All is not Fair and Exception to the Rule

We have all heard of the classic example of Kitty Genovese, where Kitty's murder was seen buy dozens of people and no one did anything. Last week i did the same thing. No, completely kidding. But seriously i have been a bystandard before (though in not nearly as dramatic of a way). One of the most significant ways I was a bystandard was in my high school history class.

I will not lie to you and say that I went to some average school, no I went to a private Catholic school in Michigan whose name I will leave out because i did love the school. Why mention that i went to a private school? Well because at my school (and i am sure at others) the popular thing to do was to cheat and the only way i can justify it is that the kids who clearly have successful parents are placed under a lot of stress to be just as successful. One of the easiest classes to cheat in was our AP U.S history class. Aside from the fact that this class, being AP was on a 5.0 scale instead of a typical 4.0 scale, people in the class are supposed to be smart. While i dont doubt that there were a lot of smart kids in that class who are doing very well where ever it is they are, there were also a lot of dumb-asses kids (i do not use that term lightly) who did just as well. How you might ask did a bunch of "dumb-asses" do just as well as the legitimately intelligent? The answer is simple. My teacher used the EXACT same tests every year. As a result people who had older brothers who took the same class would get the answers from them and then ace the tests. For myself, I do not cheat. Period. End of story. I would rather study my ass off and get a B+ or A- than cheat for that A. So why might you ask did I not say anything to my teacher? Did I not care about getting a lower GPA than my peers and thus having a lower rank in the class? Oh believe me i did, in fact it infuriated me to no ends. However you will remember when i said cheating was the "popular" thing to do? Yea. Anyways it went on the entire year (until about the second to last test where my teacher FINALLY caught on) and as a result, my rank in high school does not necessarily reflet my performance.

Although that was a way in which I did participate as a bystander, relating it to Greek life I would like to explain a rule that we have in my Fraternity. This rule is NEVER hit a brother out of anger. NEVER, even if he is pissing you off to no end, doesn't matter. However, like every other rule, there is an exception. The exception to that is that if said brother is being a danger to himself or others or is breaking the law or planning on breaking the law, we may use whatever means (within reason) necessary to stop him. By having this rule we show that we are not supportive of bystander effect.