School Bullying Council

The Yomiuri Shimbun

OTSU–The Shiga prefectural police plan this week to start questioning students who claim to have witnessed the bullying of a 13-year-old middle school student who killed himself in October, according to investigative sources.

The police will primarily interview 116 students who wrote their names on a questionnaire about bullying distributed at the boy’s school by the Otsu Municipal Board of Education in October.

In light of the mental strain of being interviewed, police are considering interviewing the students at their homes. They also plan to question the three classmates of the boy against whom his father has filed a criminal complaint over the bullying.

The questionnaire was distributed to about 860 students at the municipal middle school he attended on Oct. 17, six days after the boy committed suicide. A total of 283 students–167 anonymously–responded.

Students’ comments on what they heard or witnessed included “the boy was physically assaulted by being kicked and punched” and “the boy was forced to shoplift and practice committing suicide.”

The father of the boy filed a criminal complaint Wednesday against the three alleged bullies on six counts–assault, extortion, intimidation, coercion, theft and property destruction.

If necessary, police plan to collect information from students other than those who put their names on the questionnaire.

Police hope to clarify the whole picture, including the possible illegality of abusive actions, a causal relation between the bullying and the suicide, and whether the municipal board of education and the school responded appropriately in the case.

In response to a separate civil lawsuit filed earlier this year by the boy’s parents, representatives of the alleged bullies claimed their actions constituted “not bullying but pranks.”

The three classmates who have been accused by the boy’s father were 13 or 14 years old at the time of the alleged bullying. Minors aged 14 or older can face criminal charges, while minors under 14 are exempt and corrective measures are decided after a child consultation center is notified of their cases or they are sent to one.

However, offending minors 12 or older may be sent to a juvenile reformatory.

Ikuzo Maeno, professor emeritus at Kwansei Gakuin University, said, “The police should try to ease the mental burden on students by interviewing them at home in the presence of their parents, as being questioned by police is an extremely unusual experience for them.”

Maeno, an expert on criminal policy and the Juvenile Law, also said students should only be interviewed once and the interviews completed during summer vacation so they would not cause further problems at the school.

“Some sort of emotional support may also be needed,” he said.

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Ministry to set up team

The education ministry will create a special team tasked with helping schools combat bullying, education minister Hirofumi Hirano said Sunday.

“Instead of just waiting for reports [from schools about bullying problems] and leaving specific steps up to teachers and school officials, our ministry should have a team dedicated to working with them,” Hirano said on an NHK program.

Hirano made the statement in reference to the October suicide.

Hirano said the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry’s plan to conduct an emergency fact-finding investigation about bullying at primary and middle schools should cover not only public schools but also private ones.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120722002082.htm

Even if you’re not interested in college athletics, you should be interested in a gross injustice to a member of our community. Most of us recall last winter when the Winona State basketball team was nationally ranked and heading for another conference championship when the NCAA came down on them with a vengeance. One of their players, a transfer student from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, was declared ineligible, suspended from the team for the remainder of the season, and all 22 games that he participated in were eliminated from the official records. This dropped the team from 1st place to 6th place. They lost home field playoff advantage, the college lost ticket proceeds, and this community lost thousands of dollars in hotel, restaurant and other related business. But the NCAA didn’t stop there; they made the young man ineligible for the first 11 regular season games next season, which is his final season.

I have never met this young man and don’t represent him in any way. However, he and his family have retained a Wisconsin attorney to ask the NCAA to reconsider their decision. They have been sitting on his request without responding.

I first wrote a community column about the matter in this newspaper last winter. Now, after reviewing the facts that the NCAA is relying upon in this case, I view the injustice as even worse than I thought at that time.

The NCAA has shown no evidence that this young man knowingly acted, intended or omitted to act in any way contrary to NCAA rules. Quite the opposite: He took all reasonable measures to comply with their rules. He was told or led to believe by officials of the athletics departments of UW-P and WSU that he was eligible to play during the 2011-12 basketball season.

NCAA’s complaint revolves around a waiver that had been granted; however, because of some lack of communication, the paperwork was not filed until after the season began. No one was injured nor prejudiced by this administrative oversight, yet the NCAA came down on this innocent ballplayer and his equally innocent teammates who had nothing to do with the tardy filing. College students have no control, nor should they have any control, over the administrative duties of their universities.

