School Bullying Council

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

The troubled Legion of Christ religious order says it is revamping a specialized high school program for teenage girls after dozens of alumni denounced psychological abuses they say they endured that resulted in eating disorders, stress-induced ailments and depression.

The Legion’s lay branch Regnum Christi posted a statement on its website Thursday outlining the changes after The Associated Press reported that 77 alumni had written to the Vatican calling for the program in the U.S., Mexico and Spain to be closed because of the harm done to them in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Girls in the program now have more contact with their families, more exposure to the “realities of the world,” more freedom from rigorous work schedules and, for the first time, and assistance in getting into college, the statement said. Many of these changes began some time ago, but some are more recent.

The problems in the program are the latest blow to the troubled, cult-like Legion, which was discredited in 2009 when it revealed that its founder was a pedophile and drug addict who fathered three children. The Legion suffered subsequent credibility problems following its recent admission that its most famous priest had fathered a child and the current Legion superior covered it up for years.

The Legion saga represents one of the greatest scandals of the 20th century Catholic Church since its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had been held up as a living saint by his followers and a model of holiness by Pope John Paul II because of his ability to recruit men and money to the priesthood, even though the Vatican knew for decades he had sexually abused his seminarians.

Pope Benedict XVI took over the Mexico-based order in 2010 and appointed an envoy to reform the Legion and its lay branch Regnum Christi. But the reform hasn’t progressed smoothly, with defections from disillusioned members and criticism that some superiors remain resistant to change.

The high school program, called the precandidacy, is a specialized religious high school for girls who are considering joining Regnum Christi’s consecrated branch, where women live like nuns making promises of poverty, chastity and obedience and working in Legion-run schools and youth programs.

In a letter to papal envoy Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, and on a new blog www.49weeks.blogspot.com, dozens of former students described the anorexia, stress-induced migraines, gastritis and back problems, clinically diagnosed depression and suicidal thoughts that some still struggle with even years after leaving.

They blamed these problems on the spiritual, emotional and psychological abuse they say they suffered while students at the Immaculate Conception Academy, for 20 years headquartered in Wakefield, Rhode Island, but recently transferred to Oxford, Michigan. They described an environment where counselors slightly older than they insisted they follow the most minute of rules governing how they walked, talked, prayed and ate, telling them they would be violating God’s will if they erred.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/legion-revamps-girls-school-program-abuses-16768548

”Who is that man who’s staring at you so angrily?” asked a customer of Evelyn Lee in the department store where she was a sales associate.

It was her boss — the same one, she said, who criticized her within customers’ earshot on topics that didn’t earn lectures for other employees. He threatened to fire her, took away her hours and denied her the chance to earn more by opening sales accounts.

“It did suck the fun out of work,” said Lee, 61, of Rialto. “There were times it made me angry.”

Lee’s treatment is a case of workplace bullying, in the news lately following a Riverside County grand jury report on a division of the county’s human resources department.

The Bellingham, Wash.-based Workplace Bullying Institute defines workplace bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons … by one or more perpetrators.” It includes verbal abuse, threatening conduct or sabotage that interferes with someone’s ability to work.

“It’s only a focus on the negative and it’s unjustified based on the performance,” said Gary Namie, a psychologist and the institute’s director. “It’s about this unearned, uninvited domination.”

According to the grand jury report, a group of recruiters in a county temp worker program were derisively referred to by their supervisors as “the wild, wild West” and singled out for harsh treatment, even though other county departments were satisfied with their work.

The report found workplace bullying was “pervasive” in the program and “caused fear and intimidation among employees.”

County officials are looking into the grand jury’s findings. They expect to issue a formal response by the end of July.

Not racist or sexist

Research into workplace bullying started in Scandinavia in the 1980s, Namie said. Australia, Sweden, Great Britain and France are among the countries with anti-workplace bullying laws, but to date, no U.S. state has one, according to the institute.

Workplace bullying is different in most cases from racial or sexual harassment, Namie said. Anti-discrimination laws apply only if the harasser and target are of different races or genders, he said, adding that right now, there’s no legal recourse for 80 percent of the workplace bullying taking place.

Often, workplace bullying targets are veteran workers whose skills and status make bullies feel threatened or jealous, Namie said. “People will slide into (the bully) role very easily” if it helps them get ahead, he said, adding higher-ups often ignore or encourage the bullying.

Spreading rumors, telling others to shun someone, closed-door berating sessions and using staff meetings to embarrass workers are forms of bullying, Namie said. Bullies can also deny access to training or technology that targets need to do their job, he said.

The grand jury report on county HR described documents that “showed disrespect to employees beyond what would be considered reasonable.” Employees who admitted inadvertent errors were “later reprimanded and accused of making the mistakes intentionally,” the report read.

1 in 3 bullied?

Thirty-five percent of adult Americans reported being bullied at work, according to institute-commissioned surveys conducted in 2007 and 2010. Seventy-two percent of bullies are bosses and bullies are more likely to be men and 64 percent of bullying is same-gender, the surveys found.

Victims of workplace bullying suffer from a range of physical and mental ailments, according to the institute. “(The stress) changes the brain,” Namie said. “People get sicker and sicker. Meanwhile they try to tough it out.”

Howard Golds, a partner in the labor and employment practice group of the Riverside firm Best Best Krieger, said “equal opportunity bullying” is a problem that’s often mistaken for discrimination.

“We see employers who are sued for discrimination and what’s really going on is you have a supervisor who doesn’t conduct themselves very well,” he said. “Oftentimes you have a situation, when the facts emerge, the person charged with discrimination treats everyone (badly).”

Jack Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Stater Bros., one of the Inland region’s largest employers, said he’s not aware of workplace bullying among the supermarket chain’s 18,000 employees.

Managers and union shop stewards are at every store and Stater Bros. has a “very, very strong harassment policy,” Brown said. “We permit no use of unbecoming language between employees or certainly between supervision and employees.”

In an email, Tracy Silveria, spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents about 5,800 county workers, wrote her union “is very concerned about workplace bullying and has worked proactively to help members identify, report, and correct incidents of bullying.

“We welcome working with Riverside County human resources in addressing some of the issues that the recent grand jury report identified, and will continue to advocate for a positive work environment free of bullying behavior.”

Law needed?

Namie’s institute wants states to pass “healthy workplace bills” to crack down on workplace bullying. The bills would legally define an abusive workplace environment and allow abused employees to sue, provided they meet certain legal standards.

“It’s going to take a law to get these employers to do what they should be doing anyway,” Namie said.

Versions of the bill have been introduced in 21 states — California being the first in 2003, according to the institute. But so far, no state has passed healthy workplace legislation, Namie said.

Suzanne Lucas, a human resources professional who runs “Evil HR Lady,” a blog on HR topics, maintains workplace bullying legislation isn’t needed.

“Basically, legislation won’t stop the bullying and will be an added expense on businesses,” she wrote in an email. “The best thing to curb bullying is to have a robust job market. If you can get another job easily, you can just leave if bullying begins …”

“Additionally, definable (workplace bullying) is debatable and largely relies on the feelings of the victim. If there’s a good, legal bullying definition out there I’ve yet to see one.”

Lee lost her job at the department store after it went out of business.

“It was definitely easier to come into work on the days my boss wasn’t there,” she said.

Follow Jeff Horseman on Twitter: @JeffHorseman

http://www.pe.com/local-news/topics/topics-health-care-headlines/20120708-workplace-bullying-experts-say-protection-needed.ece