STORY 61
FACING A MORAL DILEMMA: A KID STORYTherapeutic Characteristics
Problems Addressed
■ A moral dilemma
■ Being in trouble (when perhaps it’s not entirely your fault)
■ Telling lies
■ Lack of responsibilityResources Developed
■ Exploring personal moral standards
■ Learning to face consequences
■ Learning to be responsible
■ Learning to make considered judgmentsOutcomes Offered
■ Moral responsibility
■ Acknowledgment of cause and effect
■ Personal value systems
“Did you tell your parents?” Brad’s friends asked him when he got to school on Monday morn-
ing. “What did they say? Did you get in trouble again?”
Brad had been in trouble on Friday. Jess, one of the girls in his class, was constantly teasing him.
On Friday, she had recruited several other girls and they were all skipping along behind Brad, teas-
ing, laughing, and giggling. Brad was at the end of his tether. He turned around and gave Jess a push.
She fell backward and hit her head against a corner of the wall. It began to bleed. It was only a small
cut but cuts to the head can bleed a lot.
It so happened that Ms. Brown, one of the schoolteachers, saw Brad push Jess. She grabbed him
by the wrist and held him tightly while asking Jess’s friends to accompany her to the nurse’s office.
Brad was taken to the principal’s office, lectured about bullying, and told to write out twenty-five
lines, I must not be a bully,and another twenty-five lines, I must not hurt girls.The principal then wrote
a letter for him to take to his parents, put it in an envelope, and sealed it. Brad was to give this letter
to his parents and have them sign the total of fifty lines that he was to do over the weekend.
During classes that afternoon, Brad was too terrified to concentrate... and even more terrified
about going home. When his mother asked him how school had been he just shrugged his shoulders
and headed for his bedroom. What was he to do? Should he tell her the truth? If he did he would
probably get into trouble from her and Dad as well as Ms. Brown and the principal.
Could he just not tell his parents? But then, he had to give them the letter and get them to sign
his lines. Maybe he could fake one of their signatures. Maybe the principal wouldn’t know. He knew
other kids who had done it but he wasn’t sure if he could.
156 Healing Stories, Teaching Stories