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     Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 27539 Registered: 01-2000  Rating: N/A |
Amid 'war on obesity,' skeptics warn of stigma By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer via Yahoo! News May 1, 2011 The images are striking: Overweight boys and girls staring somberly from billboards and online videos, real-life embodiments of the blunt messages alongside. "Chubby kids may not outlive their parents," for example. Or: "Big bones didn't make me this way. Big meals did." The ads — part of a new "Stop Child Obesity" campaign in Georgia — won some enthusiastic praise for their attention-grabbing tactics. But they also have outraged parents, activists and academics who feel the result is more stigma for an already beleaguered and bullied group of children.  Do you see, if peers do it to each other, well that's bullying and it must be punished. But if the government does it, well that's what? Caring? Well-intentioned? Helpful? Peers "bully"-- and I say bully in quotes because it was never defined as bullying until shrinks and educators decided to change the definition--for the same reason the government is bullying the chubby. These people are out of the norm and the taunts and teasing are designed to make them pay a price for being outside the norm, which has the effect of moving people toward the norm. K-12 students don't have college degrees or refined skills to achieve the intuitive, perhaps instinctive, goal that most pursue. They use the skills they have. Rather than see "bullying" as a progression from crude to refined normalizing--a natural part of childhood, which the professionals deny--shrinks and educators seek to crush it, frequently just by being bigger bullies than the students. The right way to approach this presumed problem is to encourage people to be nice. That's it. You don't demand it. You don't punish mean speech, because that disrespects the fundamental right of all to speak their minds. But you teach politeness and courtesy, and you do what school psychologist Izzy Kalman teaches at Bullies2Buddies--you learn how to make your enemies your friends. You don't seek to change your enemy, but to change the relationship, which in the end changes both the "bully" and the "bullied." * * * * 
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 27198 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Schools Can Stop Bullying without Promoting Homosexuality or Gender Confusion Peter LaBarbera / Americans For Truth About Homosexuality March 10th, 2011 Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (www.aftah.org), warned that a White House “Bullying Prevention Summit” today may promote a pro-homosexuality agenda in schools in the guise of stopping cruelty between students. “Schools administrators and teachers must ensure a safe and protective learning environment for all students, but they can do so without injecting divisive ‘sexual orientation’ and radical ‘transgender’ politics into the classroom,” LaBarbera said. “There is a real danger that ‘anti-bullying’ policies will be used to curtail any speech in schools critical of homosexuality, and create curricula that discriminate against religious students who believe homosexual behavior is morally wrong.” Good point. In fact, you don't have to inject any kind of pro or anti ideology into the effort, or even call bullies names, like bullies. All you have to do is to encourage kids to be nice and point out to them when they aren't being nice. Encourage kids to get along. No instruction on sexual orientation, religion, race or anything else is required -- or even helpful. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 27170 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Few Wyoming school districts hold bullying town halls Associated Press via the Billings (MT) Gazette March 8, 2011 CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Few school districts in Wyoming have held town hall meetings paid for by the state to address school bullying, and the anti-bullying instructor hired to conduct the town halls says some school administrators are afraid to hear what parents and others have to say about suicide and gay and lesbian issues. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26947 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Bucks Co. Teacher Suspended Over Blog About Students Reported by Brad Segall, KYW Newsradio; Todd Quinones, CBS 3, Philadelphia with video and over 400 comments February 9, 2011 This is a great example of what anti-bullying and censorship do. They drive the truth underground. They create distortions and illusions. Is there some reason why people shouldn't know, and be able to handle, the honest opinions of others? Maybe the parents and students should pay attention to what is being said rather than seek to quash it. DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) - This is a clear case of what happens online, stays online. It's also a clear case of mass bullying, but strangely, it's not identified as such. The Central Bucks School District has suspended a high school English teacher after parents complained to administrators about her blog in which she railed on her students for more than a year. Phrases on the blog include; “Frightfully dim,” “Rat-like,” “Am concerned your kid is going to open fire on the school,” “I hate your kid,” and “Seems smarter than she actually is.” Those are the words of teacher Natalie Munroe, according to the Central Bucks School District. School district spokeswoman Carol Counihan says Munroe admitted to writing the blog. “I think she should be fired. Hopefully that is what will happen,” said parent Wendy Yazujian. Wendy, do you think you're better off knowing what teachers really think or knowing only a facade that hides what they really think? Munroe reportedly wrote the rant, and others like it, a year or more ago. * * * “It’s hard to know that you sat in her class for an hour and a half a day and for her to feel that way it is like, it is an awful feeling,” student Alli Woloshyn said. In a post from January of last year, Munroe talks about some of the comments she would like to write about her students on their report cards in place of what she calls the “canned comments” which are provided by the school district. The comments include “lazy,” “sneaky” and “rude.” “For a teacher to be like that is just beyond me. Why would you be with children if you are feeling that negative about everything they do? Basically she was bashing all the kids,” said Kelly Woloshyn a parent. Obviously, someone who hasn't lived with or had close relationships with teachers. You think their thoughts about students are bad, you should hear what they have to say about parents. * * * The blog has since been shut down. Jackhammer wrote: The comment “Why did she become a teacher” is hilarious. Most of us who become teachers do so thinking that we’re going to actually be ‘teaching’, when in reality we end up ‘zoo-keeping’. We go to college for a minimum of four years- usually around 7- and have this idea in our heads that we’ll be helping kids. Going to find and fire this teacher, too? On the other hand, since every teacher has felt this way about some students and perhaps most have similar sentiments, perhaps it's best if we redesign the education model to create schools for The 21st Century Student. One last point: Do you know how we attempt to appease and mollify teachers? We keep increasing their salaries so they'll put up with their feelings and keep their mouths shut. But it doesn't work. Those feelings keep getting in the way of educating children no matter how much we pay them.