Annnnd now we’re punching people who are supposedly friends. At what point does anyone truly call Amanda on this behavior? In her own way, she’s no better than Truck. She takes out her own hurt and jealousy on everyone around her…including her own friends.
Oh come on. This is completely different from Truck’s behavior. Amanda is reacting to a perceived betrayal of trust, while Truck was reacting to a perceived challenge to his authority. One reaction is 100% normal kid behavior. The other is borderline psychopathic.
That’s why I said in her own way. Truck is a bully, a smart one, who hurt Selkie badly physically. Amanda uses teasing, taunting, and other underhanded tactics against people she doesn’t like. She embarrassed Selkie so badly the girl’s afraid to wear her hair a certain way. Different tactics, same result: a bully leaving a mark on those around her.
Amanda has no friends. She has people she acts friendly to while she uses them for some purpose or another. When they’re no longer useful to her, they’re cast aside.
It doesn’t matter where Amanda comes from. She needs to be punished for her behavior. This is unacceptable. I recognize the social hierarchy in her group of friends lets her get away with this behavior on some levels, but she is BLATANTLY the instigater about 90% of the time. In front of everyone.
GLAAAHHHH!!
Things that are wrong here: the assaulting kids are all too common. Truck is a SMART bully. The teachers are powerless. Amanda is an overreacting berserker. And while it makes sense in context with the story, I still think Mr. Warren is teasing us by delaying the exposition about Selkie.
I say we just give this school a blue rinse and start over.
I was homeschooled, so I am rather unrealistic about these things. I apologize. But I do think that even accounting for my lack of knowledge, things are getting a little out of hand.
Every day at recess kids would hit me with jump ropes, or just pound the crap out of me because they could. I was already in an abusive environment at home. I had no fight left in me. Teachers are rarely out in the yard; they have volunteer yard monitors who are usually housewives looking to watch their little one and oh well if any of the other kids get hurt. It was worse for my baby sister. Kids are cruel, vicious, and a lot more violent than you think. In a public school there is a social pecking order. Never really talked about, but it is there.
Given the attention spans of children and their still-developing senses of empathy, and somehow Selkie’s kept that secret for what, four months? That is a very long time in the lifespan of an eight year old. Heather kept it for three years, I think. That’s more than a third of her life!
Point being, it’s amazing this didn’t come out until now.
Technically, the way Selkie asked, it could have been purely guessing. She knows Amanda from school and the orphanage, and she’s never seen anyone hurt Amanda in either of those two places. That only leaves one likely place.
The only problem in this logic is: Selkie is not friggin’ Sherlock Holmes Jr.
She’s a kid.
Unless her species is smarter than ours, which wouldn’t really make sense because we’ve seen some of them working WITH the humans, instead of throwing the civilization over and dominate us.
It’s only the same if one assumes that Selkie thought through the question well enough to realize how much it reveals about what she knows. Given her age and her situation, she wouldn’t have. Then Amanda demanded to know who told her; Selkie didn’t say, but she didn’t think to pretend that it was just a guess. Again, understandable. Even if she were that quick-thinking, it’s a bit too close to lying. So it had the same effect, but it’s not like Selkie chose to tell Amanda. It was unintentional.
Unrelated: It amuses me that the spellchecker underlines “Selkie”
I don’t really see much wrong with Amanda’s actions.
When you get something new, you’re excited about it and want to tell everyone. Just see any “parents of a new baby”. They want to tell everyone about the kid burped and the kid pooped and he’s talking and teething, ad nauseum. While the friends of the new parents DON’T want to be constantly hearing this, but as adults they suck it up and pretend to be interested.
Kids have not yet learned to “suck it up and pretend to be interested”. The constant prattling, plus her own jealousy, makes Amanda blow. Perfectly understandable.
As for the hitting. While I know that, in this enlightened age, we NEVER hit anyone, the fact is that kids hit their friends. Y’all never heard of “punch bug”, or “swapping rocks”? She was mad and she hit her friend. If she was REALLY angry, and wished to HURT her, she would have hit her in the face. But she didn’t. She punched her on the arm.