Evidently this harmless human error “displeased the king.”

The NCAA is a national multi-million dollar business that the Harvard Business School has called the number one monopoly in America, apparently answerable to no one. It could have resolved this omission in many ways less draconian than the unfair method it chose.

A bully is defined as a person who hurts, frightens or tyrannizes those who are smaller or more vulnerable. A 21-year-old college student is helpless against the overwhelming powers of the NCAA.

What’s so outrageous about this case is that the NCAA ignores its own bylaws, which expressly set forth their reasons to exist: “For intercollegiate athletics to promote the character development of participants, to … adhere to such fundamental values as respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility.”

In other words, do as we say, not as we do. Perhaps they rationalize that the unfair penalties they imposed will act as a deterrent to others. In the real world, this is nonsense. The death penalty is the most severe penalty that can be dealt on planet Earth; yet no one can prove it deters. There are thousands of college athletes across this nation. Outside of the local sphere, nobody knows or cares about the penalties. And even if they do, they will be soon forgotten.

Penn State has one of the premier athletic programs in America. The university’s administration is now accused of covering up and failing to report criminal conduct within its coaching department. Here children were criminally abused, not some harmless late paper filing. Will the NCAA ignore these administrative culprits and come down on the innocent Penn State football team who had nothing to do with the crimes? If it does, there will be a national uproar over the unjustness of its decision. Yet that’s what the NCAA did to Winona State’s basketball team.

Many states have passed laws requiring that any decision affecting any athlete within that state must be afforded due process and fundamental fairness.

Due process means the right to legal counsel and to confront and cross-examine accusers; an impartial tribunal; a decision based upon clear and convincing evidence; and independent review by legally trained judges.

Unfortunately for college athletes, the U.S. Supreme Court has previously held that due process pertains to government, not private business associations like the NCAA.

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/opinion/article_2cf16294-d2d5-11e1-98db-001a4bcf887a.html

The suicide of a 13-year-old junior high school boy in Otsu in October 2011, apparently due to bullying, has shocked the nation. The bereaved family of the boy, who jumped to his death on Oct. 11 from his family’s condominium, has filed a ¥77 million compensation lawsuit against the Otsu city government.

The city at first denied a relationship between the boy’s suicide and bullying. But on July 17, the city expressed its readiness to start talks to reach an amicable settlement with the family because of the possibility that such a relationship existed. Mayor Naomi Koshi expressed her apology at the city office to the boy’s family.

It has now surfaced that there were clear signs that the boy was being bullied. The question is why teachers did not take proper action immediately to help the boy.

According to the school principal and the city’s board of education, six days before the boy’s suicide, the homeroom teacher was notified by a student that the boy was being bullied in a toilet, and was being struck with more punches than the student fighting him. The teacher later asked the boy what happened, and he replied that it was a fight but that he wanted to get along with the other boy. The teacher also asked the other boy what happened.

The teacher then consulted with several other teachers. It was pointed out that the other boy was stronger and might be inclined to bully. But the teachers concluded that the fight did not look like a case of bullying and agreed to watch the situation carefully.

This consultation among teachers lasted only about 15 minutes. The homeroom teacher did not question in detail the student who reported the toilet incident.

As the school principal admitted in a July 14 news conference, the homeroom teacher’s questioning of the students was insufficient. The teacher forgot to ask the student who reported the toilet incident an important point: Why did he think that the boy was being bullied?

The teachers failed to follow the lessons of past bullying cases that if they receive any information whatsoever hinting at bullying, they should thoroughly investigate the situation.

The principal held an appallingly late news conference — deciding to do so only after the police searched the school on July 11. This kind of behavior only deepens the suspicion that the school wanted to hide critical information. It wasn’t until July 13 that the city made public the results of two questionnaire surveys conducted at the school after the boy’s suicide.

The board of education did not carry out a thorough investigation to determine what facts related to the possibility of bullying, despite a number of descriptive responses in the surveys hinting that the victim had been bullied.