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26903 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Studies Take Aim at Playground Gossip More and More Studies are Focusing on 'Relational Aggression' in Schools By Sarah D. Sparks / Education Week Published Online: February 1, 2011 Published in Print: February 2, 2011, as Researchers Look for Ways to Curb 'Mean Girls' and Gossip Includes correction(s): February 1, 2011 Gossip and social ostracization may come far down on the list of concerns for educators trying to prevent bullying, yet emerging research suggests relational bullying, though often the most frequently overlooked, may hold the key to changing an aggressive culture in schools. Of the three major types of bullying—physical, verbal and relational—relational aggression, has been the latest and least studied, both because it involves less visible, immediately dangerous behavior than fighting or verbal abuse, and in part because it involved more nuanced relationships among the bullies, victims, and bystanders. * * * Antonius H. N. Cillessen, a professor of developmental psychology at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found in one four-year longitudinal study [pdf] of American middle and high school students that the students considered by their peers to be the most popular were not the same as those most liked, and students perceived to be popular were the most likely to engage in gossip and social manipulation over time. Who are the great manipulators in our society? Advertisers, politicians, shrinks and educators are on my short list. Hidden in Plain Sight “It’s the dark side of popularity,” Mr. Cillessen said. “For the practice of education it’s pretty important, because the popular bully gets a lot of peer reinforcement. As adults we can say this is bad, you shouldn’t do this, but among peers, bullies have power. That’s a really difficult challenge for intervention research, because it means you don’t have to work only on the individual bully and victim, but you have to address all possible roles that a person can play.” * * * Relational aggression has long been known as “covert aggression,” but the emerging research suggests that’s something of a misnomer: Social isolation, rumor-mongering, and manipulation have proven surprisingly easy for researchers to spot. Increasingly, students are not allowed to say what they think. Why should the be allowed to chose their friends, right?
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26874 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Parents of bullied kids hiring lawyers, suing school districts In Central Florida and elsewhere, more families are suing school boards, saying they're to blame By Rene Stutzman, Orlando (FL) Sentinel January 29, 2011 Whenever a child is bullied--which I take to mean "simply offended" or worse--parents need to send an email message or letter to the principal briefly outlining the who, what, where and when of the incident. You need to do this for each incident. If you do, and the bullying doesn't stop, you can be the big winners of a lawsuit against the school district. Personally, I believe it's more important to teach your children how to handle adversity, and how to turn bullies into buddies, but if you believe your children are better served suing school districts, then just be sure to put the school district on notice--in writing--about the problems. * * * Parents are hiring lawyers and suing school districts, accusing them of letting schoolyard bullies frighten, intimidate and sometimes beat up their children. The uptrend started around 2007, said Sonja Trainor, senior staff attorney at the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va. And some people and agencies have begun treating bullying as a public-health threat. Actually, the public health threat is the the failure to teach children how to solve their own problems with their peers. It's making our children emotionally sick while creating a generation of whiners who will demand that government increasingly censor all offensive speech. It's a tragedy for children and the nation. A nation of helpless victims cannot be a great nation. * * * [A school] district has asked a judge to throw out [one] suit, saying the boy may have been bullied for months and even physically injured, but no one notified school officials until a few days before his family yanked him from school in 2008. If you're going down this path, you have to give the school notice. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26847 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Fairfax school disciplinary policies scrutinized after apparent suicide By Donna St. George / Washington Post Staff Writer January 22, 2011 The apparent suicide of a 15-year-old high school football player in Fairfax County has sparked concern about the school district's disciplinary policies, which critics say are overly punitive and often debilitating for students. Overly punitive discipline is bullying, isn't it? School districts are on notice. If you expel a student or transfer a student away from his/her support group, you have significantly increased the risk of a suicide. The concerns come as students at W.T. Woodson High School mourn the loss of Nick Stuban, a former sophomore running back on the junior varsity team. Football players wore their homecoming jerseys in memory of the well-liked teen Friday, and many other students wore black. Nick's death followed a disciplinary action that some parents and school activists considered unnecessarily harsh. A school spokesman defended the district's policies as appropriate and in line with state law. The teen was suspended and referred for expulsion last fall after an incident that his family and school officials