5 Jan
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5 Jan
Post Contributor Badge
This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story.
5 Jan
NORTH ANDOVER — Bullying is likely to go the way of the fountain pen at Kittredge School – if it has not already done so.
Every four weeks, students, teachers and other staffers stage a RAISE rally. RAISE is an acronym that stands for respect, achievement, inclusion, service and empathy. All of the North Andover public schools are committed to those values.
Friday afternoon’s rally featured several North Andover High School students who have disabilities. They talked about what it’s like to live with those challenges and the bullying and namecalling they have endured.
Nate Richards, who founded the Disability Awareness Program as a Bar Mitzvah community service project when he was a seventh-grader, has familial spastic paraparesis, a condition that impedes his walking.
Richards, a high-energy guy who actually walks faster than most people, told the Kittredge students how other children would call him a cripple and tease him for “walking funny” when he was their age. He got so sick of it that he started an anti-bullying program.
Aislinn McAvoy, like Richards a North Andover High School senior, has a visual challenge. She explained that she was born with cataracts on her eyes.
The cataracts were removed when she was very young, but she still must wear thick eyeglasses. McAvoy said it was painful to have other students make fun of her and call her “four eyes.”
Jarelin Escobar, a Fitchburg High School junior, has spinal bifida and uses a wheelchair.
“It’s like sitting in class all day,” she said when one of the elementary students asked what it’s like to spend so much time in a wheelchair. Escobar said she has not been taunted as blatantly as her friends, Richards and McAvoy, but she’s faced a different sort of nastiness.
“It’s how they look at me,” she said.
Jordan Raffalli, an NAHS senior who deals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asked the Kittredge students if they’ve ever experienced a high-energy feeling after eating too much candy on Halloween.
“I feel like that all the time,” he said. The condition makes focusing on school work difficult, he noted.
Dan Cosmes, yet another North Andover High senior, learned American Sign Language by the time he was 3. Why? Because his mother is deaf.
Cosmes said he has a 13-year-old brother who has autism. His brother is a computer whiz – but he’s just now learning how to talk, he said.
Samantha Girroir talked about the Best Buddies program, in which students become friends with young people who have developmental challenges. Girroir is also an NAHS senior.
Richards urged the children to join in the national effort to stamp out the use of the word “retard.”
Richards and the other high-schoolers led the Kittredge students through several exercises that helped them experience what it’s like to live with a disability.
Fourth-graders Michael Kamil and Carley Pearlson got a taste of visual impairment by putting on sunglasses, mounting a scooter board and trying to negotiate their way through a small obstacle course in the school gym.
Dan MacMillan, a fifth-grader, and Carly Bilecki, a fourth-grader, experienced a hint of attention deficit disorder by attempting to jump rope and read a book at the same time. To make the task more difficult and distracting, their peers sang as loudly as they could.
Fourth-graders Duncan Preston and Elizabeth Chai got into wheelchairs and tried to shoot a basketball through a hoop.
Graham Petersen, a fourth-grader, asked Richards if the people who bullied him during his younger years have continued to bother him.
Richards said the bullying came to a halt after he and other students with disabilities spoke to 60 of their seventh-grade peers in the North Andover Middle School gym. A few of the reformed bullies actually apologized to him, he said.
“They don’t bully me,” Richards said. “I don’t hold a grudge against them.”
Kathy Laughlin, a fourth-grade teacher at Kittredge, said Richards, Cosmes, Girroir, Raffalli, McAvoy, Escobar and the other members of the Disability Awareness Program should take their message to other schools.
The Friday afternoon RAISE rally was not all serious stuff. With Principal Richard Cushing strumming his guitar and a few other students playing their instruments, the RAISEins, a Kittredge singing group, offered lively renditions of “I Won’t Back Down” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
“Our students have an understanding of what bullying is and what not to do,” Cushing said.
http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1746074533/Kittredge-students-combat-bullying
5 Jan
NORTH ANDOVER — Bullying is likely to go the way of the fountain pen at Kittredge School – if it has not already done so.
Every four weeks, students, teachers and other staffers stage a RAISE rally. RAISE is an acronym that stands for respect, achievement, inclusion, service and empathy. All of the North Andover public schools are committed to those values.
Friday afternoon’s rally featured several North Andover High School students who have disabilities. They talked about what it’s like to live with those challenges and the bullying and namecalling they have endured.
Nate Richards, who founded the Disability Awareness Program as a Bar Mitzvah community service project when he was a seventh-grader, has familial spastic paraparesis, a condition that impedes his walking.
Richards, a high-energy guy who actually walks faster than most people, told the Kittredge students how other children would call him a cripple and tease him for “walking funny” when he was their age. He got so sick of it that he started an anti-bullying program.
Aislinn McAvoy, like Richards a North Andover High School senior, has a visual challenge. She explained that she was born with cataracts on her eyes.
The cataracts were removed when she was very young, but she still must wear thick eyeglasses. McAvoy said it was painful to have other students make fun of her and call her “four eyes.”
Jarelin Escobar, a Fitchburg High School junior, has spinal bifida and uses a wheelchair.
“It’s like sitting in class all day,” she said when one of the elementary students asked what it’s like to spend so much time in a wheelchair. Escobar said she has not been taunted as blatantly as her friends, Richards and McAvoy, but she’s faced a different sort of nastiness.
“It’s how they look at me,” she said.
Jordan Raffalli, an NAHS senior who deals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asked the Kittredge students if they’ve ever experienced a high-energy feeling after eating too much candy on Halloween.
“I feel like that all the time,” he said. The condition makes focusing on school work difficult, he noted.
Dan Cosmes, yet another North Andover High senior, learned American Sign Language by the time he was 3. Why? Because his mother is deaf.
Cosmes said he has a 13-year-old brother who has autism. His brother is a computer whiz – but he’s just now learning how to talk, he said.
Samantha Girroir talked about the Best Buddies program, in which students become friends with young people who have developmental challenges. Girroir is also an NAHS senior.
Richards urged the children to join in the national effort to stamp out the use of the word “retard.”
Richards and the other high-schoolers led the Kittredge students through several exercises that helped them experience what it’s like to live with a disability.
Fourth-graders Michael Kamil and Carley Pearlson got a taste of visual impairment by putting on sunglasses, mounting a scooter board and trying to negotiate their way through a small obstacle course in the school gym.
Dan MacMillan, a fifth-grader, and Carly Bilecki, a fourth-grader, experienced a hint of attention deficit disorder by attempting to jump rope and read a book at the same time. To make the task more difficult and distracting, their peers sang as loudly as they could.
Fourth-graders Duncan Preston and Elizabeth Chai got into wheelchairs and tried to shoot a basketball through a hoop.
Graham Petersen, a fourth-grader, asked Richards if the people who bullied him during his younger years have continued to bother him.
Richards said the bullying came to a halt after he and other students with disabilities spoke to 60 of their seventh-grade peers in the North Andover Middle School gym. A few of the reformed bullies actually apologized to him, he said.
“They don’t bully me,” Richards said. “I don’t hold a grudge against them.”
Kathy Laughlin, a fourth-grade teacher at Kittredge, said Richards, Cosmes, Girroir, Raffalli, McAvoy, Escobar and the other members of the Disability Awareness Program should take their message to other schools.
