School Bullying Council

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 27th July 2011

Uncomfortable reading: Republican rep Michele Bachmann is very vocal on anti-gay issues including gay marriage and that public schools shouldn’t be forced to start teaching it

Over the past two years nine young people have committed suicide in Michele Bachmann’s backyard – or at least the Minnesota school districts she represents.

Many more have attempted to take their own lives leading state public health officials to slap a ‘suicide contagion area’ label on the region because of the high levels.

At least four of those who committed suicide were openly gay or, at least, perceived to be gay by classmates, and many were reportedly bullied. 

While it is impossible to prove why these youngsters took their own lives, some critics are suggesting a link between the suicides and the anti-gay rhetoric sweeping through school districts in the state.

The news may be uncomfortable for Bachmann who has a number of anti-gay policies.

Michele Johnson, whose 13-year-old daughter Samantha was one of the first students in the Anoka-Hennepin district to commit suicide in 2009, says she now wishes she’d never moved to the area.

‘I feel if I hadn’t moved to this district my daughter wouldn’t have died,’ Ms Johnson told Mother Jones.

She believes her daughter had been heavily bullied at then Fred Moore Middle School, in Ramsey, Minnesota, for her short hair, her clothes and her weight.

The bullies thought Samantha had been
a lesbian, Ms Johnson said. But despite being heavily
involved in setting up a gay rights group at the school, she doesn’t
believe that to be true.

Her daughter did seek refuge with other students who were gay though, most likely because they were getting bullied as well.

Not that Ms Johnson knew about the bullying until after her daughter’s death when the girl’s friends told her.

They claimed Samantha had been
relentlessly targeted by certain girls on her volleyball team. She had
dropped out but the coach had never contacted Ms Johnson.

The friends also claimed at least one school staff member witnessed the bullying but did nothing.

Loss: Samantha Johnson, left, was one of the first students in the Anoka-Hennepin district to commit suicide in 2009, while 15-year-old Justin Aaberg, right, hanged himself in his bedroom last year

Pact: Minnesota school girls from a different district, Haylee Fentress, left, and Paige Moravetz, right, carried out a suicide pact in April because they said they were being bullied

‘If I had known, I would have pulled her out of that school so quick,’ her mother said.

Last July, weeks after finishing his freshman year at Anoka High School, Justin Aaberg hanged himself in his bedroom.

He had been bullied because of his sexual orientation, according to his family.

Since his death at just 15, Justin’s
mother Tammy has been spoken publicly about the worry she had for her son’s
safety as an openly gay teen and battled to get the school district to
change its thinking on anti-gay bullying.

She said last year the situation had got a bit better but there was still a way to go.

Tragic: The latest case in the district was of 14-year-old Jordan Yenor who killed himself in May prompting school officials to look at additional resources to help students

‘Most of the teachers and principals, and maybe even now the
superintendent, they mean well – they want to intervene. But
the teachers still don’t know what they can and can’t do.’

The latest suicide in the Anoka-Hennepin district was in May. Fourteen-year-old Jordan Yenor’s death has prompted school officials to look at additional resources to help students.

Anoka-Hennepin is certainly not alone; there have been teen suicides in other school districts, which are not represented by Bachmann.

Fourteen-year-old Marshal County schoolgirls Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz made a suicide pact because they said they were being bullied.

The girls, best friends who even had hyphenated both their last names, hanged themselves in April.

Back in March 18-year-old Lance Lundsten, a Jefferson High School student who was openly gay on his Facebook page, took an overdose and later died in hospital.

On a Facebook memorial page Lance’s friends had written that he had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation.

Anoka-Hennepin is currently under federal investigation for infringing civil rights because it refused to add lessons promoting homosexuality to the curriculum.

Several
LGBT students are also suing the district claiming to have been ignored by
staff after complaining of being harassed physically and verbally for
long periods of time.

One
of the plaintiffs dropped out of school, later attempting suicide while
another claims to have been called a ‘faggot’ in the hallway while a
teacher who witnessed the attack did nothing, according to the suit.