declined to disclose. A hearing was held, and he was allowed to return to class in early January. At that point, he had been reassigned to Fairfax High School. On Thursday morning, the teenager was found dead at his Fairfax home. Police said they were investigating the case as an apparent suicide. The teen's father, Steve Stuban, who declined to discuss details, said he was "heartbroken" and was not seeking to assign blame. But speaking beside his wife, Sandy, he said that process following the infraction was intensely painful for the couple's only child. "His spirit was crushed," Steve Stuban said. * * * "Parents need to understand this is a loss for the entire community," said Janet Otersen, a Fairfax parent and school activist. She said that although she does not know all the details of the case, it appears that "we failed this child." Otersen went through the discipline process five years ago, when her daughter, then a sixth-grader, got into a scuffle with a boy, she said. "The way these hearings are run," she said, "it's not a nurturing environment where they lecture the kids. . . . They treat them like the Una-bomber." Otersen also objected to requiring school transfers as a remedy. "Where's the justification for uprooting these kids from their support structure?" she said. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26811 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
30,000 pupils branded as bigots Teachers log 'racist' and 'homophobic' jibes in playground squabbles, even at nursery By Sarah Harris / London (UK) Daily Mail with over 290 comments 17th January 2011 More than 10,000 primary school pupils in a single year have been labelled racist or homophobic over minor squabbles. Even toddlers in nursery classes are being penalised for so-called hate crimes such as using the words ‘white trash’ or ‘gaylord’. Schools are forced to report their language to education authorities, which keep a register of incidents. This leads to at least 30,000 primary and secondary pupils per year being effectively classed as bigots because of anti-bullying rules. The school can also keep the pupil’s name and ‘offence’ on file. The record can be passed from primaries to secondaries or when a pupil moves between schools at the request of the new head. And if schools are asked for a pupil reference by a future employer or a university, the record could be used as the basis for it, meaning the pettiest of incidents has the potential to blight a child for life. Figures for the year 2008-9 were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the civil liberties group, the Manifesto Club. They show 29,659 racist incidents reported by schools to local education authorities in England and Wales. Of these, 10,436 were at primary schools and 41 at nursery schools. The biggest name-callers on the planet are educators, shrinks and social workers. They love putting labels on behaviors they don't like or from which they can make money. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26755 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Christie Signs Tougher Law on Bullying in Schools By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA / NEW YORK TIMES January 6, 2011 New Jersey on Thursday enacted the nation’s toughest law against bullying and harassment in schools, three and a half months after the suicide of a Rutgers University student drew national attention to the issue. The law spells out a long list of requirements, including the appointment of specific people in each school and district to run antibullying programs; the investigation of any episodes starting within a day after they occur; and training for teachers, administrators and school board members. Superintendents must make public reports twice a year detailing any episodes in each school, and each school will receive a letter grade to be posted on its Web site. The law, which goes into effect at the start of the next school year, lists harassment, intimidation or bullying as grounds for suspension or even expulsion from school. It applies to public schools, and portions of it apply to public colleges. * * * “This is one of the great civil rights laws in New Jersey history, and to have a fairly conservative Republican governor sign it sends a resounding signal to other states,” said Steven Goldstein, chairman and chief executive of Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, who was involved in drafting the law. “It’s also a major achievement for bipartisan governance in New Jersey.” Because of the overly broad definition of bullying, this law continues a deleterious and appalling assault on the freedom of speech. There are other and better ways to handle taunts, teases and insults. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26693 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Cheerleader taking free-speech suit to high court Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer December 22, 2010 WASHINGTON -- A Texas high school cheerleader who was kicked off the squad for refusing to chant the name of an athlete she said had raped her will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate her free-speech suit against the school district, her lawyer says. The cheerleader and her parents are also challenging federal court rulings that found the suit to be frivolous and ordered them to reimburse the district more than $45,000 in legal costs. The case has drawn national attention since a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled in September that the cheerleader was speaking for the school, not herself, and had no right to remain silent when called on to shout the athlete's name. Legal commentators said the ruling illustrated courts' increasingly restrictive view of free speech on campus. The girl, identified by her initials H.S., was 16 when she said she was raped at a party in her southeast Texas hometown of Silsbee in October 2008. She identified the assailant as Rakheem Bolton, a star on the Silsbee High School football team. Bolton was arrested but not charged at the time, and was allowed to return to school. At a February 2009 basketball game in Huntsville, Texas, H.S. joined in leading cheers for the Silsbee High team, which included Bolton. But when Bolton went to the foul line to shoot free throws, H.S. stepped back, folded her arms and sat next to the squad's faculty leader. The girl's lawyer says the cheerleaders were supposed to yell, "2, 4, 6, 8, 10, come on, Rakheem, put it in." At halftime, H.S. said, the district superintendent, his assistant and the school principal told her she had to cheer for Bolton or go home. She refused, her parents drove her home and she was dismissed from the squad. How's that for bullying?