The Friday afternoon RAISE rally was not all serious stuff. With Principal Richard Cushing strumming his guitar and a few other students playing their instruments, the RAISEins, a Kittredge singing group, offered lively renditions of “I Won’t Back Down” and “Jingle Bell Rock.”
“Our students have an understanding of what bullying is and what not to do,” Cushing said.
http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1746074533/Kittredge-students-combat-bullying
5 Jan
(CNN) — In kindergarten, Owen Kellogg came home sobbing one day because another boy at school had told him that he had a peanut, and that he was going to force Owen to eat it.
Owen, now 7, is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, said his mother, Haylee Kellogg of Cedar Hills, Utah. In reality, the taunting boy did not have a peanut, but Owen didn’t know that — he just knew that eating a peanut could make him stop breathing.
It’s hard for parents of food-allergic children to keep them safe at school when there are so many opportunities to eat snacks and meals with unsafe ingredients. For some kids, just touching a certain food or inhaling particles of it could cause a reaction.
But on top of the safety question is a social one. A study released last week suggests that almost half of children who have food allergies have been bullied — sometimes by having food thrown at them.
“Clearly, it’s an issue for these school-aged children in terms of how they interact with their peers,” said Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergist in New York. “Immediately, when there’s a diagnosis of food allergy, there’s a little bit of a stigma.”
The new study furthers the mounting evidence that many kids with food allergies may endure social ostracism while also trying to eat safely.
A 2010 study in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma Immunology said that 35% of kids over age 5 with food allergies have endured bullying, teasing or harassment. Parents of children with food allergies reported in the study that these incidents — both physical and verbal — happened because of food allergies.
Food allergy is a growing problem in young people. As many as 8% of children in the United States have at least one food allergy, according to research data.
There is no cure for food allergies. The only way to stop a life-threatening reaction, called anaphylaxis, is an epinephrine auto-injector, which allergists recommend that everyone with severe food allergies should carry.
Allergists offer skin or blood tests to see what specific foods may cause reactions, but they cannot know how severe those reactions will be — some people may have only mild symptoms, while others may stop breathing.
Negotiating school safety
Owen’s family moved nearly 30 miles from Spanish Fork, Utah, to Lehi, Utah, when Owen was in kindergarten, so that they could live in a school district with some peanut-free accommodations. Peanut products aren’t sold at lunch at Owen’s school, said Kellogg.
When Kellogg learned about the peanut taunting incident, she went to see the school principal. The result was that the other boy, who had also been bullying other kids, was moved to a different classroom.
At the bus stop, Kellogg met the woman partly responsible for food allergy awareness at Owen’s school: Jessica Norton, whose 11-year-old daughter Grace is allergic to peanuts, soy and various kinds of beans. Grace is the only one of three siblings who has food allergies; so is Owen.
When Grace was in first grade, she had to eat her lunch in the principal’s office on days that the school served peanut butter, to avoid a reaction from coming into contact with it.
This solution was not optimal, in Norton’s view. She petitioned the school district to stop serving peanut products, and was successful.
Like Owen, Grace also experienced bullying because of her allergy. A boy would often chase Grace around with peanut butter in hand — once, he touched her face with it, making her break out in hives. She only told her parents a couple of months after it stopped happening. These days, she doesn’t get picked on that way, Norton said.
“I think she can, kind of, stand up for herself now, and will stand up for herself now,” Norton said.
Standing up to other adults
Norton was surprised by the negative reactions reflected in the CNN.com reader comments about provisions for allergic kids in schools.
In a story about the recent bullying study, user “Brad Heddan” wrote, in response to one reader, “how about you keep your sickly kid home? That is what homeschooling is for. (…) we don’t have to accommodate your sick kid.”
And “lorie” wrote, “Many allergies can be life threatening. It is completely unfair and ridiculous to expect 400 other families to change their eating habits because you can’t teach your kid not to touch someone else’s food.”
These sentiments were also seen on the comment board on a 2010 story about food allergy bullying. At that time, Norton chimed in explaining Grace’s school’s situation and adding, “My only thought is this, teaching children compassion for others is a good thing. And frankly, it seems a lot of adults that have made comments on here could use a little compassion too.’
Norton has not felt that level of backlash from her efforts to keep Grace safe in her own community. A few parents have made remarks of the “Why do we have to accommodate your daughter?” variety, but generally everyone has been kind and supportive.
“We’re talking about life and death here,” says Norton. “If it were their child’s life, they would do everything they could to make sure their child’s life is protected.”
Making people understand
Communication with teachers, administrators, coaches, and the school nurse is key to ensuring that a food-allergic child does well, in terms of staying safe from allergens and psychologically speaking, Bassett said.
It’s also important to talk to a child about bullying, which can have serious psychological consequences, such as anxiety, Bassett said. It’s harder to get teenagers to not take risks when it comes to avoiding problem foods and always carrying the epinephrine auto-injector, Bassett said.
“Unfortunately the adolescent and child psyche is very sensitive to what people think and say and do,” he said.
Kellogg is proactive about getting Owen’s peers to understand his situation. Every school year, on the first day, Kellogg takes a book called “Allie the Allergic Elephant: A Children’s Story of Peanut Allergies.” The teacher reads this book to the children in the class so that they better understand what it means to have food allergies.
She also brings allergy-safe treats to keep in the classroom so that Owen can have them if someone brings in unsafe sweets to celebrate a birthday. He carries an epinephrine auto-injector with him.
“School is the scariest thing for me because a lot of people just don’t understand how serious it could be,” Kellogg said.
Norton also has a routine for the beginning of Grace’s school year: Talking to the teacher about foods and determining where the epinephrine auto-injector should be kept. The classroom policy is that if kids ate peanuts for lunch, they are supposed to wash their hands.
She and her husband John told their son Jack, who is Owen’s age, to keep an eye out for Owen when they were attending the same school — to tell a teacher if he were being teased. Jack and Owen are still friends.
“I just didn’t want anyone picking on him and if you have friend who will stand up for you, it makes a big difference,” Norton said.
A table of their own?
When it comes to what the best course of action is in terms of protection from allergens, the plan should be individualized, Bassett said. You want to shield children from harm, but you also want to let kids be kids, he said.
The Kelloggs moved to Cedar Hills in May. At Owen’s new school, there is a special table where children with common allergies can — in theory — sit together for lunch, isolated from kids who bring food that would be unsafe for the allergic group. Owen sat at the table for the first couple of days of school this year, alone.
Back that the regular lunch table, Owen takes several precautions. He owns his own lunch box and doesn’t put food on the table. He has antibacterial napkins so he can wipe contaminants off the area where he sits. And he knows what peanut butter looks like and smells like, so he can avoid it.
However, Kellogg said she believes Owen’s school can do more to raise awareness and practice caution regarding food allergies.
“I’m going to have to be the Jessica Norton in this school, and go in and make it known that they have to do a little bit more to protect these kids,” Kellogg said.
Does your child have food allergies? What’s your strategy for allergy protection at school?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/05/health/bullying-food-allergies/
5 Jan
(CNN) — In kindergarten, Owen Kellogg came home sobbing one day because another boy at school had told him that he had a peanut, and that he was going to force Owen to eat it.