One of the lawyers working on the suit Sam Wolfe, told Mother Jones: ‘The
district has serious problems. They’ve been reluctant to really address
the nature of the problem.’

Before the federal government stepped in, the district adopted a policy that all but wiped homosexuality from the curriculum, according to the website.

Waste: Lance Lundsten, a Jefferson High School student, left,  who was openly gay on his Facebook page, took an overdose and later died in hospital in March, while Thomas John ‘TJ’ Hayes, right, committed suicide in 2009

School employees could not teach that homosexuality was a ‘normal, valid lifestyle.’ The policy was later changed to require staff to remain neutral on the subject, but only if it should come up in class.

Both policies were influenced by two religious groups – and big Bachmann supporters -  the Minnesota Family Council (MFC) and The Parents Action League, which also lobbied to put discredited ‘reparative therapy’ materials into schools, according to the website.

Daniel J Reidenberg, executive director of Minnesota-based Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), told MailOnline that while connecting Bachmann with the deaths was probably largely a result of media impact ‘her views and statements are not helpful, that is for sure.’

‘..for youth who are dealing with orientation issues and identity/development issues, when they hear or read things from others that are contrary to what they are thinking, feeling, living, it does cause them added stress,’ he added.

Memorial: Aaron Jurek, a student at Blaine High School, lost his battle with undiagnosed depression in November 2009

‘Having a celebrity or a public figure say/do things as publicly (or privately) as say for example she’s done, if that were to be heard by a LGBTQ youth who is particularly vulnerable or at risk, could add to their distress.’

While the bullying runs on in schools, outside relations between anti-gay and pro-gay groups are decidedly frosty.

The MFC, of which Bachmann has very close ties, has waged war on gay marriage, wanting a constitutional amendment on the state ballot in 2012.

Bachmann has been very vocal about the issue and has linked it to schools. In 2004 she addressed a rally: ‘In our
public schools, whether they want to or not, they’ll be forced to start
teaching that same-sex marriage is equal, that it is normal and that
children should try it.’

The Republican has also spoken out against an anti-bullying bill, telling Minnesota state legislature in 2006 that it would a waste of time.

‘I think for all of us, our experience in public schools is there have always been bullies,’ she said at the time. ‘Always have been, always will be.

‘I just don’t know how we’re ever going to get to the point of zero tolerance. What does it mean. Will we be expecting boys to be girls?’

Justin Aaberg’s mother Tammy continues to lobby public officials urging them to pass legislation that would make schools safer.

While Senators Al Franken and Keith Ellison, both Minnesota Democrats, have been supportive, Ms Aaberg claims Bachmann has not responded to a request for a meeting with her.

She would certainly welcome legislation even though it would be too late for her own son and the other victims of the district and surrounding districts.

• For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
• In the U.S. call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255
• Any young people who have experienced bullying, or need someone to talk to, can talk to young CyberMentors and counsellors on Beatbullying’s safe and secure peer-to-peer mentoring site www.CyberMentors.org.uk

Print this article

Read later

Email to a friend

Share this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019035/9-student-suicides-Michele-Bacmanns-Minnesota-linked-anti-gay-bullying.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Bullying and other types of chronic social stress affect gene activity in the brain, suggests a new study in mice. The changes may lead to persistent social anxiety.

“Just as alcohol affects your liver, stress affects your brain,” said lead researcher Yoav Litvin of Rockefeller University in New York. The anxiety that can result from being teased and otherwise treated poorly is organically based, Litvin said, meaning it arises from physical changes in the brain.

Bully mice
In the study, adult male mice were basically set up to be humiliated. (Mice are thought to have roughly similar responses to stress as humans.)

The researchers placed a small, young test mouse in the cage of a bigger, older mouse. Due to the instinctive territoriality of mice, a fight always ensued, which the newcomer always lost. The fights were rarely vicious, but the younger mouse quickly understood he was lower down on the social totem pole. (The experiment caused more psychological stress then physical harm.)