Maybe a little overboard, for girls, but certainly not “assault”.
…no matter how angry I got with my friends, I never punched them. The bullies at school who did it “playfully” left bruises. The comic shows Heather being shoved sideways. Amanda’s anger may be understandable, and if this was a one off might be, but this is a pattern that’s developed over many comics. She bullies. She throws and breaks things in anger. She rats out her “friend” to the teacher because she’s jealous of Heather’s parents. She gets other kids to gang up on others. We see her in the office over yet another incident.
Except, this isn’t Heather going on about how great her parents are, this is Heather going on about a party that SHE IS INVITING AMANDA TO. She telling her friend how great thier shared experince will be, and instead of being excited about being able to do that, Amanda gets angry that she doesn’t have parents to that for her. Her jealousy is way out of hand.
Amanda is not hearing “You are invited”. Amanda is hearing “extra bedrooms” (“I not only have MY OWN ROOM – unlike you, but there are spare bedrooms”), “caterer” and “movie theater” (“I’m now rich and have all this GREAT stuff – unlike you”), along with “Dad” (“I’m not a lousy orphan any more – I have parent’s – unlike you”) and “the other kids from the subdivision” (“I have OTHER friends, now – not just you”).
Amanda’s world is falling to pieces and she is trying her best to keep it the same. If she hasn’t yet, she will be having trouble with Keisha from the ending of the shirt incident – “I’m NOT a bad friend”. Because Heather went and got herself adopted, and left them, Amanda and Keisha were going to band together and hate Heather. But after listening to Selkie, Keisha has decided not to do that. One more little crack in Amanda’s world.
It doesn’t matter that Amanda didn’t hear it. It was still said. Even when Heather wasn’t talking about her new home, Amanda was still angry because Heather got something Amanda didn’t. Her age doesn’t excuse her actions.
Am I the only person here who thinks that the appropriate response at this point, from Todd, would be to pull Selkie out of that school and move her to another one? Because it’s clear that her safety is not going to be a top priority for anyone.
I think pulling her out of school entirely is still a bit premature. This is the school she’s gone to for years. All of her friends are here. The school is aware of her “issues” and has already received an certain amount of “need to know” info. I think that her safety is a priority for some of the teachers. I think the principal is more worried about protecting the school’s rep than he is about keeping individual students safe though. Todd may need to take things to the school board or the superintendent. Someone over the principal’s head.
I agree with the above posters about the hitting. At most, in elementary school there may have been some playful fighting, but we never punched anyone like Amanda. That in itself is kind of odd for a girl, she’d be more likely to smack or scratch if she’s really fighting. These days a kid who actually punches would lead to a fight or else big trouble. Heather is too cowed to call her on it, and she’ll probably yell at Selkie for telling, which she DID NOT. You say she’s not Sherlock Holmes, but I think Amanda deducing Selkie knew from that question is more Sherlock Holmes than if Selkie had figured out Amanda’s issues dealt with her “parents”.
On another note, can anyone see all the words in the red panel? I can make out Dad, Mom, Family. Next line I believe is Sleepover – but no idea of next word since it looks like Wed. Third line Broken, Brother or Between? And then “Too Hurt”. And last of all is Party, Whole or Home?, Security.
haha……semi-done
Annnnd now we’re punching people who are supposedly friends. At what point does anyone truly call Amanda on this behavior? In her own way, she’s no better than Truck. She takes out her own hurt and jealousy on everyone around her…including her own friends.
Oh come on. This is completely different from Truck’s behavior. Amanda is reacting to a perceived betrayal of trust, while Truck was reacting to a perceived challenge to his authority. One reaction is 100% normal kid behavior. The other is borderline psychopathic.
That’s why I said in her own way. Truck is a bully, a smart one, who hurt Selkie badly physically. Amanda uses teasing, taunting, and other underhanded tactics against people she doesn’t like. She embarrassed Selkie so badly the girl’s afraid to wear her hair a certain way. Different tactics, same result: a bully leaving a mark on those around her.