Owen, now 7, is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, said his mother, Haylee Kellogg of Cedar Hills, Utah. In reality, the taunting boy did not have a peanut, but Owen didn’t know that — he just knew that eating a peanut could make him stop breathing.
It’s hard for parents of food-allergic children to keep them safe at school when there are so many opportunities to eat snacks and meals with unsafe ingredients. For some kids, just touching a certain food or inhaling particles of it could cause a reaction.
But on top of the safety question is a social one. A study released last week suggests that almost half of children who have food allergies have been bullied — sometimes by having food thrown at them.
“Clearly, it’s an issue for these school-aged children in terms of how they interact with their peers,” said Dr. Clifford Bassett, an allergist in New York. “Immediately, when there’s a diagnosis of food allergy, there’s a little bit of a stigma.”
The new study furthers the mounting evidence that many kids with food allergies may endure social ostracism while also trying to eat safely.
A 2010 study in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma Immunology said that 35% of kids over age 5 with food allergies have endured bullying, teasing or harassment. Parents of children with food allergies reported in the study that these incidents — both physical and verbal — happened because of food allergies.
Food allergy is a growing problem in young people. As many as 8% of children in the United States have at least one food allergy, according to research data.
There is no cure for food allergies. The only way to stop a life-threatening reaction, called anaphylaxis, is an epinephrine auto-injector, which allergists recommend that everyone with severe food allergies should carry.
Allergists offer skin or blood tests to see what specific foods may cause reactions, but they cannot know how severe those reactions will be — some people may have only mild symptoms, while others may stop breathing.
Negotiating school safety
Owen’s family moved nearly 30 miles from Spanish Fork, Utah, to Lehi, Utah, when Owen was in kindergarten, so that they could live in a school district with some peanut-free accommodations. Peanut products aren’t sold at lunch at Owen’s school, said Kellogg.
When Kellogg learned about the peanut taunting incident, she went to see the school principal. The result was that the other boy, who had also been bullying other kids, was moved to a different classroom.
At the bus stop, Kellogg met the woman partly responsible for food allergy awareness at Owen’s school: Jessica Norton, whose 11-year-old daughter Grace is allergic to peanuts, soy and various kinds of beans. Grace is the only one of three siblings who has food allergies; so is Owen.
When Grace was in first grade, she had to eat her lunch in the principal’s office on days that the school served peanut butter, to avoid a reaction from coming into contact with it.
This solution was not optimal, in Norton’s view. She petitioned the school district to stop serving peanut products, and was successful.
Like Owen, Grace also experienced bullying because of her allergy. A boy would often chase Grace around with peanut butter in hand — once, he touched her face with it, making her break out in hives. She only told her parents a couple of months after it stopped happening. These days, she doesn’t get picked on that way, Norton said.
“I think she can, kind of, stand up for herself now, and will stand up for herself now,” Norton said.
Standing up to other adults
Norton was surprised by the negative reactions reflected in the CNN.com reader comments about provisions for allergic kids in schools.
In a story about the recent bullying study, user “Brad Heddan” wrote, in response to one reader, “how about you keep your sickly kid home? That is what homeschooling is for. (…) we don’t have to accommodate your sick kid.”
And “lorie” wrote, “Many allergies can be life threatening. It is completely unfair and ridiculous to expect 400 other families to change their eating habits because you can’t teach your kid not to touch someone else’s food.”
These sentiments were also seen on the comment board on a 2010 story about food allergy bullying. At that time, Norton chimed in explaining Grace’s school’s situation and adding, “My only thought is this, teaching children compassion for others is a good thing. And frankly, it seems a lot of adults that have made comments on here could use a little compassion too.’
Norton has not felt that level of backlash from her efforts to keep Grace safe in her own community. A few parents have made remarks of the “Why do we have to accommodate your daughter?” variety, but generally everyone has been kind and supportive.
“We’re talking about life and death here,” says Norton. “If it were their child’s life, they would do everything they could to make sure their child’s life is protected.”
Making people understand
Communication with teachers, administrators, coaches, and the school nurse is key to ensuring that a food-allergic child does well, in terms of staying safe from allergens and psychologically speaking, Bassett said.
It’s also important to talk to a child about bullying, which can have serious psychological consequences, such as anxiety, Bassett said. It’s harder to get teenagers to not take risks when it comes to avoiding problem foods and always carrying the epinephrine auto-injector, Bassett said.
“Unfortunately the adolescent and child psyche is very sensitive to what people think and say and do,” he said.
Kellogg is proactive about getting Owen’s peers to understand his situation. Every school year, on the first day, Kellogg takes a book called “Allie the Allergic Elephant: A Children’s Story of Peanut Allergies.” The teacher reads this book to the children in the class so that they better understand what it means to have food allergies.
She also brings allergy-safe treats to keep in the classroom so that Owen can have them if someone brings in unsafe sweets to celebrate a birthday. He carries an epinephrine auto-injector with him.
“School is the scariest thing for me because a lot of people just don’t understand how serious it could be,” Kellogg said.
Norton also has a routine for the beginning of Grace’s school year: Talking to the teacher about foods and determining where the epinephrine auto-injector should be kept. The classroom policy is that if kids ate peanuts for lunch, they are supposed to wash their hands.
She and her husband John told their son Jack, who is Owen’s age, to keep an eye out for Owen when they were attending the same school — to tell a teacher if he were being teased. Jack and Owen are still friends.
“I just didn’t want anyone picking on him and if you have friend who will stand up for you, it makes a big difference,” Norton said.
A table of their own?
When it comes to what the best course of action is in terms of protection from allergens, the plan should be individualized, Bassett said. You want to shield children from harm, but you also want to let kids be kids, he said.
The Kelloggs moved to Cedar Hills in May. At Owen’s new school, there is a special table where children with common allergies can — in theory — sit together for lunch, isolated from kids who bring food that would be unsafe for the allergic group. Owen sat at the table for the first couple of days of school this year, alone.
Back that the regular lunch table, Owen takes several precautions. He owns his own lunch box and doesn’t put food on the table. He has antibacterial napkins so he can wipe contaminants off the area where he sits. And he knows what peanut butter looks like and smells like, so he can avoid it.
However, Kellogg said she believes Owen’s school can do more to raise awareness and practice caution regarding food allergies.
“I’m going to have to be the Jessica Norton in this school, and go in and make it known that they have to do a little bit more to protect these kids,” Kellogg said.
Does your child have food allergies? What’s your strategy for allergy protection at school?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/05/health/bullying-food-allergies/
5 Jan
Homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth may represent a disproportionate number of people living on the streets and in shelters –- but despite this fact, they are not alone.
A number of advocates and young LGBT people who’ve experienced homelessness firsthand appeared on HuffPostLive to talk about the unique problems facing that segment of the community in particular.
“You have the classic situation where a young person comes out and gets kicked out,” said Kate Barnhart, director of New Alternatives, a homeless LGBT youth advocacy organization in New York. “But then you also have a fair number of young people who become homeless for socioeconomic reasons.”
Also on HuffPost:
Loading Slideshow
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/homeless-lgbt-youth_n_2411884.html
5 Jan
Homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth may represent a disproportionate number of people living on the streets and in shelters –- but despite this fact, they are not alone.