The same mouse was subjected to 10 different cages on 10 different days — and was knocked around by the cage’s resident bully each time. Then the researchers examined each mouse’s brain, looking at areas associated with emotion and social behavior, such as the amygdala and the lateral septum, which is located near the middle of the forebrain. [10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Brain]

In bullied mice, the genes for hormone receptors responsible for making the brain sensitive to certain social stimuli had become more active, leading to the production of additional receptors. (Receptors act as hormone-specific doorways; when a brain region has more of them, more hormone molecules can come in at one time, causing the region to be more affected by the amount of hormone molecules in its midst.)

Specifically, the amygdala and lateral septum became more sensitive to vasopressin — a hormone involved in many different social interactions, including male-male aggression.

Social anxiety
This extra sensitivity may cause a victim to feel scared even in situations when he is safe. At the end of the study, after spending a full recuperative day alone, the bullied mice froze and stayed far away from new, relatively friendly mice. [Why Bully Victims Suffer in Silence]

It is not yet known how long the effects last but the finding suggests that the victims of bullies may find it difficult to start friendships, Litvin said, due to persistent social anxiety.

Studies in animals and humans have previously shown that psychological abuse can have long-lasting consequences, he said.

“Still, these brain systems are dynamic,” Litvin said. “What goes one way, usually can go the other way — although it may not be able to be totally reversed.”

The researchers calmed the anxious mice by providing a specific drug that made their brains less sensitive to vasopressin. “But drugs are not the only way to go,” Litvin said.

Just as negative relationships affect the brain, so can positive relationships, he said. As our social organ, it can be physically changed, and thereby healed, by supportive friendships.

If the social anxiety is particularly strong, a positive relationship with a therapist may be the first step, Litvin said.

The research was published online March 11 in the journal Physiology and Behavior, and will be published in a forthcoming print issue of the journal.

* Fight, Fight, Fight: The History of Human Aggression
* Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
* 5 Ways Relationships Are Good for Your Health

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/03/17/bullies-bruise-brains-just-egos/

“If they are going to hell, I’m going to hell with them!” That interjection got one woman kicked out Monday night’s Anoka-Hennepin School Board meeting. Her statement came during the testimony of a conservative Christian parent who said she knows the “homosexual agenda” is “coming after our kids.” The exchange was part of a tense night of testimony over the district’s bullying policies and whether LGBT issues should be discussed in classrooms in Minnesota’s largest school district.

LGBT advocates packed the board room, some holding signs in support of LGBT students. Nearly two dozen people testified that the district’s policy of banning discussions of sexual orientation in classrooms was detrimental to all students in the district. That policy, dubbed the “neutrality policy,” has been the source of controversy in the district for more than a year.

But it was the testimony of one parent who opposes homosexuality that riled many in the room.

Laurie Thompson, a conservative Christian and mother of three district students, tore into members of the LGBT community.

“For the past five out of six months, I have watched numerous members and supporters of the GLBT community pressure our school board into changing the sexual orientation curriculum policy,” she said. “I have decided I could no longer sit on the sidelines and continue to watch our school board and superintendent be bullied and harassed by members and supporters of the LGBT community both locally and nationally.”

“There is a huge debate whether homosexuality is on the same plane as heterosexuality. Many, including myself, believe homosexuality is a lifestyle choice.”

Thompson then said that the “homosexual lifestyle” is a health risk akin to drugs and alcohol and that it would be against the morals of conservative Christians.

“I am well aware of the national homosexual agenda to come after our kids,” she said, adding, “If anyone is being silenced, it’s the students who have a conservative Christian viewpoint.”

At that point a young woman in the audience yelled out, “If they are going to hell, I’m going to hell with them! So go gays!” She was escorted out of the building by security.

The meeting wasn’t Thompson’s first. In 2009, she tried to have a banner depicting the Christian nativity scene hung in the Anoka High School cafeteria. She said because Gay-Straight Alliances are allowed to put up fliers, that her Christian son should have the same right.