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26656 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Want to end bullying? Teach empathy early Julia Steiny / Providence (RI) Journal December 19, 2010 The American public is enraged about the seeming epidemic of bullying. Nasty, aggressive behavior in cyberspace is freaking out parents and educators. Most spectacularly, two young people recently committed suicide as a result of torment at the hands of peers. What sort of sick creeps would secretly videotape a shy Rutgers freshman to out him online as gay? But in all the angry fulminating about bullying, I haven’t heard a mention of empathy, or the glaring lack of it. No one’s born empathetic. Kids need to learn about the effects of their actions, about walking in the other guy’s shoes and feeling their pain. And they need to do so long before a bloodlust for cruelty has taken root. Because only empathy curbs bullying. Pretty close to being exactly right. Far better than the recommendations I've seen coming from many education professionals, so-called. Beyond empathy, students need to learn how to convert bullies to buddies. No one knows how to do that better than school psychologist Izzy Kalman, with whom I have no connection outside of a very few and sporadic email exchanges. Instead, the news media and public seem hell-bent on fingering bullies and punishing the daylights out of them. States across the nation are passing anti-bullying laws. Didn’t we do this already? The 1990s’ “zero-tolerance” laws, designed to curb violence, backfired. The increase of suspensions, expulsions and prison sentences wrecked more kids’ lives without much improving anyone’s sense of safety. So how will laws designed to bully the bullies promote empathy? Last year I sat in on a bullying group at a middle school. Every day, five seriously nasty sixth-grade girls had been forming a gauntlet through which their peers had to pass. The girls would choose one of the lame, fat, poorly dressed or short, and make cleverly cruel comments to amuse themselves and their crowd. School adults were frantic to stop the behavior. They intervened when they could, but the girls just kept it out of sight. The school is in an impoverished community, so most kids were going to class with plenty of learning challenges anyway. None could afford to be distracted by feeling horrible about being teased. And as seriously low-income kids, you can bet both victims and bullies had been picked on, deprived and punished more than enough already. So what would suspension, detention or getting yelled at do for them? A few caring school adults asked them to come together to talk about the problem. Surprisingly, they jumped at the chance. Between the super-busy adults in their lives and electronic distractions, modern kids rarely get a chance to work together on social issues, under the guidance of kind, non-angry adults. Even well-to-do kids need help with their feelings and social issues, never mind kids whose parents or guardians are struggling to survive. As the girls’ stories tumbled out, a pecking order emerged. The unmistakable queen bee referred to the others as “her girls.” Two were her lieutenants, strong with their own anger and toughness. And two obviously terrified followers participated mainly to avoid becoming victims themselves. The adults started by asking each girl if she’d ever been bullied herself. That was a universal and irate “yes!” They told heartbreaking stories of getting taunted, belittled and ostracized by both peers and adults. They choked up and whispered when explaining exactly what they were teased about. Then the adults asked whether the girls had ever bullied others, and how that made them feel. A tense silence finally broke when one honest lieutenant declared, “I felt good hurting that kid, really good!” The adults surprised her by praising her honesty. She then admitted that she also felt “bad, really small and, um, kind of dirty.” Ah, empathy starts to set in. Another lieutenant burst into tears and declared that she bullied because no one in her life cared about her. The adults were shocked. When debriefing afterward, they marveled how she, of all of them, could say such a thing. With two parents and a steady family income, she had more resources than the others. But so what? That’s how she feels. And she’s taking it out on others. Now the adults can help her sort out her feelings and quit acting out. But if they hadn’t asked, they wouldn’t know. Only the Queen resisted giving details about having been bullied, in a scary way that suggested she might be occupying a private hell. Her circumstances also needed exploring. And the last question was: could they describe how their victims might feel? The girls groaned with the hurt they knew they’d caused. Even the Queen could identify with her victims, and was not happy about it. After that conversation, the gauntlet apparently disbanded, at least for a time. Was the solution permanent? Probably not. Bad behavior doesn’t stop overnight. Unfortunately, conversations that promote empathy take time and patience, while typical punishment is fast and easy. Punishment, with no questions asked, assures adults they’re doing a good job, when really they’re pushing the problem into the future. Of course kids should have consequences, but only when they fully understand the choices they’re making. What’s the point of punishing a girl whose behavior is crying for help? How will she learn to care about others’ feelings if we don’t care about hers? This Christmas, give kids the gift of empathy. Walk in their shoes. Teach them how to do likewise for others. And start when they’re young. Or watch the bullying get bigger and nastier, among kids and adults alike. Julia Steiny, a former member of the Providence School Board, consults on schools and government initiatives, such as Information Works!, Rhode Island’s school-accountability project.