I need an uplifting ethics story about now. How about you?
Fort Wayne, Indiana sixth grader Phil Mick’s was dreading his his first day of sixth grade last week. The 11-year old was routinely a target of bullies at DeKalb Middle School. Family friend Brent Warfield of KDZ Motorcycle Sales & Service learned about the child’s problem over the Christmas holidays last year, and vowed to help him solve the problem…a solution that did not involve, as it so often does with bullying, a slippery slope-courting suppression of free speech principles.
Warfield used his connections in the biker community to promote a motorcade for Phil that would show any ill-wishers that he had friends that could reform bullies in a memorable and emphatic manner if so required. Getting the word out on Facebook and elsewhere on the web ( there is a non-profit organization called Bikers Against Bullies), Warfield attracted about 50 bikers from around the state. They gathered at a local restaurant for the motorcade, and the roaring throng took a thrilled Phil Mick to his first day of school. School principal Matt Vince said that the sound reverberated off the exterior brick walls.
Vince told reporters that he commended the motorcyclists for supporting Phil while making a statement against bullying “in a positive way.”
My father, who had to change schools often during the Depression as his single mother sought work and affordable lodging, told me that as a chubby, unethletic-looking, quiet kid who refused to be submissive to anyone he was bullied at every single new school he attended. It was a ritual of his childhood, and Jack Sr.’s only available response was to fight his larger tormentors using his fists.
“Oh, I always lost,” he told me. “But I got some good shots in, and that was enough. Bullies don’t like to keep bothering the kids who fight back;’ it’s too much trouble.”
“Plus they were afraid of my dog [a big Airedale named Bumbo].”
Phil Mick’s method is even better.
Ethics Alarms 
This is a great story but unfortunately most kid don’t have a family friend with a motorcycle shop. I was bullied in Junior High but I had a friend who taught me to box. Then came the time honored ritual of a playground fight where me and another kid were forced to duke it out. It was pretty much a tie but after that I was pretty much left alone. No helicopter parent solved my problem thank god.
I would prefer the last alternatives myself. Even if you get the worst of it, the bully will probably pick an easier target.
Yeah, a show of force or demonstration of its use is much more effective in modifying behavior than additional rules. If bullies cared about rules, they wouldn’t be bullies. Well played!
Also, I automatically thought of Napoleon Dynamite while reading this.
Some cholos probably aren’t gonna care much about one white kid bullying another. They have their own problems. Probably the best solution is to get your kid involved in karate lessons or possibly krav magda. .
Er Krav Maga.
I figured they did it because they wanted to help their cousin(?) get elected class president. That looks good for college. What I’m really wondering is how they showed up with such great timing.