Bullworth Academy expelling Jimmy was a literal federal crime (Bully: Scolarship Edition/Canis Canem Edit)

I was replaying the game as an adult and I noticed something that as a kid or teenager you do not notice, but as an adult, it hits you like a brick to the face if you know the law.

The literal dumpster fire that occurs in Chapter 5 of Bully (Canis Canem Edit).

Dr. Crabblesnitch is a pompous, self-righteous hypocrite, Bullworth Academy are a collection of alcoholics, criminals and idiots. But when Gary Smith orchestrates the town-wide smear campaign and frames Jimmy Hopkins, leading directly to Jimmy’s expulsion, the administration does something so incredibly boneheaded, that it is criminal.

Jimmy is a 15-year-old, placed into the legal custody/care of a private boarding school by his mother and his new stepfather. His mother literally dumped him there so she could go on a year-long honeymoon cruise. Bullworth Academy is, for all intents and purposes, acting in loco parentis (in the place of a parent). They hold the legal duty of care for this teenager.

And what do they do when they expel him?

Do they call his mother? No. She’s in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, probably getting day-drunk on a yacht.

Do they contact Child Protective Services? No.

Do they arrange safe transport to a juvenile shelter or a legal guardian? No.

Crabblesnitch essentially slams the heavy oak door and tells Jimmy to get the fuck out of the school or he is trespassing.

• You are barred from classes. (Fine, standard expulsion stuff).
• You are barred from the Boy’s Dormitory.
• If you set foot anywhere on school grounds, you are treated as a hostile trespasser.

Using real world logic, Jimmy is literally homeless, he is wandering the streets of a horrible industrial Rust Belt town. As players, we know Jimmy has unlocked various "hideouts." But let’s cut through the game mechanics for a second and look at what those places actually are... they are unsanitary, unheated, abandoned, or gang-infested shacks.

The administration of Bullworth Academy kicked a 15-year-old out with no legal guardians present and forced him into being a squatter. Bullworth Academy got astronomically, impossibly lucky that Jimmy Hopkins is an absolute badass, because if he was a normal guy, he dies in a week or so and the school would have been sued to death.

If Jimmy gets hit by a car while wandering the streets at 2:00 AM because he literally has no legal bed to sleep in, who is responsible? THE SCHOOL THAT LOCKED HIM OUT.

If Jimmy gets shanked by a meth addict, who is responsible? THE SCHOOL THAT LOCKED HIM OUT.

If he had died of hypothermia sleeping on a cold couch in an unheated garage, the entire administration of Bullworth Academy would be facing reckless homicide charges.

When an institution takes in vulnerable person, they assume a strict legal Duty of Care under the doctrine of in loco parentis. When residential facilities have summarily expelled or discharged troubled youth without proper safety protocols, notifying guardians, or ensuring secure transportation, and those youths were subsequently attacked, exploited, or murdered while stranded, the courts did not buy the "well, they weren't our student anymore" defense.

Crabblesnitch wouldn't just be facing a board review; he’d be sharing a jail cell. The lawsuits alone would have bankrupted the academy. Jimmy’s mother, as terrible and absent as she is, would have smelled a massive payout from a mile away.

Bullworth Academy didn't just fail Jimmy Hopkins academically or morally, they literally committed a fucking felony. This detail completely reframes the entire tone of Bully, Bullworth Academy is a legal and moral void, they dumped a 15-year-old child onto the pavement, locked the iron gates, and told him to get lost, they actively tossed a vulnerable person to the wolves and prayed the town would swallow him whole before anyone came asking questions.

I know, it's a videogame, but it is extremely dark if you think about it using real life logic.