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26628 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Tip line at heart of antibully plan Anonymity offered Brockton students By Michele Morgan Bolton / Boston Globe Correspondent December 12, 2010 School districts around the state are acting quickly to put mandated bullying-prevention policies into place by month’s end, and some are capitalizing on their students’ love of technology to go interactive with anonymous tips. Brockton, for one, is urging its high- and middle-school students to send text messages through TipSoft, a program being implemented in the 15,600-student district through which texters can report concerns about bullying and domestic and gang violence without having to identify themselves. I love this. Tell me, what act can't be interpreted as bullying? Exclusion is bullying. Anything that makes someone fell uncomfortable or offended is bullying. Exactly what do people think they are doing? They are creating an offendedness society where you manipulate and control others buy being offended, either in fact or by pretending. In effect, it's the new form of bullying. A society built on the right not to be offended is flatly unAmerican. What is uniquely American is our willingness to accept offendedness to preserve the freedoms we enjoy. * * * Once sent, tips go to a database in Texas where the message, but not the phone number it came from, is rerouted immediately to the principal and assistant principal of that school. If a crime has been committed, or a life is endangered, for example, police could obtain a court order to gain access to the sender, but in most cases, police or administrators can answer the text and have a dialogue without ever knowing the tipster’s name, officials said. “You never find out who the kid is,’’ Thomas said. Saugus attorney Pamela Milman, of Education, Consulting, Advocacy & Legal Services LLC, isn’t so sure. A former teacher and a specialist on confidentiality issues who represents students, Milman said she believes there is no such thing as anonymity. “Too many people would get too much information,’’ she said, whether it’s news that a student has had trouble with the law, or is taking medication for an emotional problem, for example. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26585 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
As Bullies Go Digital, Parents Play Catch-Up By JAN HOFFMAN / NEW YORK TIMES Dec. 5, 2010 This is a very long article, of which only a small portion is provided, below. * * * Cyberbullying is often legally defined as repeated harassment online, although in popular use, it can describe even a sharp-elbowed, gratuitous swipe. Cyberbullies themselves resist easy categorization: the anonymity of the Internet gives cover not only to schoolyard-bully types but to victims themselves, who feel they can retaliate without getting caught. But online bullying can be more psychologically savage than schoolyard bullying. The Internet erases inhibitions, with adolescents often going further with slights online than in person. “It’s not the swear words,” Inspector Brunault said. “They all swear. It’s how they gang up on one individual at a time. ‘Go cut yourself.’ Or ‘you are sooo ugly’ — but with 10 u’s, 10 g’s, 10 l’s, like they’re all screaming it at someone.” * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26581 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Court: Hazing Law Covers High School Gang By Mark Walsh / School Law blog November 24, 2010 A high school gang was an "organization" within the meaning of New York state's anti-hazing law, and a prospective member of the gang may not consent to being hazed, a state appellate court has ruled. A four-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, the state's mid-level appeals court, upheld a juvenile delinquency finding for a student who participated in the hazing of a young man who sought to join the "Lost Boys," a gang at their high school in the New York City borough of Queens. According to court papers, to join the gang, the unidentified teenager had to submit to a "jumping in," an activity in which gang members surrounded him and repeatedly struck him with closed fists, or kicked him in the head and ribs when he fell. The juvenile charged in this case, identified as Khalil H., was the one who recruited the victim and videotaped his beating. A Queens County family court ruled that Khalil H. committed acts that would constitute the crimes of conspiracy and attempted hazing, and he was placed in state custody for one year. An appeal on behalf of the juvenile argued that the Lost Boys was not an organization subject to New York state's anti-hazing law. In its Nov. 9 decision in the Matter of Khalil H., the state appellate court disagreed, saying that the Lost Boys was organized for mutual protection. "Members met in the park to carry out the [victim's] planned initiation ceremony, held meetings, and wore flags with black and white stars, as well as stringed black and white beads, to signify their membership in the Lost Boys," the court said. "Thus, we find that the Lost Boys gang is the type of 'organization' the Legislature contemplated when it enacted [the anti-hazing statutes.]" The court also rejected Khalil H.'s argument that the victim willingly subjected himself to the initiation ritual and thus no crime was committed. "Often, those who are victims of hazing are, to some degree, willing to accept humiliation and physical abuse from others in order to gain social acceptance," the court said, citing court rulings in other states against allowing victim consent to be a defense to hazing. "Students willingly subject themselves to these acts to be accepted. Many times, they have no idea of how bad the hazing will be until they are put in the situation. By then, it is too late and they accept the consequences rather than lose face by backing out." The decision also includes an interesting history of New York state's anti-hazing laws and a description of an 1894 hazing incident at Cornell University that resulted in student injuries and the death of a cook.