A number of advocates and young LGBT people who’ve experienced homelessness firsthand appeared on HuffPostLive to talk about the unique problems facing that segment of the community in particular.
“You have the classic situation where a young person comes out and gets kicked out,” said Kate Barnhart, director of New Alternatives, a homeless LGBT youth advocacy organization in New York. “But then you also have a fair number of young people who become homeless for socioeconomic reasons.”
Also on HuffPost:
Loading Slideshow
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/homeless-lgbt-youth_n_2411884.html
5 Jan
UPDATE: HRC’s blog is blocked by the Pentagon as well.
____________
In a disturbing twist to our earlier stories about the Pentagon banning a variety of gay and trans Web sites that they categorize with the offending category “LGBT,” we’ve discovered that the Internet filtering category the Pentagon is using is one used NOT to ban sexually explicit material at all. The category “LGBT” is used, rather, to ban gay news, anti-bullying and even suicide prevention information.
It is unknown at this time if the Pentagon has exempted gay anti-bullying and suicide prevention sites from its “LGBT”ban, but we do know that a number of gay news sites are banned.
We wrote yesterday and today that a variety of gay news sites, including AMERICAblog and Pam’s House Blend are being censored by the Pentagon for being “political, activist, blogs.”
(Straight news site DailyKos is blocked as well.) And that other gay news sites, like Towleroad, GoodAsYou, and Bilerico, are being censored by the Pentagon for belong to the offending category “LGBT.”
We also noted that anti-LGBT political activist sites, like the American Family Association (which is so anti-LGBT it’s an officially-designated hate group) and NOM are not blocked by the Pentagon. (The Pentagon also does not block Republican political activist blogs like Red State and Breitbart, or Republican political activists like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter (several of whose sites also have blogs).
The American Family Association is not banned.
The National Organization for Marriage is not banned.
Rush Limbaugh’s Web site is not banned by the Pentagon
Conservative blog RedState is not banned.
Today we learn something even more disturbing.
The category the Pentagon is using to block gay Web sites, “LGBT,” is a category that the Internet filtering company the Pentagon uses, Blue Coat, set up explicitly NOT for sex sites. So we did not get caught by mistake in some generic ban on sex sites.
Rather, “LGBT” is an entirely other non-sexual category of sites that Blue Coat bans simply for being gay and trans. Let me let Blue Coat explain to you how broad, and offensive, Blue Coat’s censorship category, LGBT, which the Pentagon has turned on, is:
LGBT
Websites that provide reference materials, news, legal information, anti-bullying and suicide-prevention information, and other resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) people or that relate to LGBT civil rights. The websites included in this category were selected because they do not contain sexually explicit content and are generally suitable for viewing by all age groups.
Examples: glsen.org, lgbtcenters.org, hrc.org (emphasis added)
Here it is on their site – note that they use GLSEN and HRC as examples of the sites they ban:
In other words, this company, Blue Coat is banning any and all news related to gay and trans people, and even banning anti-bullying and suicide prevention information. That’s an incredibly offensive category for any company to create, but adding in anti-bullying and suicide prevention as two specific things that need to be censored, is beyond offensive, especially when Blue Coat admits that sites are “generally suitable for viewing by all age groups.”
Funny that Blue Coat doesn’t have a category for any other minority group. Nothing titled “Jews.” Nothing titled “African-Americans.” Nothing titled “Latinos.” For some reason, the other minority that this Internet filtering company lets you ban are gays and trans people.
And before anyone claims that these categories can also be opt-in categories – meaning you set up the filter and you say “do include LGBT.” Clearly that’s not what the Pentagon did. Blue Coat shouldn’t even be offering the option to ban gay and trans sites when it does not feel the need to ban Jewish, black, and Latino sites. Why does Blue Coat think gays are more offensive than blacks, Jews and Latinos?
And why is the Pentagon even using software that appears to be so bigoted and discriminatory?
http://americablog.com/2013/01/dod-gay-website-filter-bullying-suicide-lgbt.html
5 Jan
UPDATE: HRC’s blog is blocked by the Pentagon as well.
____________
In a disturbing twist to our earlier stories about the Pentagon banning a variety of gay and trans Web sites that they categorize with the offending category “LGBT,” we’ve discovered that the Internet filtering category the Pentagon is using is one used NOT to ban sexually explicit material at all. The category “LGBT” is used, rather, to ban gay news, anti-bullying and even suicide prevention information.
It is unknown at this time if the Pentagon has exempted gay anti-bullying and suicide prevention sites from its “LGBT”ban, but we do know that a number of gay news sites are banned.
We wrote yesterday and today that a variety of gay news sites, including AMERICAblog and Pam’s House Blend are being censored by the Pentagon for being “political, activist, blogs.”
(Straight news site DailyKos is blocked as well.) And that other gay news sites, like Towleroad, GoodAsYou, and Bilerico, are being censored by the Pentagon for belong to the offending category “LGBT.”
We also noted that anti-LGBT political activist sites, like the American Family Association (which is so anti-LGBT it’s an officially-designated hate group) and NOM are not blocked by the Pentagon. (The Pentagon also does not block Republican political activist blogs like Red State and Breitbart, or Republican political activists like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter (several of whose sites also have blogs).
The American Family Association is not banned.
The National Organization for Marriage is not banned.
Rush Limbaugh’s Web site is not banned by the Pentagon
Conservative blog RedState is not banned.
Today we learn something even more disturbing.
The category the Pentagon is using to block gay Web sites, “LGBT,” is a category that the Internet filtering company the Pentagon uses, Blue Coat, set up explicitly NOT for sex sites. So we did not get caught by mistake in some generic ban on sex sites.
Rather, “LGBT” is an entirely other non-sexual category of sites that Blue Coat bans simply for being gay and trans. Let me let Blue Coat explain to you how broad, and offensive, Blue Coat’s censorship category, LGBT, which the Pentagon has turned on, is:
LGBT
Websites that provide reference materials, news, legal information, anti-bullying and suicide-prevention information, and other resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) people or that relate to LGBT civil rights. The websites included in this category were selected because they do not contain sexually explicit content and are generally suitable for viewing by all age groups.
Examples: glsen.org, lgbtcenters.org, hrc.org (emphasis added)
Here it is on their site – note that they use GLSEN and HRC as examples of the sites they ban:
In other words, this company, Blue Coat is banning any and all news related to gay and trans people, and even banning anti-bullying and suicide prevention information. That’s an incredibly offensive category for any company to create, but adding in anti-bullying and suicide prevention as two specific things that need to be censored, is beyond offensive, especially when Blue Coat admits that sites are “generally suitable for viewing by all age groups.”
Funny that Blue Coat doesn’t have a category for any other minority group. Nothing titled “Jews.” Nothing titled “African-Americans.” Nothing titled “Latinos.” For some reason, the other minority that this Internet filtering company lets you ban are gays and trans people.
And before anyone claims that these categories can also be opt-in categories – meaning you set up the filter and you say “do include LGBT.” Clearly that’s not what the Pentagon did. Blue Coat shouldn’t even be offering the option to ban gay and trans sites when it does not feel the need to ban Jewish, black, and Latino sites. Why does Blue Coat think gays are more offensive than blacks, Jews and Latinos?
