The allegations against L.B., made by an anonymous caller at 4:45 a.m. that day, were false. These included that she was a stripper (she worked at a home for people with disabilities); that she used drugs (none were found, and a drug test was negative for all substances); and that an abusive man lived with her and that she owned “machine guns” (after an exhaustive search and interrogation, both claims were deemed baseless).

In fact, L.B. has never been found to have committed any type of child maltreatment, ACS and court records show.

Yet the anonymous caller, whom L.B. believes to be a former acquaintance with a grudge, has continued to dial in to New York’s state child welfare hotline. Each time, this person or possibly people make outlandish, often already-disproven claims about her, seeming to know that doing so will automatically trigger a government intrusion into her domestic life.

And ACS obliges: Over the past three years, the agency either has inspected her home or examined and questioned her son at school more than two dozen times. Caseworkers have sought a warrant for only three of these searches, most recently in August. All of those requests have been rejected by judges, according to court records.

  • Seleni@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I hate to say it but… you hit the bully back. I was bullied in school, and that was the only thing that made a bully stop. Of course, don’t pound them into the ground, and do it when the teachers aren’t looking.

    That was advice I got from a teacher, and it changed my life. Before, I’d gone to a teacher when I was bullied. I tried to ignore the bully (he hit me in the head with a rock for ignoring him). I tried asking the bully to stop.

    Then one day my science teacher said, ‘sometimes, you have to hit back’.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      She’s really not confrontational. And this is all mental bullying rather than physical bullying. Punching the kid who doxxed you would just get you in trouble.

      • OmenAtom@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Punching the kid would get both kids in trouble actually. Punch the bully in the face and take the detention every time, they will stop.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          She’s a kid who never, ever wants to get in trouble. She will cry if she gets any sort of school punishment and she’s even cried when I’ve done very minor things like raise my voice a little when she did something she shouldn’t have done. She’s just extremely sensitive. I can’t imagine her punching anyone. Also, she has no upper body strength. None. She can barely push open doors in stores and restaurants. And trying to get her to exercise is a fool’s errand.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      And this may lead to all sorts of bad stuff. Adults, and I mean school officials and teachers, should do something with a bully, not that they always do and some even don’t want to admit that they should.

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As someone who was bullied as a kid, I can say with confidence that they don’t. The best I ever got was the teacher asking them nicely to stop.