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26551 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Specialists say bullies also need attention Accused teenager at Groton School committed suicide By Shelley Murphy / Boston Globe Staff November 29, 2010 At a time when a new state law has put the burden squarely on schools to investigate and crack down on bullying, the headmaster at the Groton School swiftly ousted a 16-year-old sophomore last month after the youth and two other students allegedly posted photos of a classmate on the Internet with sexually explicit remarks. Six days later, the ousted student, Hunter Rogers Perkins, shot himself to death in the basement of his father’s home in South Riding, Va. Expulsion is simply a bigger bully picking on a lesser bully. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26513 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Religious bullying is anything but funny A Schenectady (NY) Daily Gazette Letter to the Editor Nov. 22, 2010 Religious bullying is not OK. It is a form of violence often covertly embedded in what is disguised as and misunderstood as humor. Because of our shared humanity, our human solidarity, whenever one person or one group of people is being ridiculed and stereotyped, we are all hurt. Religious jokes at the expense of another, name-calling, negative innuendo, ignorant religious profiling has no place in our homes, our schools or in our neighborhoods. In a world where religious literacy is crucial, we need to model for each other what it means to love our neighbor — to do unto others what we would want done to us. I love teenagers. I work with teenagers. I am energized and hopeful because of teenagers. So, when I hear about teenagers using religion to bully a peer, I cannot remain silent. Quite succinctly, religious bullying is not funny. Stop it now. Kathleen K. Duff Niskayuna The writer is co-chair of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese’s Jewish-Roman Catholic Dialogue Committee, Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26463 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Parental Steps to Helping a Child Deal with School Bullies by Thomas / Open Education blog 10/10/2010 Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That was a phrase I heard many times over as a child – I have to say I wasn’t sure that I agreed with it then and certainly don’t now, but the message was unequivocal. The idea, of course, was that the verbal teasing could get under your skin only if you let it do so. The message was buck up, believe in yourself and hold your head high despite the mean-spirited critics around you. From my memories as a child growing up, I can attest to the fact that bullying and hard-core teasing were concepts we dealt with on a daily basis. I can say from a voice of experience that those who insist that the issue is unique or somehow worse with today’s young people are flat out wrong.  * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26461 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
LARGEST STUDY EVER SHOWS HALF OF ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WERE BULLIES AND NEARLY HALF WERE THE VICTIMS OF BULLYING DURING PAST YEAR Study of more than 43,000 shows high school experience is more glum than glee Character Counts 10/26/2010 LOS ANGELES — According to a new study [pdf] by the Josephson Institute of Ethics (the largest ever undertaken of the attitudes and conduct of high school students), half of all high school students (50 percent) admit they bullied someone in the past year, and nearly half (47 percent) say they were bullied, teased, or taunted in a way that seriously upset them in the past year. The study reports the responses from 43,321 high school students. The margin of error is less than 1%. So, who says so-called bullying isn't just part of growing up? Moreover, the "professionals" who are looking to enrich themselves from this fad, have greatly expanded the traditional definition of bullying so it is now practically impossible to avoid being a bully. "If the saying, 'sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm me' was ever true, it certainly is not so today,” said Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Institute and a national leader and radio commentator on ethical issues. “Insults, name calling, relentless teasing, and malicious gossip often inflict deep and enduring pain," he added. "It's not only the prevalence of bullying behavior and victimization that's troublesome. The Internet has intensified the injury. What's posted on the Internet is permanent, and it spreads like a virus – there is no refuge. The difference between the impact of bullying today versus 20 years ago is the difference between getting into a fist fight and using a gun." The Institute's study also found that one-third (33 percent) of all high school students say that violence is a big problem at their school, and one in four (24 percent) say they do not feel very safe at school. More than half (52 percent) admit that within the past year they hit a person because they were angry. Ten percent of students say they took a weapon to school at least once in the past 12 months, and 16 percent admit that they have been intoxicated at school. "The combination of bullying, a penchant toward violence when one is angry, the availability of weapons, and the possibility of intoxication at school increases significantly the likelihood of retaliatory