“How sad it is that Jesus Christ, the son of God, who so many people turn to on a daily basis, has been taken out of our schools,” she said at a school board meeting in 2009. “Why? Because of the very few people who are offended by the Christian faith.”

But, for the most part the rest of the meeting was civil and the vast majority of the testifiers urged the school board to scrap the neutrality policy.

Tammy Aaberg, an Anoka parent whose son Justin was gay and took his own life in 2010, spoke about the Minneapolis schools, which recently passed a resolution creating LGBT-specific programming around bullying.

“Minneapolis school district just made their sexual orientation policy better, and it covers everybody,” she said adding that she hoped that Anoka-Hennepin would follow suit.

Dot Betzler, a 17-year resident of Andover and mother of three Anoka High graduates, told the board that she doesn’t support the current policies. She’s also the executive director of Twin Cities Pride.

“I’ve voted in favor of school levies in the past, but I can’t in good conscience support the sexual orientation neutrality policy of this board,” she said.

Betzler cited part of the policy that directs teachers to send LGBT students to a school counselor if issues arise — whether it’s related to bullying or the student is simply “coming out.”

“Being gay is not something that can change, and sending students to the counselor as if being gay is a behavioral issue is ridiculous,” she said.

She also warned the district about leaving the current policy in place, pointing to the lawsuit filed last month by two lesbians who were being prevented from walking in a ceremony together in Champlin Park High School.

Cindy Thurston, whose son Michael attends Anoka Middle School, said her son has experienced anti-gay bullying.

“Some things have improved,” she noted and praised several teachers and staff who have helped him. But, she said there was still work that needed to be done.

“I keep feeling angry because it’s all on Michael and the targets of abuse — it’s up to him to educate his peers,” she said. She said the victims of bullying shouldn’t need to educate their tormentors and that the district should provide better anti-bullying education.

“Just today he heard the word ‘fag’ four times,” she said.

“I’ve trusted you for the last 20 years,” she told the board. “I please just hope you will make a good decision; it won’t be as bad as you think it is going to be if you rescind the policy.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/78344/tempers-flare-over-anti-gay-bullying-at-anoka-hennepin-school-board-meeting

TREVORTON – Police are investigating accusations of bullying in the death of Britney Tongel, Sgt. Sean McGinley, commander of state police at Stonington, said Friday.

He said police seized the computer that belonged to the 17-year-old Line Mountain sophomore, who was found dead in her Trevorton home Wednesday morning, reportedly of a suicide.

McGinley said collecting such property is standard procedure with death investigations.

“We often take computers and phones, anything that might help us,” he said.

Also, more than a dozen interviews have already been conducted, McGinley said.

Meanwhile, authorities said investigations related to bullying can result in charges, but that the facts of each case must be carefully weighed.

State police and the county coroner’s office, which pronounced Tongel dead at 7:05 a.m. Wednesday, have not released her name. However, The News-Item confirmed Britney’s name – which was widely used on the Internet – through a member of Tongel’s foster family.

Her foster parents, Terry and Lisa Laforme, who live along Route 225 in Trevorton, said they would not comment while the investigation into their foster daughter’s death continues.

Police said in their statement Wednesday that “no foul play” is suspected.

Several accusations – which could not be confirmed, but had been made in a number of Facebook posts – indicate two girls had recently posted messages on a social networking site created by Tongel suggesting she kill herself, “and she did,” as one person wrote.

Other posts said the same two girls, who were named online, had been harassing Tongel for weeks, although other posts showed friendly exchanges between one of the girls and Tongel.

Northumberland County District Attorney Tony Rosini said Friday his office has been in contact with state police about the investigation.

Otherwise, he said he’d discuss only the generalities of investigating a case of suicide and bullying, but nothing specific to this case because the official cause of death has not been issued and he doesn’t know all the facts gathered thus far.

