School Bullying Council

Palmer – Staff photo by Michael S. Gordon – Palmer High School guidance counselor Frederick G. Dileone, right, and students who worked on anti-bullying video from left: Nicole C. Prosperi, Troy R. Remillard, Grant E. Farr, Joseph H. Roberts and Lily G. Ghrear.

PALMER – “If it’s mean, intervene.”

That’s the title and the key message of the latest anti-bullying video produced by a group from Palmer High School’s “Students as Technology Leaders” class with help from guidance counselor Frederick C. Dileone.

With more than 100 hits so far on YouTube, the students hope their message continues to spread, and that their video will encourage other teens to take a stand against bullying.

“The more people that see this, the better,” said sophomore Joseph H. Roberts.

Sophomore Grant E. Farr, freshmen Lily G. Ghrear and Troy R. Remillard, and junior Nicole Prosperi also worked on the three-month project, using a Flip video and still cameras to film life at Palmer High. Troy and Nicole were the actors in the 4-minute video, enduring staged “bullying” by their peers.

Acting was something new for Troy, but not Nicole, who is active in drama. The scenes depict what a bullying victim could experience – a garbage-filled locker, isolation in the cafeteria, hair pulling, a nasty text message, being thrown up against a wall.

The students said it was time consuming to piece together the footage, but Dileone said Joseph, who also was involved in last year’s video, “Bullying is a Worldwide Problem,” proved to be indispensable with his computer skills.

Word about the video is spreading in the Palmer High community, and Dileone hopes it will be shown to students in seventh- through ninth- grades. The younger grades typically have the most problems with bullying, he said, although the students agreed that they don’t think Palmer has as many issues with bullying as other school districts.

The district started the anti-bullying initiative before the death of Phoebe Prince in South Hadley. The freshman from Ireland hanged herself last year after intense bullying by a group of students, who were charged in connection with tormenting her. Their cases were resolved last week in court proceedings in Hampshire County.

Dileone said the Palmer High videos are part of superintendent Gerald A. Fournier’s commitment to anti-bullying efforts in the district. These efforts helped the district receive a grant for security cameras at the high school. They should be in place for next school year.

The first video highlighted the back stairwell, with ominous shots of it, where bullying was said to occur by the students. That will be one of the places the security cameras will be installed.

While the first video focused on the definitions of bullying, this video focused on the responsibility of the bystander, Dileone said. “We tried a different approach,” he said.

Lily said working on the project was a lot of fun, and that she learned a lot in the process. Dileone said they used statistics from the 2009 I-Safe Foundation about bullying, such as: 20 percent have been made fun of, 6 percent were threatened with violence, 4 percent had items stolen, 160,000 students miss school daily because of bullying, and 18 percent have had rumors spread about them.

The statistics are interspersed with scenes from Palmer High – Nicole cornered in the rest room, Troy being threatened with a volleyball.

The eighth-grade poster contest winners also were highlighted in the video. They included: Marilyn Mahan’s “No bulls, just peas!,” showing peas in a peace sign; Julia Waite’s “Why bully when you can be friends” showing a handshake; and Larissa Giard’s “Bullies are animals,” depicting a bull. They all received amazon.com gift certificates.

Viewers are told who they can turn to if they are being bullied – friends, teachers, staff, parents, guidance counselors, nurses.

And, it ends with the message: “How can you help someone today? Don’t be a bystander, intervene.”

Said Dileone, “It may not be seen by some students as a popular role to assume when responding to bullying, but Palmer High School is committed to changing that thought process.”

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/palmer_high_school_students_cr.html

Kate Middleton reveals that she was a victim of bullying as a young teen. Middleton has a pet project, and that is to stop bullying because of her own experience. When she was thirteen-years-old, a group of girls bullied her so much that she was forced to leave school.

Bullying is such a problem, and it has not gone away. The soon- to-be Princess Catherine is telling how she suffered from bullies. She was a nice, sweet, pretty girl, and some girls at her school simply hated her for those qualities.

Kate Middleton has certainly come out on top of that situation. Just imagine those bullies on April 29TH as Kate marries Prince William and becomes Princess Catherine. This is a lesson for all teens and children who are being bullied. Remind them of this story of the little girl who became a princess, and bullies never win. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Photo: Wikimedia

http://celebs.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979184545

The bully gets a new perspective on life: upside down and heading for the concrete.

Casey Heynes, a 10th Grader in Sydney Australia, fought back against a schoolyard bully Monday and is now a world-wide hero for doing it.

A friend of the bully recorded a video of the confrontation to post on YouTube to humiliate Casey, but things didn’t turn out that way.  The video went viral, people from all over the world are applauding Casey for fighting back, the citizens of Sydney are divided over it and now the bully looks like the chump.

Sixteen-year old Casey says he “snapped” after constant bullying because of his weight.

“All I was doing was defending myself. I’ve never had so much support,” he said during an interview with A Current Affair.

The bully is a much smaller 7th Grader who felt confident that he could punch Casey in the face without having a fight on his hands.   He backed the much larger boy against the wall and started throwing punches.  Finally Casey had enough and picked him up and threw him down hard on the concrete.

He was asked if he was a superhero, he replied with a laugh, “No, but I wish I was.”

Both boys were suspended for four days in accordance with established school guidelines.

The people of Sydney may be divided over the affair, but the world is clearly not:  websites and Facebook fanpages like  Casey the Punisher or this YouTube tribute with music sprang up overnight hailing his action.

You be the judge:

http://aquapour.com/schoolyard-bully-video-goes-viral/556427/

Via Sportsgrid, how long does it take these days for a video to go viral, inspire Facebook tribute sites, and draw major media attention?

Twenty-four hours, my friends.

The school involved, Chifley College’s Dunheved Campus at St Marys North, has suspended both students and called police after footage of the fight, which took place on school grounds about 10.30am yesterday, was aired on a television station…

It is understood the Year 10 student is a victim of repeated bullying at Chifley College’s Dunheved Campus, a middle school in a disadvantaged part of western Sydney.

But police and bullying experts are concerned by the video’s publication on Facebook and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the older boy’s retaliation against his attacker.

“We don’t believe that violence is ever the answer,” Mr Dalgleish says.

I believe the part about “repeated bullying.” Not only is there any obvious size difference between them, there’s an age difference too: The bully is just 12 and the bullied kid is … 16. (Really?) I’ve never seen a seventh-grader pick a fight with a high school junior, let alone one much bigger him, which means our bully here is either under severe delusions about his own alpha male-dom or the bullied kid is known far and wide as easy pickings. Or rather, was.

And no, the bully wasn’t injured. His suspension, according to TMZ, is for 21 days. The bullied kid’s suspension? Just four.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/03/15/video-the-bully-body-slam/