At the very least, a truly independent third-party investigation should take place to determine exactly what transpired and what the school and board did wrong so that similar tragedies will not take place.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ed20120722a1.html

Don’t do this to yourself, you have another option. HOW TO: BLOCK ON FORMSPRING & TUMBLR: MUSIC: “Royalty Free Music #116 (Why is Kolaveree) Rock/Reggae Parody.” SECOND CHANNEL: youtube.com LINKS: facebook.com twitter.com kristencorpse.tumblr.com http dailybooth.com keek.com flickr.com TAGS: kristencorpse advice turn off anons block anonymous anon comments formspring tumblr harassment sexual mean bullying cyberbullying bully bullying trolls trolli

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The two-time Pro Bowler has until Monday at 4 p.m. to agree to a long-term deal with the Ravens or he’ll have to play the season under the $7.7 million franchise tag.

Rice, who handed out $20 bills to kids for dancing and doing push-ups on the stage Friday, jokingly asked those in attendance to return the favor and call Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome and “tell him to pay me.”

He was not the only Raven to deliver that message Friday. After learning that New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who also was franchised, had agreed to a five-year, $100 million deal that reportedly includes an NFL-record $60 million in guaranteed money, Rice’s fullback, Vonta Leach, wrote on his Twitter account: “Now I’m waiting for [Rice] to get his money he deserves. #cutthecheck.”

Rice declined to elaborate on the ongoing negotiations between the Ravens and his agent, Todd France, saying “I’m actually here for the bullying thing.”

Rice, 25, has emerged as a spokesman for anti-bullying, speaking at several events, including two in Howard County. The running back said he was motivated to speak out after learning of the death of Howard County teen Grace McComas, who committed suicide on Easter Sunday after being the victim of online bullying.

“Well you know after I heard about the story about the little girl losing her life over somebody’s words, you can’t imagine somebody’s life being taken over words. I live by the creed that sticks and stones they break your bones, but words can never hurt you. In this case, words killed somebody,” Rice said. “When you think about it, we all put ourselves in somebody’s shoes, a different family’s shoes. Whether we have kids or not, we can feel that family’s pain. I felt that pain and I felt like it’s time for me to be a voice out there. In another situation, you’re talking about retaliation. That’s not the kind of retaliation that you need in this kind of situation. It’s getting your voice out there to help any other situation.”

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-07-13/sports/bal-ray-rice-says-optimistic-about-agreeing-to-an-extension-with-ravens-20120713_1_ray-rice-vonta-leach-anti-bullying

Our favorite, Gleek, Chris Colfer is a busy busy man, which is illustrated pretty clearly in his interview with men’s fashion website, Mr. Porter.

On top of updating us on everything he’s up to (head’s up, the film that he wrote, Struck By Lightning is the closing night gala screening at Outfest next week!), he also touches on his own experiences with bullying, superheroes, and why he identifies more with the ant than the grasshopper…

More after the jump!

So according to Mr. Porter, Colfer’s working on a novel, plus he says:

“I’ve written one book already, it’s for children,” he says. “The Land of Stories. Comes out this month. I’m also simultaneously writing the sequel which hopefully will come out next year.” During season one of Glee, he wrote a movie, Struck by Lightning, which he produced and starred in, alongside Ms Christina Hendricks, of Mad Men, among others. “It’s a dark comedy for teens. And I’ve written another movie, this time definitely R-rated about a 1930s asylum.

“Oh and my agent asked me to adapt this children’s book into a feature for Disney. I wrote that one in a weekend. Yeah – a 90-page screenplay in two days. It was insane.”

Slacker.

Still his work ethic’s coming from a clear place.

Mr. Porter continues, “…Mr. Colfer senses acutely that the clock is ticking.

“It’s the story of the ant and the grasshopper,” he says. “The ant gathers food all summer while the grasshopper’s playing, and then the winter comes – Well, I’m the ant. I’m always afraid that winter is upon us.”

Colfer continues, “Every actor has a shelf life,” he says. “Next year, I could go from being this spearhead of this huge movement, to the kid that used to be on Glee.”