“Criminal charges are based on what the acts are. You can’t generalize; every case is different,” he said. “If there are criminal acts, such as harassment or stalking, the police have to first develop a case.”

Rosini said there are both positives and negatives to a cyberbullying investigation.

“It’s helpful if we have a record of the items posted online, but you have to prove who the person is,” he said.

McGinley said they will determine if any criminal violations have been committed and then review the case with Rosini, who will decide if any charges should be filed.

“You have to remember a person wouldn’t be charged with bullying,” said McGinley. “They have to have violated a law to a point where it merits criminal prosecution. We will follow through with that (should it be determined),” he said.

http://republicanherald.com/news/police-investigate-bullying-claims-1.1107459

Ned Charles IV has a form of cerebral palsy. The 15-year-old is in special-education classes. So was the boy who hit him, grabbed his neck and pushed him to the ground while waiting for a school bus two years ago at Tuskawilla Middle School.

Ned’s parents are now suing the Seminole County School Board, alleging that the boy who hurt their son had bullied him for days and that the district should have stopped it.

Their suit is part of a growing trend in Central Florida and nationally: 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.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a nationwide campaign, dubbed “Stop Bullying Now!” with tips for parents and kids. And there is now an online video channel — “It Gets Better” — founded last year in response to the suicides of teenagers who were bullied because they were gay or suspected of being gay.

Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher represented Orange County Public Schools for 30 years. He’s now in private practice and says he gets about six calls a day from Central Florida families, complaining that they have a child who’s being bullied and need legal help.

He is stunned by the demand.

Kruppenbacher said he has sent about 100 letters to school districts in Central Florida in the past two months, “putting them on formal notice that there’s a situation that is causing damage to the child. We’re not looking to file suit, quite candidly, but if they don’t remedy the situation, it’s going to move to that, and it could move to significant damages.”

Seminole’s School Board is defending itself against two bullying suits in state circuit court, and another family has filed notice that it intends to sue, said School Board attorney Ned Julian.

He would not discuss the cases, except to say the board is aggressively defending itself against the two that are pending.

Ned’s parents, Ned Charles III and Denise Sharpnack of Oviedo, filed suit in June.

They are angry, they say, because the day their son was hurt, no one from the school told them about it, gave him medical care or treated it like a crime. And for months afterward, the school did not move the other boy to a different classroom, Sharpnack said.

“It made me so angry that the school was doing absolutely nothing,” she said.

The school gave a five-day suspension to the boy who hit Ned, according to court pleadings.

In the other Seminole suit, the family of a former Teague Middle School student contends that school children there called their son offensive names, pushed him down stairs and kicked him during an ongoing campaign of abuse that lasted through much of his sixth-grade year.

His family is due damages, according to its attorney, Justin Clark of Longwood, because the boy sustained physical injuries and severe psychological trauma.

The child suffered “a constant verbal bashing about his sexuality,” Clark said. The boy, now 14, now attends another school.

The district has asked a judge to throw out the 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.

Clark also represents a mother and father who earlier this month notified the Polk County Public School District that they intend to sue, alleging that their third-grade son was repeatedly bullied at Palmetto Elementary in Poinciana by a boy who one day grabbed him during physical-education class and threw him to the concrete, causing a concussion.

Polk County School Board Attorney Wes Bridges would not comment.

Orange County’s School Board has never been sued in a bullying case, spokeswoman Kathy Marsh said.

Will families who sue, alleging bullying, win in court? The claim is very difficult to prove, Trainor said.

In the Seminole County cases, families must show that school employees knew about the bullying, knew it was ongoing and did not do enough to stop it.

The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines to schools on how to handle bullying, and the Florida Legislature in 2008 ordered local school boards to enact anti-bullying policies.

Seminole has one.

Those things should work to minimize bullying and the district’s vulnerability to bullying lawsuits, Trainor said.

“School districts want to fight bullying just as much as parents do,” she said.

Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-school-bullying-suits-20110129,0,2760646.story