School Bullying Council

Alye Pollack, seen here in a homemade video posted to YouTube March 14, describes the alleged bullying suffered at Bedford Middle School in Westport, Conn. (YouTube).

A 13-year-old girl apparently bullied by her peers has taken her plight to YouTube, posting a haunting video that describes the alleged torment suffered at a top Connecticut middle school.

Alye Pollack, an eighth-grader at Bedford Middle School in Westport, Conn., uploaded the video, titled “Words are worse than Sticks and Stones,” on March 14. As of Wednesday morning, the three-minute clip had more than 30,100 views.  

Pollack, who does not speak in the homemade video, is seen holding up signs recounting the alleged bullying endured at the hands of her classmates. 

“I am bullied. Not a day has gone by without one of these words — ‘bitch,’ ‘whore,’ ‘fat, ‘lesbo,’ ‘slut,’ ‘freak,’ ugly,’ ‘weird,’ fag,” the signs read. 

“I don’t cut but I’m close,” Pollack writes. “I’m in therapy/guidance more than my classes.” 

“Think before you say things. It might save lives,” reads another sign. 

After the video was posted, the school  principal wrote in a letter to parents that he was investigating a case of cyber bullying, MyFoxNY.com reports.

The superintendent has declined comment on Pollack’s case, specifically, citing privacy reasons, according to the station.  

“We’ve been very rigid about being intolerant about bullying,” Dr. Elliott Landon told the Westport News. “If there’s any sign that a kid’s in trouble, we act on that immediately.”

Click here to read more on the alleged bullying case at Bedford Middle School from MyFoxNY.com 

Click here to see Alye Pollack’s video on YouTube 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/30/connecticut-girl-allegedly-bullied-classmates-posts-plight-youtube/

Australian high schooler Casey Heynes catapulted to the upper reaches of Internet celebrity last week when video of him fighting back against a would-be tormenter hit YouTube. Since the video caught fire, the 15-year-old has become of a voice for the voiceless and the poster child for anti-bullying movements the world over.

Now, Heynes has given a heart-rending first interview to Australian television program “A Current Affair.” He describes the loneliness he suffered through years of bullying, something that even left him briefly contemplating suicide. And while he acknowledges that the other boy could’ve been hurt in the scuffle, he defended his actions, saying he wanted the abuse “just to stop.”

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/20/australia_casey_heynes_interview_bullying/?page=2

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Mobile phone footage shows a fight between two boys at a Sydney school with one boy being thrown to the ground.

World famous: Bullying victim Casey Heynes. Picture: Channel Nine.
Source: Supplied

Enough is enough: Casey Heynes takes action against another student. Picture: Facebook
Source: The Daily Telegraph

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IN just one week, Casey Heynes went from having one friend to 230,000.

The 16-year-old became a global Internet sensation after he was filmed picking up a bully in the schoolyard and throwing him to the ground after being repeatedly punched in the face for being “overweight”.

During an interview with A Current Affair , Casey said he had been bullied almost every day at school and even contemplated suicide a year ago when the taunts became too much.

“I started putting myself down and all the crap just kept piling on,” he said.

“That’s when I contemplated suicide.”

A Year 10 student at Chifley College, St Marys, Casey said he was being targeted by a new gang of Year Seven students last Monday when he was attacked by Ritchard Gale.

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World wide fame for Casey

Standing up against the wall with nowhere to move, Casey was punched repeatedly by Ritchard until he snapped – lifting the Year Seven bully over his shoulders and throwing him to the ground.

Victim of bullying a hero in web attack

The footage was captured by another student, who filmed the incident on his mobile phone and then posted it on YouTube.

Casey Heynes gets suspended over bully attack

Casey said his outburst was a “build-up” of more than three years of being attacked verbally and physically by other students.

“They used to slap me on the back of the head and said I was a fatty and to lose some weight.

“I’ve been duct taped to a pole before as well. They target me because I don’t retaliate.

“I’ve never reacted that way before but everything built up inside me for three years…I just had enough. All I wanted is for it to stop.”

His celebrity status peaked once again after his interview last night, with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter – which have more than 230,000 followers – labelling him “a hero”.

One blogger, Wayne McCoy, said minutes after the television interview: “you have inspired alot of kids who have and are being bullied. you have changed lives. well done mate. hopefully the bullies will learn thier lesson.”

Others, like Aidan Blackley, said: “Good on ya!!! ur a legend”.

Casey said he had been overwhelmed by the amount of people who backed him after last week’s footage went viral.

“I’ve never had so much support before,” he said.

“Nobody touches me and teases me anymore.”

Both Casey and Ritchard were suspended by the school following the incident, as well as the student who filmed it on their mobile phone.
 

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/casey-heynes-breaks-silence-over-bully-video-from-chifley-college-and-thoughts-of-suicide/story-e6freuy9-1226024997247

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/

Calgary Counselling Centre, an organization dedicated to ending violence in the community, has issued a plea: help stop bullying before kids resort to violence. The Centre was responding to a video that has become an internet sensation. It shows an alleged bullying victim in Australia, Casey Heynes, fighting back against his tormentor. Heynes body-slams the younger, and smaller boy, into the ground.

The video, originally posted on YouTube, now has a Facebook fan page with hundreds of comments congratulating Heynes for fighting back against his aggressor.

But Kim Busch of the Calgary Couselling Centre says the younger boy could have killed if he had landed on his head. “Celebrating this video is misguided – this violent act should never have happened,” says Busch. “Early interventions could have prevented this unfortunate incident from taking place.”

Busch says statistics show bullying occurs in school playgrounds every seven minutes and once every 25 minutes in class.

“We must bring more awareness to this issue in order to prevent it. Bullying can be stopped if our community steps up and says ‘no more’.”

YouTube has since taken down the video but it is now available on other websites.

http://www.globaltvbc.com/Bullying+victim+hero+says+Calgary+group/4451943/story.html