And why is the Pentagon even using software that appears to be so bigoted and discriminatory?
http://americablog.com/2013/01/dod-gay-website-filter-bullying-suicide-lgbt.html
4 Jan
One of my readers asked where I got the information on statistics for school bullying printed on Examiner.com. It took awhile to go through a growing archive of research now over 10,000 files and big enough to fill up a CD, but here are the sources, with some excerpts from many of them:
School Administrators: Let Students Help Solve Bullying
http://www.dosomething.org/petition/put-end-to-bullying?skip
“Over half of all Americans students have been the victim of bullying in American schools. Furthermore, 1 out of 10 students will drop out this year because they have been harassed.”
“As someone who was bullied in middle school, I know how hard it is to go to school, facing another day of harassment and exclusion. I wish no one else had to go through this. Yet, each day, more than 160,000 U.S. students stay home from school to avoid being bullied. Even worse, 1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4% of the time. In a recent survey of over 124,000 students across the country, the average grade given to the school on handling bullying was a C. This needs to change. According to the national survey on bullying, run by DoSomething.org, students feel that two of the biggest factors that will help to reduce the amount of bullying in their school is to 1) have a new or updated school policy on bullying and 2) make sure students are involved in creating and updating that policy. In short, students deserve a seat at the table in solving bullying in their schools. It’s time we demand that schools handle bullying in a serious manner. Everyone has the right to attend school without feeling disrespected or inadequate. Join me in signing the petition asking every school to adopt a bullying policy and to give students a seat at the table in creating and updating that policy. Together, we can put an end to bullying. – Bob”
Josephson Inastitute Center for Youth Ethics
http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/2010/installment01_report-card_bullying-youth-violence.html
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.
80% of high school students see bullying every week
(online survey includes social network bullying)
www.dosomething.org
Bully study hype? Do 80% in high school really see bullying weekly?
By Stephanie Hanes, Correspondent / October 18, 2012
Stephanie Hanes is the lead writer for Modern Parenthood and a longtime Monitor correspondent. She lives in Andover, Mass. with her husband, Christopher, her daughter, Madeline Thuli, a South Africa Labrador retriever, Karoo, and an imperialist cat named Kipling.
MY NOTE: This author takes a skeptical view of the DoSomething. Org online survey.
There’s a new study out today about bullying in American high schools, and at first glance, the numbers from this one are shocking:
Scouring data from more than 50,000 teens across the country, researchers with DoSomething.org, a social action organization for young people, found that more than 80 percent of American high school students see bullying every week. Only a tiny percentage – three percent – said that bullying at their school was “not an issue at all,” and fully half of teens said they rarely or never see their peers intervene. (This despite almost everyone saying that the best way to combat bullying is to have other students, rather than teachers or parents, intervene.)
Also, contrary research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and other cyberbullying studies, the DoSomething.org survey found that the most commonly reported location of frequent bullying was online: more than two out of three students reported frequent online bullying. (In contrast, 67 percent of teens in Pew research reported that bullying and harassment happens more offline.)
All in all, it is a grim look at the state of teenage life in our country’s high schools.
But before the hand-wringing gets too intense, let’s take a closer look at “The Bully Report.” Because as we have written here before, there is a lot of hype surrounding the growing anti-bullying movement, and it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in sound bites.
First of all, not even the study authors are suggesting that the data garnered from this massive survey is scientific. The numbers come from a Facebook app that DoSomething.org launched in partnership with the movie “Bully” – a film that has received its own share of controversy for what some advocates say is a simplistic, and even reactionary, way of portraying a complicated topic. (Take a look at some of our earlier posts about the ambiguities of the growing anti-bullying trend.)
DoSomething.org designed the Bully App to be active for eight weeks, with hopes that 15,000 people would take part. More than 21,000 people installed the application and graded their schools within the first 10 days. The organization decided to let the data keep coming in, and within five months, 183,525 people had used the app to report on their experiences and perceptions with bullying.
So right away, the researchers knew that they were dealing with students who were not simply online, but students who had Facebook pages. (And there has been research showing that teens who spend a lot of time on social media sites are more likely to encounter online bullying.)
Eventually, researchers cut the responses they would evaluate by half, after eliminating college students and adults reporting retroactively on their experiences, and by cross checking Facebook identifications with the responses users gave about their schools, ages, and so on.
Still, “the content of the Bully App was casual by design – prompts within the app were chatty and at times leading – and all the participants self-selected to take part,” the report states. But due to the large volume of data captured, it continues, and because it correlates with findings from other more scientific studies, the survey is still valid.
And that may be. But even so, the student answers to many of the questions don’t paint quite as dire a situation as the soundbites about the survey suggest.
That whole issue about nobody intervening? There’s another question in the survey that asks “When you have seen people intervene in bullying at your school, who usually steps up?” Only 9 percent of male students and 10 percent of female students answered “no one.”
And to the question of “Do you think bullying is a problem in your school?”, while only two or three percent of respondents answer “No way. Not an issue at all,” 54 percent answered either “Not really, it doesn’t cause problems for us” or “I don’t know if I’d say ‘terrible,’ but it happens.”
Now this isn’t to suggest either that the study should be discounted – it shouldn’t – or to say that it paints a rosy picture of harmony and kindness at high schools across the United States. It doesn’t. The survey is massive, and the fact that more than 180,000 people were compelled to share their own experiences about bullying on Facebook may say as much as their answers.
But with the amazing amount of attention these days to bullying and anti-bullying initiatives, it is important to parse studies and initiatives carefully. The risk, of course, is that shocking soundbites and potentially inflated numbers lead us astray from finding fixes to the sort of bullying that is very real, and emotionally and physically traumatic.
At the end of the report, researchers write that “immediate steps should be taken by school officials to address bullying in their schools.” But this is the big question for school administrators and parents: What, exactly, can they do?
Despite the growing number of anti-bullying laws and increased pressure on schools to have anti-bullying policies, much research has found that most institution-designed interventions are not particularly helpful, and sometimes even counter productive.
It is tricky even defining bullying. The survey is a case in point. The Bully App described bullying to users as “a repeated, awful action that makes someone feel bad about themselves. It takes on many forms – like nasty texts, physical harassment, insults, even dirty looks.”
This description might be narrow enough to exclude television anchor Jennifer Livingston as a bullying victim. (Check out our story on that bully breakdown.) But it is far broader than most academic-based definitions of bullying, which include the crucial component of a power imbalance between victim and perpetrator.
Bullying is, clearly, a problem. Research on top of research has shown all sorts of long term negative results from this sort of meanness between children. But as any school administrator knows, it’s a tall order to determine which behavior is “awful,” or to stop “dirty looks” that make someone feel bad.
Bullying, it turns out, is just not as simple as it seems. Even on a Facebook app.
Many students scared to go to school
October 6, 2012
Lisa Gartner
Examiner Staff Writer – education
The Washington Examiner
lgartner@washingtonexaminer.com
By most regards, John F. Kennedy High School is a good high school in Silver Spring. The overwhelming majority of students pass state exams with flying colors, and 82 percent graduate within four years. Later this month, students will dress in university gear to celebrate College Readiness Day.