violence," Josephson said. * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26419 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda By ERIK ECKHOLM / NEW YORK TIMES Nov. 7, 2010 Why isn't it enough just to tell students to be nice to each other? HELENA, Mont. — Alarmed by evidence that gay and lesbian students are common victims of schoolyard bullies, many school districts are bolstering their antiharassment rules with early lessons in tolerance, explaining that some children have “two moms” or will grow up to love members of the same sex. * * * Angry parents and religious critics, while agreeing that schoolyard harassment should be stopped, charge that liberals and gay rights groups are using the antibullying banner to pursue a hidden “homosexual agenda,” implicitly endorsing, for example, same-sex marriage. Notice the pejorative adjective before "parents." Why isn't there a pejorative adjective before "school districts" in the preceding paragraph? * * * “Of course we’re all against bullying,” Mr. DeMato, one of numerous pastors who opposed the plan, said in an interview. “But the Bible says very clearly that homosexuality is wrong, and Christians don’t want the schools to teach subjects that are repulsive to their values.” * * * *
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26398 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Threat to funding a bullying tactic An Albany (NY) Times Union Letter to the Editor November 5, 2010 The Oct. 27 story, "Anti-gay bullying may cost schools," stated, "Schools that fail to address the bullying of gay students may lose U.S. funds for not enforcing gender-discrimination laws, according to the federal Department of Education." It also said, "The announcement and letters to U.S. schools clarifies that protections extend to gay, lesbian, and transgender students who are harassed for 'failing to conform to sex stereotypes.'" One policy that schools have is that students' attire or actions should not be a distraction in class. The policy described in the article seems to imply that elementary schoolchildren who cross dress are not a detrimental distraction. The story also reported that, "Federal officials for the first time encouraged schools to address such behavior as harassment using civil-rights statutes enacted from 1964 to 1990 that protect students from discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, disability or gender." I would not be so concerned if enforcement was equal across all these attributes. In my opinion, discrimination, if not outright hostility based on religion, in particular Christianity, is rampant. Just look at the recent case of the student who wore rosary beads in Schenectady. What about students who feel offended based on their faith when confronted with students with gender confusion? What protections and sensitivity are they afforded? The short answer is none. If anything, they are expected to accept and even celebrate practices that they feel are offensive. The Education Department is being a bully in threatening to cut off funding with such a biased policy. Government is the biggest bully on the planet. What does it do? It picks on students who tease. This is surely a beam and moat problem. A government that has the power to come down on kids who tease each other is surely as unlimited as it is misdirected. Daniel Moran Rexford
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26334 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Lessons on gay history cut homophobic bullying in north London school • Abuse and harassment 'more or less eliminated' • Classes to be shared with teachers around country Jessica Shepherd and Sue Learner / London (UK) Guardian 26 October 2010 A north London school which has developed lessons on gay historical figures who suffered persecution claims to have succeeded in "more or less eliminating homophobic bullying" in its classrooms and playgrounds over the last five years. The life story of the wartime code-breaker Alan Turing is among those being used to tackle homophobia. Authors Oscar Wilde and James Baldwin and artist Andy Warhol also feature. Now Stoke Newington secondary plans to share the lessons with hundreds of primary and secondary school teachers. By the summer, it will have trained more than a hundred teachers in how to "educate and celebrate" being gay. Turing, a mathematician who cracked German codes in the second world war, was prosecuted in 1952 for his homosexuality, which was then a crime. He was forced to decide between prison and taking female hormones to reduce his libido, and chose the latter. An inquest into his death – two years after his prosecution – returned a verdict of suicide. Last year, Gordon Brown offered a posthumous government apology for the way Turing had been treated for being gay. Elly Barnes, a music teacher, devised the lesson plans and training course with the help of colleagues. Her concern began when she heard a pupil say their "pen was so gay" when it snapped in two. Barnes's aim is to "eradicate homophobia from all schools" by giving staff the confidence and resources required to tackle the prejudice. * * * Occasionally, the lessons do not go to plan. One of Barnes's colleagues, Anna Gluckstein, was teaching about Turing when a boy at the back of the class got up and chanted "batty man, batty man" – a Jamaican term for a gay man. A poll of 1,145 pupils in 2007 by the charity Stonewall found 65% of lesbian, gay and bisexual students had experienced homophobic bullying. Some 98% said the word "gay" was used as a synonym for "rubbish". "By looking at famous LGBT people in history, we've changed opinions and we have had a number of pupils come out," Barnes said. "We have also changed the language used in the school. I used to hear the word gay used all the time as a derogatory term. Now we hardly hear it."
