” He called them “sweetheart” and “sunshine.”
Ew. Ew. Ew.
Disgusting, right? The girls were super uncomfortable, but since he was their teacher and in a position of power, they didn’t feel like they could do more than laugh awkwardly and die inside while they complied with most of his wishes.
The boys could see the girls were not having it, but they also felt helpless. The teacher was a total dick to them but he didn’t do anything creepy toward the boys. But it still made the boys upset when they could see their female classmates were being harassed and humiliated.
A bunch of kids complained about his behavior but they were ignored. Even the teacher didn’t take them seriously. He was like, Fuck off, I can do what I want. I’ve been a teacher for decades and no one’s stopped me yet.
But there was this small group of boys who were like, Oh yeah? Challenge accepted. Let’s go!
So they did what middle school boys do: they got on Discord.
No. Not to play games. To wreak havoc.
They created a Discord group where they documented in real-time everything fucked up and gross this teacher did and said to the girls in the class. They kept notes for the entire school year and when it was time to move out of his classroom, they passed what they were now calling the “Pedo Database” Discord group onto a few incoming boys. They weren’t sure what they were going to do with all of this evidence, but they hoped that someday it would be useful.
Meanwhile, there was a family who complained to the superintendent that their middle-school-aged daughter was being stalked by this shitbag. The superintendent was like, Super busy, can’t talk right now.
What the fuck???
So the parents were like, Buckle up, we’re hiring a lawyer and we’re getting a restraining order against your boy.
Finally, the school district was like, Hey bro, you should maybe go teach somewhere else.
So he did! Another school district let him near kids!! What is even happening??
And then a family in the other school district were like, We heard there’s an investigation into this guy. We want in. He’s been coaching our daughter in his basement.
WHAAAAATTTT???
So now the teacher had two different families gunning for him, but the media hadn’t released his name. But you know how it is. Everyone started chatting and they knew exactly which teacher was the pervert in question.
A mom asked her son, Hey, didn’t you have that teacher? Wasn’t that the guy who I complained about when he was a nightmare to you and the school did nothing? If you know something, you should tell.
Up until that point, the boy had only told his mom about how cruel the teacher was to him and the other boys. He hadn’t told her about the “Pedo Database.”
Until then.
When the mom heard about the Discord group she was like, Holy shit. You’re the best boy ever!
Then she got in touch with the lawyer representing the families and she was like, Hey, check this out! My son and his friends did what they could to try and protect their classmates. Could this database be useful?
The lawyer was like, Uhhh, yeah! Like 1000000% useful!
And now that Discord chat is evidence with the US Attorney’s Office, the State Department of Children, Youth and, Families, the State Department of Education, and the lawyer who is handling the investigation for the school district.
Boom!
These boys are absolute rock stars. This is what we mean when we tell men to do better and to stand up for women. These boys were so smart in the way they handled this. They did everything right and unfortunately, their complaints fell on deaf ears. The school district let them down. But instead of stopping, they got creative. They Gen Z’d the shit out of this problem! Gen Z does not play.
Sure, they didn’t know what would happen to their database, but they had hope that maybe someday it would be useful. And the fact that they didn’t give up when the year was over?? That they passed it on to another group of trusted boys who would carry on?? That’s amazing and incredible.
There are so many times when we feel helpless or think that we can’t make a difference, but these boys proved that anyone can make a difference. You just have to care to try. From now on when I have a problem I need to solve, my first thought will be, “What would Gen Z do?”
Also, Discord should give these boys Nitro for life.