Chris isn’t taking all of his success and opportunity for granted. After all, like many of his gay brethren, Colfer spent his school days getting bullied. He says, “I was harassed at school every day, called ‘faggot’, I had things taped to my back.” And when he went home, he didn’t want to burden his parents with his problems.

We like Chris; he definitely seems like he’s got a good head on his shoulders (along with being ridiculously talented). Check out the rest of his Mr. Porter interview, here!

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http://instinctmagazine.com/blogs/blog/chris-colfer-talks-bullying-and-being-busy?directory=100011

At the Sports Museum at Boston’s TD Garden, where I serve as chair of the board of trustees, we’ve launched an initiative called Boston vs. Bullies  to help at risk youth learn ways to combat bullying using lessons from sports.

As we talk to potential sponsors in the business community, it’s become quite obvious that bullying is not just a kids’ issue.  We adults could use a little advice as well when it comes to bullying in our workplace hallways, in boardrooms, and on our business’ social media websites.

Adults in both the corporate and entrepreneurial world have run-ins with mistreatment, harassment, and intimidation every day.  For some, it’s become just another part of doing business.  Bullying today can include passive aggressive postings from competitors on blogs or walls, negative comments on review sites or from customers who perform social bullying when they don’t get what they want and start tweeting to complain instead of calling customer service to fix the problem privately.

The Internet allows cowardly bullies to hide behind their computer screen and say things online they might not have the ability to say to someone’s face.  In this day and age, every business should not only implement regular communications training with their staff but have in place a clear social media policy that outlines the consequences of inappropriate social media interaction with customers, competitors and even colleagues. How would you feel if one of your e-mails sent hastily to a colleague in ALL CAPS were published on the cover of a leading newspaper or in a magazine like Forbes?  If the thought of that makes you uncomfortable, you might want to restraint yourself the next time you behave like a bully online.

Celebrate mistakes and risk taking within your company.  One area where people can really feel harassed in the workplace is if they believe they will pay dearly for anything that does not lead to a big success.  No one wants to be ridiculed in meetings or online for a false start.  When I ran marketing at a startup in the late 90s we gave out monthly awards at an all-company lunch to the person or team with the most visible failure.   We did a companywide post mortem case study and challenged everyone to try again while the lessons learned were fresh on everyone’s minds.  When you create a culture where failing fast is cool (that is, as long as you learn from the mistake) then it’s hard for office bullies to intimidate others because they tried something and fell short.

One of the greatest byproducts of social media I think is that transparency and authenticity are expected and valued.   You cannot hide easily in the age of the Internet.  I’ll admit I have accepted online invitations from people I consider bullies, but that allows me to follow their every move and see who they are linked to or friends with.  Then, when I see a potential danger looming I can warn others that the bully does not have pure intentions or may have ulterior motives like trying to sabotage efforts.  One bully I know positions himself on an e-group I belong to as a “social media thought leader” yet, whenever he responds to a posting he always suggests taking the conversation offline to answer the question.  I have pinged his targets to let them know they need to do some serious back channel reference checks because he is not who he appears to be on his online profiles.

As we say at the Sports Museum, the bullies do not have a chance if we stick together as a team.   In business, it takes a team working together to reach the monthly target or quarterly numbers so it is no surprise that a team is more effective at shutting down an online bully too!

One of the most important lessons we learned in developing the curriculum for our program at the Museum is to take away the audience. If no one is around to watch, the bully loses interest pretty quickly.  Do not stand around and laugh at the water cooler when an office bully makes fun of a colleague.  Do not retweet a snarky comment or “like” one on Facebook, you’re flaming the fire for the bullies to continue.

The most important characteristic to note is that most bullies are very insecure. If there are ways to make that colleague who tortures you feel that they’re recognized for their strengths or played a role in the group’s success, they may feel more appreciated and less likely to act out.

Our goal is for Boston vs. Bullies to catch fire and create a movement to eliminate bullies and bullying of all sorts.  If you have courage and passion you can accomplish much in this world so stand strong against bullies in your organizations and community.  It was Hillel the Elder who said “If not you, who? If not now, when?” and I could not agree more.  With cyber bullying just a click away, your business actually depends on it!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paigearnoffenn/2012/07/13/beware-of-business-bullies/