So why do only half of Kennedy students feel safe in school?
On just-released surveys, students in even the Washington suburbs’ best schools say bullying remains a serious problem at a level undetected by parents and teachers. Some campuses suspended students hundreds of times for endangering school safety in the 2011-12 school year.
At Kennedy, only 53 percent of students agreed with the statement “I feel safe at school,” while students were suspended 131 times for fighting, making threats, stealing, disrupting class, attacking others, or possessing dangerous substances or weapons. At least one-quarter of students at 22 of Montgomery County’s 64 public middle and high schools couldn’t say they felt safe at school, up from 19 in the previous year.
In Fairfax County, more than half of students admitted to bullying others in the past year on a survey of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. The numbers were up for every grade over the 2010-11 school year, with eighth-graders most likely to bully others at 56 percent. Five percent of students said they brought a weapon other than a handgun to school that year, while just 1.2 percent said they brought a gun to class.
The majority of students at 30 of Montgomery County’s 38 middle schools said bullying was a problem, while the number of confirmed bullying incidents increased by 56 percent in the high schools and by 17 percent in the middle schools.
Read the full story here:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/many-students-scared-to-go-to-school/article/2510005#.UOG_mluIByU
Study: Half of high school students admit to bullying
Oct. 27, 2010
(CNN) — Half of all high school students say they have bullied someone in the past year, with nearly as many saying they have been the victims of bullying, according to a new study released this week.
The study of the “Ethics of American Youth” released Tuesday surveyed more than 40,000 high school students and has been conducted every other year since 1992.
The study by the non-profit Josephson Institute of Ethics also found that one-third of all high school students say that violence is a big problem at their school, and nearly one in four say they do not feel very safe there. The problem is much less pronounced at private schools, where the figures drop to less than 10 percent in those two categories.
Weapons are also a part of the mix with 10 percent of all students saying they took a weapon to school at least once in the past 12 months, and 16 percent admitting that they have been intoxicated at school. More than half admit to hitting someone within the last year because they were upset.
Half of high school school students admit to bullying
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/27/bullying.study/index.html
School Bullying Studies Released by OJJDP
http://www.welcomingschools.org/blog/entry/school-bullying-studies-released-by-ojjdp
160,000 students stay home from school every day due to fear of being bullied
www.stopthebullying.net/
As observed, majority of the students are afraid to go to school because of bullying
http://www.dontlaugh.org/bullying-in-schools-%E2%80%93-the-best-way-to-overcome-it/
Bullying in Schools – Cops – Department of Justice
(2.46Mb PDF file – 56 pp)
www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e07063414-guide.pdf
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention study
results of three studies (477Kb PDF file)
www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/234205.pdf
School Bullying Study – Google search
https://www.google.com/search?q=school+bullying+studyie=utf-8oe=utf-8aq=trls=org.mozilla:en-US:officialclient=firefox-a
How many kids are afraid to go to school because of bullying
http://www.examiner.com/article/sources-for-school-bullying-statistics
4 Jan
One person who’s had a lot to do with helping Maine reach this point is Deb Landry. In 2005, when Landry’s son was in the sixth grade in Saco, he witnessed an eighth grader physically and emotionally abusing another boy on the school bus. Landry’s son told the principal about the incident. Word got back to the eighth grade bully, who began harrassing Landry’s son, telling him over and over, “I’m going to get you, I’m going to find out where you live.”
“He became very fearful and became depressed. He didn’t want to go to school anymore,” Landry says. “He would actually get off at a neighbor’s house on the bus and walk through the woods and come home so that boy wouldn’t know where he lived.”
Landry’s son ended up seeing a counselor to heal from the emotional fallout. Landry got involved in the public debate over bullying in schools. She became part of a group that drafted the state’s first anti-bullying law, and she also consulted on the tougher measure passed by the Legislature last year.
“I belong to an organization that tracks all the laws across the country. They grade like a regular A, B, C. And Maine has an A minus,” she says.
Maine’s new statewide policy offers a more detailed list of behaviors – both physical and emotional – that could be construed as bullying. For the first time, there’s a cyberbullying section devoted to defining what counts as harrassment via social media and mobile devices.
Ansley Newton just retired from her job as the bullying and harrassment prevention consultant at the Maine Department of Education. Newton, who helped develop the new policy, says it asks a lot more of teachers, principals and superintendents too.
“The current law really holds schools more accountable about how they’re going to be reporting, investigating and responding to bullying,” she says.
Principals and superintendents must investigate incidents promptly under the new policy. They’re required to come up with a system of graduated discipline for punishing infractions. Newton says they’re also expected to communicate regularly with the parents of targeted students and report any bullying that crosses the line into illegal behavior to law enforcement.
“I think that the key thing here is to really look at the climate and culture both in our schools and our communities,” Newton says. “Because it’s the climate and culture that really determines how successful any type of approach is going to be.”
In a 2009 survey on youth health, one in five students who responded reported being victims of cyberbullying. Those numbers are consistent with national data compiled by the Cyberbullying Research Center.
One way Maine hopes to learn if it’s having success changing the culture of harrasement is data collection and analysis. Under the new policy, principals and superintendents are required to keep track of incidents and report that data to the state.
The Department of Education is hoping schools across the state will follow the lead of Walter Wallace, the principal at Brunswick Junior High School. Wallace has developed an electronic system that allows teachers to quickly record incidents in three different catageories, based on their severity.
“We’ve been able to locate times of day that we’re seeing greater incidences, we’ve been able to determine locations where, okay, that may be a spot where we want a little more supervision,” Newton says. “It’s a big step for our teachers, asking them to put together that information. But they’ve really stepped up and it’s been helpful.”
Wallace says the data has helped his school uncover some of the deeper patterns that seem to be common to most of the bullying that takes place. By next year, all educational leaders in the state will need to learn to use technology to identify the trends in their own schools.
http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/5347/ItemId/25514/Default.aspx
4 Jan
tell a friend
Dear Dr. Yael:
My seven-year-old daughter is having a very difficult time socially in school. Another girl is making fun of her, and I do not know how to fix the problem. Because she wants to be friends with this girl (although I am not sure why), she puts herself in situations where she is the target of the girl’s ridicule.
There are times when the girl is nice to her, but I think that is only when she has no one else to be with. As soon as another girl comes along, my daughter is once again the target of her mockery. My shy and quiet daughter likes the attention she’s sometimes receiving, but I do not want her to lose her self-esteem – which is already fragile.
Is there any way I can help my daughter stand up for herself? I want to change this situation before things get worse.
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous:
Social situations can be very tricky. You are right to want to resolve this issue while your daughter is young. First, it is important to speak with your daughter’s teacher to make sure she is aware of the situation and is able to keep an eye on things during the school day. When teachers involve the whole class in a group activity, they are usually better able to monitor the situation and ensure that the children are being kind to each other. This also gives them an opportunity to teach the children how to improve their social behavior.
Ask your daughter for specific examples regarding her mistreatment and teach her what to do differently. For example, if the other girl is telling your daughter that she does not know how to do something, your daughter can say “Oh, I am sorry you feel that way” in a strong and confident voice. She can then continue on as if nothing happened. You will need to practice these exercises with her so that she becomes more comfortable with the wording the two of you decide on, and thus gains confidence when actually saying it.
