SELF-DEFENCE INCORRECT

Dominique Reed, a sixth-grader with trouble hearing, is suffering abuse at the hands of her fellow students at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, Calif., the Berkeley Daily Planet reports:

In her special education classes, bigger and older students quietly taunt her, in the hallways they push her and punch her, in the playground they steal her hearing aid and throw it as far as they can. After months of daily abuse, school officials finally took action: They confined Reed to a classroom during recess for her own safety. . . . Three times Reed tried to show her tormentors just how tough she was. Acting against the advice of the school, she fought back. Each time she was suspended along with the attacker. "There's nothing I can do," she said. "If I tell, nothing happens, and every time I defend myself I get suspended."

From "Opinion Journal".