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26333 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Guidance Targeting Harassment Outlines Local and Federal Responsibility White House to Convene Conference on Bullying Early Next Year U.S. Dept. of Education press release October 26, 2010 Washington, D.C. — Today, the Department of Education issued guidance to support educators in combating bullying in schools by clarifying when student bullying may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws. The guidance issued today also makes clear that while current laws enforced by the department do not protect against harassment based on religion or sexual orientation, they do include protection against harassment of members of religious groups based on shared ethnic characteristics as well as gender and sexual harassment of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender individuals. The guidance, which comes in the form of a "Dear Colleague" letter sent to schools, colleges and universities, explains educators' legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment. The letter provides examples of harassment and illustrates how a school should respond in each case. The White House and Department of Education also announced next steps to address bullying and harassment in schools. Early next year, the White House will host a conference to raise awareness and equip young people, parents, educators, coaches and other community leaders with tools to prevent bullying and harassment. This conference will build upon efforts led by the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies to spark a dialogue on the ways in which communities can come together to prevent bullying and harassment. "We've got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up. It's not," said President Obama. "We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. Every single young person deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and achieve their potential, without having to worry about the constant threat of harassment." "Bullying is a problem that shouldn't exist. No one should ever feel harassed or unsafe in a school simply because they act or think or dress differently than others," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "To every student who feels threatened or harassed—for whatever reason—please know that you are not alone. Please know that there are people who love you. And please know that we will protect you," Duncan continued. "Students cannot learn if they feel threatened or harassed," said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Russlynn Ali. "We want to keep students safe and learning, and today's guidance will help us do that." Following the release of today's guidance, the Department plans to hold technical assistance workshops around the country in early 2011 to help educators better understand their obligations and the resources available to take prompt and effective steps that will end harassment and bullying in schools and on college campuses. The guidance issued today is just one of several efforts in the Department of Education's comprehensive approach to end bullying. In 2009, the Department joined the Departments of Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and the Interior to form the Obama Administrations Inter-Agency Task Force on Bullying. In August of this year, the Obama administration hosted the first ever National Bullying Summit and launched both the Stop Bullying Now Campaign and www.bullyinginfo.org, a national database of effective anti-bullying programs. For more information about OCR and the anti-discrimination statutes that it enforces, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/aboutocr.html. To review the "Dear Colleague" letter, please visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201010.html.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26330 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Protect children from the bullies An Albany (NY) Times Union Letter to the Editor October 26, 2010 I enjoyed the Oct. 21 commentary, "Have mercy on kids who stutter," especially with Oct. 22 being International Stuttering Awareness Day. The teasing and bullying faced by stuttering children mentioned is a very important issue. A couple of years ago, the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation published a book called "Trouble at Recess," a guide to help children handle bullying and teasing at school and on the playground. While it is a brilliant book, it is disheartening to know that it still sells in vast numbers; such high sales volume only underscores that bullying is a grave problem for children who stutter. The Stuttering Foundation website (http://www.stutteringhelp.org) also offers many free resources for adults, children and parents. Bullying is an epidemic in this country. There needs to be a national task force to address the bullying faced by all types of children. Maybe first lady Michelle Obama could make bullying her pet project, just as Nancy Reagan did with "just say no to drugs." The Obama administration and Congress must make anti-bullying policies a national priority, especially in light of the fact that a disturbing number of children are targeted because some other kids look at them as "different." The rights of children not to be bullied should be the next civil rights movement. John W. Beneski Enfield, Conn. We are not in a bullying epidemic. Give your children the internal fortitude to know who they are regardless of what others say. Give them the ability to make friends of those who are mean to them. Only in that way can we all enjoy the freedom of speech and live in a pleasant world. Empowering government to punish people for their speech is the worst possible solution to a problem that people should be capable of fixing on their own.
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26308 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Schools fail in their obligation to protect students from bullies A Shenectady (NY) Daily Gazette Letter to the Editor Oct 23, 2010 Stop depending on government to do your job. Go to the library. Check out some books. Teach your children how to cope with bullies, and even how to make them their friends. More importantly, teach them not to label others, but to see them as they are -- with good and bad qualities. If you do do your job, your children and the nation will be far better off than if you keep demanding that government solve every problem clear down to teasing and name-calling. State education law requires minors from six to 16 to attend school full-time. To me, that means the state requires parents and guardians to relinquish their custodial protection of their minor child to the school. Logically, this must mean that the school takes on this custodial protection of a minor child. When your child is in his or her backyard, a parent or guardian would not allow the child to be harassed, beaten, bullied or otherwise assaulted. A parent or guardian would take direct action against the perpetrators of the harassment or assault. My question is, why do school administrators choose not to provide custodial protection to those in their care? For the child’s “protection,” the child cannot take a simple aspirin or required medication without the school’s interference and permission. Yet, this same child can be assaulted, harassed and bullied within the school walls with no interference from these same administrators. It is time for school administrators to step up and provide a safe learning environment for all students in their care by stopping the bullies and harassment that takes place within their halls. Providing a “safe haven” within the school for those being bullied does nothing to stop the bullies. It will only encourage them to wait, like the predators they are, to again bully whoever and whenever they choose. John Harrity Cobleskill
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| Jerry Moore (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 26306 Registered: 01-2000 Rating: N/A |
Opposing views deserve tolerance An Albany (NY) Times Union Letter to the Editor October 22, 2010 I see how quickly the media are to label someone. And so many special-interest groups that speak of tolerance for their different opinions do not practice what they preach. How quick some people are to bash others for voicing their thoughts about not supporting the gay agenda and same sex marriages. I, and from the latest polls that I have seen, the majority of Americans and New Yorkers still are not in favor of marriage being anything other than between a man and a woman. I long for a candidate who supports that. Why am I and others like me labeled homophobic or hatemongers? As a nurse, I try to treat all people as best I can without being their judge. Why am I judged, even by some who call themselves Christians, when I state my belief that homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle? The Bible tells us not to judge, but it also tells us to share the dangers of embracing sin as acceptable and the worse dangers of telling those same people that what they do is OK. Show some tolerance for those who still believe in God and his word.There are a lot of us still out here. Peter E. Masti Ravena
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