Also, the tone of voice is most important because once this other girl sees that your daughter does not care what she says, she will stop bothering her. You can also try to get your daughter to play with other girls who are nicer to her, which will help her stay away from this girl. It is important that your daughter show her that she does need her as a friend.
It is integral that parents of young children become more proactive in these situations. Once children get older it is harder for parents to intervene, and the child will need to deal with the situation on his or her own. You are lucky to have realized this situation at this early stage, enabling you to still get involved.
Parents of bullies also need to get help for their children; they need to be taught social skills and the best way to socialize. Children who are mean to others often suffer from low self-esteem and make themselves feel better by putting others down. They need to be taught how to build themselves up. By helping these children when they are young, we are avoiding larger issues down the road. In elementary school, some may consider the bully as cool, but more often then not, these children will be dealing with more social issues as they older and realize that no one wants to be friends with the mean kids anymore.
Baruch Hashem, even though bullying is very prevalent in our schools, there are specialists being brought into yeshivas to deal with the issue.
If your school does not have one, please encourage them to hire such a specialist, as much there is much that can be done to help alleviate this problem. In general I have found that girls’ schools are more open to this suggestion.
Please take the initiative by meeting with your daughter’s principal. Your daughter may not be the only student in her class suffering from being bullied, and by helping her you may actually help save other Yiddishe neshamos.
It is important to remember that both the child bully and his or her victim are at risk of going off the derech if they do not get the help they need.
tell a friend
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http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/family/parenting-our-children/dealing-with-bullying/2013/01/04/
4 Jan
NORTH Adams, Mass. — North Adams Public Schools will host its Bullying Prevention and Internet Safety Presentation for parents and community members on Thursday, Jan. 17 at Brayton Elementary School.
4 Jan
A junior at West Bloomfield High School in Michigan is fighting bullying by tweeting compliments to his classmates and friends.
Jeremiah Anthony is a high school junior and creator of @westhighbros and the West High Bros Facebook page.
West High Bros is a social media effort started in October 2011.
“We just send compliments to people who are feeling bad a certain day or who have done something really good,” said Anthony.
Print
Print
@iWilliamEscobar spread the word,be the change you desire, let’s make the world a better place. Countless ways to do this.
—
(@westhighbros) January 04, 2013
“I built this up by complimenting my friends and then they told their friends. It started to get pretty popular. I believe that showing the goodness in people is very integral. They get cyberbullied because they are less than perfect. No one is perfect,” said Anthony.
@wanchel_ You’ve got a smile that lights up a room and everyone wants to be your friend. You have a big heart and you’re a great athlete.
—
(@westhighbros) January 03, 2013
http://myfox8.com/2013/01/04/high-school-junior-fights-bullying-tweets-compliments-to-classmates/
4 Jan
A special community forum on bullying will be held on at Wayne Hills High School Monday, Jan. 14 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Naomi Conklin, the district’s anti-bullying coordinator, one of the district’s school resource officers, and several anti-bullying specialists from various district schools.
A guest speaker will discuss the topic of “A Culture That Teaches Bullying: What Parents Should Know and Understand and What They Can Do.”
For more information, contact Conklin at nconklin@wayneschools.com.
— Have a question or news tip? Contact editor Daniel Hubbard at Daniel.Hubbard@patch.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
http://wayne.patch.com/articles/school-district-hosting-community-forum-on-bullying
4 Jan
WOODVILLE — A Woodville mother is asking Baldwin-Woodville High School officials to examine bullying issues after a racial incident left her 15-year-old foster daughter “shut down” and afraid to go to school.
Sarah Hitzeman said the freshman has dealt with bullying since “day one” at the school. It culminated Dec. 20 when a white male student gave the black girl a hemp noose while wearing a white paper cone hat resembling the hood of the Ku Klux Klan, Hitzeman said.
“I think it was just an uneducated, not-thought-through juvenile prank, and it was more hurtful than he could imagine,” Hitzeman said. “I believe what the student did was wrong, but my issue is with the school.”
Principal Eric Russell said teachers were in the art classroom where the incident allegedly occurred and did not see the student wearing the hat.
“My understanding is he put a (miniature noose and a miniature hat) on the desk,” Russell said. “If he was wearing a hat, I got to believe they would have noticed that.”
Hitzeman said the incident sparked laughter among other students in the classroom. The high school’s students predominately are white.
“My daughter was, I think, experiencing emotions most people wouldn’t understand, and she shut down,” she said, adding the girl was afraid to return to school Wednesday.
“She felt it must not be a big deal because nobody did anything,” Hitzeman said. “She’s hurting.”
Hitzeman said the girl, her foster daughter whom she is in the process of adopting, has been physically and emotionally bullied, including having been called the N-word, since coming to the school district in the eighth grade. School officials were made aware of the bullying, yet it continues, Hitzeman said.
“There’s been so many things that we know have been seen and heard by teachers,” she said. “And we feel there has been so much tolerance (of it).
“It’s been a very hard year for her,” Hitzeman said.
Russell declined to comment on any previous bullying the girl may have experienced, but he is looking into whether there is a larger problem at the school.
So far, he hasn’t seen one, Russell said.
“I’ve been investigating and talking with students to try to get a feel if there is something bigger going on here,” Russell said. “I don’t think there are a whole lot of bullying and harassment issues going on, but obviously students act differently when I’m around.”
He has spoken with other minority students at the school, and they didn’t report bullying, he added.
Hitzeman is asking the school to implement more staff and student education on bullying. She said she had yet to hear from school or district officials on what new steps, if any, will be taken to stop the alleged problem.
“We’re waiting for the school to do the right thing and reach out to us and let us know what they’re going to do,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hitzeman has been in contact with the boy’s parents, and they are upset over the incident, she said.
“I couldn’t have asked them to deal with it any better,” she said. “They have specifically asked what they can do to help our family get through this.”
Hitzeman said the two families will meet sometime before Monday — the day the boy returns to school from a suspension that resulted from the incident, she said.
Russell would not comment on the suspension.
McClatchy-Tribune
http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_32f9f8ce-5631-11e2-97d4-001a4bcf887a.html
4 Jan
WOODVILLE — A Woodville mother is asking Baldwin-Woodville High School officials to examine bullying issues after a racial incident left her 15-year-old foster daughter “shut down” and afraid to go to school.
Sarah Hitzeman said the freshman has dealt with bullying since “day one” at the school. It culminated Dec. 20 when a white male student gave the black girl a hemp noose while wearing a white paper cone hat resembling the hood of the Ku Klux Klan, Hitzeman said.
“I think it was just an uneducated, not-thought-through juvenile prank, and it was more hurtful than he could imagine,” Hitzeman said. “I believe what the student did was wrong, but my issue is with the school.”
Principal Eric Russell said teachers were in the art classroom where the incident allegedly occurred and did not see the student wearing the hat.
“My understanding is he put a (miniature noose and a miniature hat) on the desk,” Russell said. “If he was wearing a hat, I got to believe they would have noticed that.”
