As a kid I always dreamed of being the hero.  I dreamed about being the hero in a baseball game, the hero in war or even a hero saving people from a burning building.  My baseball dreams have long since died, and I've yet to come across a burning building where someone needs saving.That's not the case for a young man from Calgary, Canada.  Proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished (and that Canadians are twisted), a 13-year old boy was reprimanded last week after stepping in to save a student from certain injury and possible death.

As a parent of two young boys I've toed the line of teaching my kids to stand up for themselves while instilling in them that fighting is always the last option.  If my boys start a fight, there's gonna be trouble, but if someone starts a fight with my boys and they don't finish it, there will also be trouble.  If Tyler and Logan ever come home to tell me they stopped a bully from bullying him or his friends I'd be damn proud.  If they came home to tell me they stopped a bully with a knife, I'd be apprehensively proud.  If the principal then called me into the school to reprimand my son I'd lose my mind.

I can't imagine the guts it took Briar MacLean to spring into action when a bully pulled a knife on another student already being tormented.  Without time to contemplate the consequences the bully met his match as Briar tackled him and held him until a teacher finally took notice.  It's terrifying to think all this could happen PRIOR to a teacher taking note, but thankfully Briar was level-headed enough to take action.

Unfortunately, the school's principal didn't agree.  Briar's mother was called and was told he was being reprimanded and sent home from school.  Normally I'd say "SCORE!!" and think being sent home was a reward for being a hero, but the school in fact thought differently.  The school thought Briar was "playing hero", and since they don't "condone heroics" he was called into the vice principal's office along with his mother to answer to the man (or woman) for doing such a dastardly deed.

 

 

Let me first get the obvious "This is just Canada being Canada" joke out of the way by pointing out that had he prevented a theft of maple syrup or bacon from the school cafeteria he would have been awarded the key to the city.  Now that the Canadian joke is out of the way, let's get real about this.  Without knowing exactly what the scene looked like, no one knows for certain if this was truly a life or death situation.  If I had to guess, no one was going to be bludgeoned to death, but for a school to come right out and declare heroism a thing of the past continues the softening of an entire generation.

The world needs heroes.  We have enough people that sit back and view the world through the lens of others.  We need heroes willing to put others before themselves.  There are far too many people that would just sit back out of fear for their own safety and hope the teacher got to the scene in time to prevent injury.  Nobody's saying Briar is going to be the next Chuck Norris (there can be only ONE Chuck Norris), but we could use a Lone Wolf McQuade every now and again.

 

 

More From KUSJ-FM