Have We Jumped The Shark With Bullying Yet?

The idea of "bullying" has gotten out of hand.

Before you bleeding hearts start squealing in mock outrage--no, I don't in general think people should exert physical or emotional control over others.  The issue is what constitutes bullying. 

I'm allowed not to like you.  I can even let you know I don't like you.  At what point does it become harassment or bullying?

How about this situation?

A former Los Altos High School student and baseball player is suing the school district and his former coach for hundreds of thousands of dollars because the coach repeatedly benched him.

According to the suit, the school’s head varsity baseball coach, Gabriel Lopez, repeatedly refused to let 17-year-old Robbie Lopez, no relation, play throughout his senior year. The suit claims this constituted a pattern of “harassment and bullying.”

The teenager and his parents are seeking $150,000 or more, according to the suit...

“It’s more of a targeted situation” than a standard case of a coach using his own judgement, Ponce said. “These are repeated actions by the coach, which we feel, my client and I, as well as his father, feel are intentional. They’re targeted against (my client) specifically.”


Ponce referred to a recent case in South Carolina in which a cheerleader claimed she was bullied by her coach, who made “derogatory comments about (the student’s) private body parts, causing other students to laugh at” her. The student and her father won a $100,000 judgment.

Ponce claimed what happened to his client was “more egregious” than the South Carolina example. But in a phone interview, Ponce did not give any examples of derogatory comments the coach made to the teenager. And no examples of insulting comments by the coach were presented in the lawsuit.

It's up for grabs whether the coach acted appropriately or not, but bullying?  Really?

What a wuss.