Amanda has no friends. She has people she acts friendly to while she uses them for some purpose or another. When they’re no longer useful to her, they’re cast aside.
It doesn’t matter where Amanda comes from. She needs to be punished for her behavior. This is unacceptable. I recognize the social hierarchy in her group of friends lets her get away with this behavior on some levels, but she is BLATANTLY the instigater about 90% of the time. In front of everyone.
GLAAAHHHH!!
Things that are wrong here: the assaulting kids are all too common. Truck is a SMART bully. The teachers are powerless. Amanda is an overreacting berserker. And while it makes sense in context with the story, I still think Mr. Warren is teasing us by delaying the exposition about Selkie.
I say we just give this school a blue rinse and start over.
Such is the dark side of multiple narrative threads.
lawl. I like your director’s commentary:)
Blue rinse? Like, make all the students look like little old ladies?
Sorry. I’m making an Artemis Fowl reference. A blue rinse is a type of faerie bomb that kills all living things but leaves everything else unharmed.
Either you are not remembering elementary school, or we had VASTLY different experiences. I find these kids to be quite realistic in their actions.
I was homeschooled, so I am rather unrealistic about these things. I apologize. But I do think that even accounting for my lack of knowledge, things are getting a little out of hand.
Sorry. I mean a little beyond the norm.
Every day at recess kids would hit me with jump ropes, or just pound the crap out of me because they could. I was already in an abusive environment at home. I had no fight left in me. Teachers are rarely out in the yard; they have volunteer yard monitors who are usually housewives looking to watch their little one and oh well if any of the other kids get hurt. It was worse for my baby sister. Kids are cruel, vicious, and a lot more violent than you think. In a public school there is a social pecking order. Never really talked about, but it is there.
Given the attention spans of children and their still-developing senses of empathy, and somehow Selkie’s kept that secret for what, four months? That is a very long time in the lifespan of an eight year old. Heather kept it for three years, I think. That’s more than a third of her life!
Point being, it’s amazing this didn’t come out until now.
Except that Selkie DIDN’T tell. She deduced and asked a pointed question.
Well, since that question revealed that she had information she shouldn’t have, it’s kinda the same as telling isn’t it?
Technically, the way Selkie asked, it could have been purely guessing. She knows Amanda from school and the orphanage, and she’s never seen anyone hurt Amanda in either of those two places. That only leaves one likely place.
The only problem in this logic is: Selkie is not friggin’ Sherlock Holmes Jr.
She’s a kid.
Unless her species is smarter than ours, which wouldn’t really make sense because we’ve seen some of them working WITH the humans, instead of throwing the civilization over and dominate us.
Maybe her species is so smart they realize we’re not worth dominating.
It’s only the same if one assumes that Selkie thought through the question well enough to realize how much it reveals about what she knows. Given her age and her situation, she wouldn’t have. Then Amanda demanded to know who told her; Selkie didn’t say, but she didn’t think to pretend that it was just a guess. Again, understandable. Even if she were that quick-thinking, it’s a bit too close to lying. So it had the same effect, but it’s not like Selkie chose to tell Amanda. It was unintentional.
Unrelated: It amuses me that the spellchecker underlines “Selkie”
I don’t really see much wrong with Amanda’s actions.
When you get something new, you’re excited about it and want to tell everyone. Just see any “parents of a new baby”. They want to tell everyone about the kid burped and the kid pooped and he’s talking and teething, ad nauseum. While the friends of the new parents DON’T want to be constantly hearing this, but as adults they suck it up and pretend to be interested.
Kids have not yet learned to “suck it up and pretend to be interested”. The constant prattling, plus her own jealousy, makes Amanda blow. Perfectly understandable.
As for the hitting. While I know that, in this enlightened age, we NEVER hit anyone, the fact is that kids hit their friends. Y’all never heard of “punch bug”, or “swapping rocks”? She was mad and she hit her friend. If she was REALLY angry, and wished to HURT her, she would have hit her in the face. But she didn’t. She punched her on the arm.