Hitzeman said the incident sparked laughter among other students in the classroom. The high school’s students predominately are white.
“My daughter was, I think, experiencing emotions most people wouldn’t understand, and she shut down,” she said, adding the girl was afraid to return to school Wednesday.
“She felt it must not be a big deal because nobody did anything,” Hitzeman said. “She’s hurting.”
Hitzeman said the girl, her foster daughter whom she is in the process of adopting, has been physically and emotionally bullied, including having been called the N-word, since coming to the school district in the eighth grade. School officials were made aware of the bullying, yet it continues, Hitzeman said.
“There’s been so many things that we know have been seen and heard by teachers,” she said. “And we feel there has been so much tolerance (of it).
“It’s been a very hard year for her,” Hitzeman said.
Russell declined to comment on any previous bullying the girl may have experienced, but he is looking into whether there is a larger problem at the school.
So far, he hasn’t seen one, Russell said.
“I’ve been investigating and talking with students to try to get a feel if there is something bigger going on here,” Russell said. “I don’t think there are a whole lot of bullying and harassment issues going on, but obviously students act differently when I’m around.”
He has spoken with other minority students at the school, and they didn’t report bullying, he added.
Hitzeman is asking the school to implement more staff and student education on bullying. She said she had yet to hear from school or district officials on what new steps, if any, will be taken to stop the alleged problem.
“We’re waiting for the school to do the right thing and reach out to us and let us know what they’re going to do,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hitzeman has been in contact with the boy’s parents, and they are upset over the incident, she said.
“I couldn’t have asked them to deal with it any better,” she said. “They have specifically asked what they can do to help our family get through this.”
Hitzeman said the two families will meet sometime before Monday — the day the boy returns to school from a suspension that resulted from the incident, she said.
Russell would not comment on the suspension.
McClatchy-Tribune
http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_32f9f8ce-5631-11e2-97d4-001a4bcf887a.html
4 Jan
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WHAT: Session with Brigitte Berman, author of “Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies.”
WHEN: Monday, Jan. 14, 6-9 p.m.
WHERE: Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech High School, 1121 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford.
who can attend: Any interested community member.
NEW BEDFORD — It is safe to say that most students in the city have, at some point or another, sat through a presentation on bullying.
But despite presentations and education and legislation, bullying still goes on, and schools are still searching for ways to engage their students on the topic.
So when James O’Brien, an assistant principal and dean of the freshman class at Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical High School, came across a bullying-prevention book written by a teen and based, in part, on her own experience as a victim of bullying, he thought it would make a great addition to his school’s ninth-grade health curriculum.
The book, “Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies,” was written by Brigitte Berman, now an 18-year-old freshman at New York University, several years ago and has been incorporated into the curriculum by at least 20 schools across the state.
“You didn’t need me, or another administrator, standing at the top of a podium saying, ‘This is what you should or should not do,’” said O’Brien in introducing Berman at an assembly Thursday morning.
Berman spoke to a packed auditorium and will be back at Voc-Tech on Jan. 14 to give two more presentations: one during the day to students and a second one at night that will be open to anyone from the community.
She told the students about her experience in eighth grade when her best friend stopped speaking to her and all of the girls in her grade followed suit. One day, she walked into the cafeteria for lunch and no one would let her sit down, blocking seats with legs or bags.
The pain of that moment is something she still carries with her, she said. But it also prompted her to take action.
“Yes, I was hurt,” Berman said, “but what am I going to do with that?”
Ultimately, she ended up writing a book, based on both her experiences and the experiences of other students across the country who completed Berman’s questionnaire about bullying.
She encouraged students to use their voices, both to ask for help if they were being bullied and to speak up against bullying they observed.
“I think that sometimes it’s easier to walk by; it’s easier to ignore it; it’s easier to pretend nothing’s happening,” said Berman during Thursday’s assembly. But, she added later, “When we step in and we say something and we do something, it makes a really big difference.”
At Voc-Tech, Pat Thibeault and Diane Hodge, two ninth-grade health teachers, have used the book to spark discussion in class while also asking ninth-graders to keep a journal responding to different sections of the book.
“I think it’s made them think a little bit more aware,” said Thibeault. She added later: “I think it has been very eye-opening to them that they’re not the only ones who’ve gone through this.”
The conversational tone of the book, which is presented as the diary of main character Dorie Witt, also helps engage students, according to Leanne Fisher-Ross, a school resource officer at Voc-Tech. “It’s coming from someone who absolutely went through it,” she said.
For more information on Berman and her book, visit www.doriewitt.com.
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WHAT: Session with Brigitte Berman, author of “Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies.”
WHEN: Monday, Jan. 14, 6-9 p.m.
WHERE: Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech High School, 1121 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford.
who can attend: Any interested community member.
NEW BEDFORD — It is safe to say that most students in the city have, at some point or another, sat through a presentation on bullying.
But despite presentations and education and legislation, bullying still goes on, and schools are still searching for ways to engage their students on the topic.
So when James O’Brien, an assistant principal and dean of the freshman class at Greater New Bedford Vocational-Technical High School, came across a bullying-prevention book written by a teen and based, in part, on her own experience as a victim of bullying, he thought it would make a great addition to his school’s ninth-grade health curriculum.
The book, “Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies,” was written by Brigitte Berman, now an 18-year-old freshman at New York University, several years ago and has been incorporated into the curriculum by at least 20 schools across the state.
“You didn’t need me, or another administrator, standing at the top of a podium saying, ‘This is what you should or should not do,’” said O’Brien in introducing Berman at an assembly Thursday morning.
Berman spoke to a packed auditorium and will be back at Voc-Tech on Jan. 14 to give two more presentations: one during the day to students and a second one at night that will be open to anyone from the community.
She told the students about her experience in eighth grade when her best friend stopped speaking to her and all of the girls in her grade followed suit. One day, she walked into the cafeteria for lunch and no one would let her sit down, blocking seats with legs or bags.
The pain of that moment is something she still carries with her, she said. But it also prompted her to take action.
“Yes, I was hurt,” Berman said, “but what am I going to do with that?”
Ultimately, she ended up writing a book, based on both her experiences and the experiences of other students across the country who completed Berman’s questionnaire about bullying.
She encouraged students to use their voices, both to ask for help if they were being bullied and to speak up against bullying they observed.
“I think that sometimes it’s easier to walk by; it’s easier to ignore it; it’s easier to pretend nothing’s happening,” said Berman during Thursday’s assembly. But, she added later, “When we step in and we say something and we do something, it makes a really big difference.”
At Voc-Tech, Pat Thibeault and Diane Hodge, two ninth-grade health teachers, have used the book to spark discussion in class while also asking ninth-graders to keep a journal responding to different sections of the book.
“I think it’s made them think a little bit more aware,” said Thibeault. She added later: “I think it has been very eye-opening to them that they’re not the only ones who’ve gone through this.”
The conversational tone of the book, which is presented as the diary of main character Dorie Witt, also helps engage students, according to Leanne Fisher-Ross, a school resource officer at Voc-Tech. “It’s coming from someone who absolutely went through it,” she said.
For more information on Berman and her book, visit www.doriewitt.com.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or fill out this form. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication.
Not sure how to add your comment? Here’s how
Print this Article
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