Maybe a little overboard, for girls, but certainly not “assault”.
…no matter how angry I got with my friends, I never punched them. The bullies at school who did it “playfully” left bruises. The comic shows Heather being shoved sideways. Amanda’s anger may be understandable, and if this was a one off might be, but this is a pattern that’s developed over many comics. She bullies. She throws and breaks things in anger. She rats out her “friend” to the teacher because she’s jealous of Heather’s parents. She gets other kids to gang up on others. We see her in the office over yet another incident.
Except, this isn’t Heather going on about how great her parents are, this is Heather going on about a party that SHE IS INVITING AMANDA TO. She telling her friend how great thier shared experince will be, and instead of being excited about being able to do that, Amanda gets angry that she doesn’t have parents to that for her. Her jealousy is way out of hand.
Amanda is not hearing “You are invited”. Amanda is hearing “extra bedrooms” (“I not only have MY OWN ROOM – unlike you, but there are spare bedrooms”), “caterer” and “movie theater” (“I’m now rich and have all this GREAT stuff – unlike you”), along with “Dad” (“I’m not a lousy orphan any more – I have parent’s – unlike you”) and “the other kids from the subdivision” (“I have OTHER friends, now – not just you”).
Amanda’s world is falling to pieces and she is trying her best to keep it the same. If she hasn’t yet, she will be having trouble with Keisha from the ending of the shirt incident – “I’m NOT a bad friend”. Because Heather went and got herself adopted, and left them, Amanda and Keisha were going to band together and hate Heather. But after listening to Selkie, Keisha has decided not to do that. One more little crack in Amanda’s world.
It doesn’t matter that Amanda didn’t hear it. It was still said. Even when Heather wasn’t talking about her new home, Amanda was still angry because Heather got something Amanda didn’t. Her age doesn’t excuse her actions.
Three can keep a secret…
But there are ears in the stalls. Methinks it will not be a secret anymore… 🙁
Speaking of ears in the stalls, is that maybe Lynni and Giselle hiding in the first stall in panel 2?
Hmm…speaking of ears in the stalls, is that maybe Lynni and Giselle hiding in the first stall in panel 2?
Well now Heather is going to be upset with Selkie. Poor Heather.
Am I the only person here who thinks that the appropriate response at this point, from Todd, would be to pull Selkie out of that school and move her to another one? Because it’s clear that her safety is not going to be a top priority for anyone.
I think pulling her out of school entirely is still a bit premature. This is the school she’s gone to for years. All of her friends are here. The school is aware of her “issues” and has already received an certain amount of “need to know” info. I think that her safety is a priority for some of the teachers. I think the principal is more worried about protecting the school’s rep than he is about keeping individual students safe though. Todd may need to take things to the school board or the superintendent. Someone over the principal’s head.
One week’s suspension for her!
Two day’s suspension for us as we wait to see what happens! Oh, the suspence! LOL
Just for the record, if these kids were ten years older, “rubbing her junk in my face” would have a *VERY* different meaning.
Tee hee
I agree with the above posters about the hitting. At most, in elementary school there may have been some playful fighting, but we never punched anyone like Amanda. That in itself is kind of odd for a girl, she’d be more likely to smack or scratch if she’s really fighting. These days a kid who actually punches would lead to a fight or else big trouble. Heather is too cowed to call her on it, and she’ll probably yell at Selkie for telling, which she DID NOT. You say she’s not Sherlock Holmes, but I think Amanda deducing Selkie knew from that question is more Sherlock Holmes than if Selkie had figured out Amanda’s issues dealt with her “parents”.
On another note, can anyone see all the words in the red panel? I can make out Dad, Mom, Family. Next line I believe is Sleepover – but no idea of next word since it looks like Wed. Third line Broken, Brother or Between? And then “Too Hurt”. And last of all is Party, Whole or Home?, Security.