School Bullying Council

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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

Palm Coast, FL – The ACLU of Florida today announced an agreement in negotiations with the Flagler County School District in the case of Luke Herbert, a Flagler Palm Coast High School student who was harassed for being gay by both students and one of his teachers.

Herbert, a 15-year-old freshman, had been bullied and threatened by fellow students at school and on Facebook and was physically attacked at school by another student who regularly taunted him with anti-gay slurs. Although Herbert reported several instances of bullying and harassment to school officials, the bullying and harassment got worse.

“I reported the bullying to the administration but it never seemed to change anything. I felt alone and it made me stop wanting to go to school,” said Herbert. “My breaking point came when one of my teachers started telling anti-gay jokes and mocking me in front of the entire class.”

As a result of being tormented by his peers and teacher, Herbert stopped attending classes and faced the possibility of failing the ninth grade. At that time, the ACLU of Florida intervened on Herbert’s behalf.

“What happened to Luke is inexcusable, but unfortunately is an all-too-common occurrence for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students,” said ACLU of Florida LGBT Advocacy Project Attorney Shelbi Day. “Schools have an obligation to ensure that teachers and students understand that bullying and harassment of any student is prohibited and to act swiftly and appropriately to address it when it occurs.”

After meeting with ACLU’s Day and co-counsel Phillip Chanfrau, Jr., school officials acknowledged that Herbert’s harassment had not been handled as swiftly as it should have been and several missteps had occurred. The district officially reprimanded the teacher who harassed Herbert in class and agreed to a series of actions to make amends for the impact the bullying had on Herbert and prevent any further bullying and harassment of Flagler County School District students. Among the actions in the agreement are:

• The teacher who harassed Herbert in class has agreed to make a public apology
• The district is working with Herbert to get him back on track academically
• The district has offered Herbert several options for completing his education in an environment in which he can feel safe
• The district agreed to recommend that the School Board add protections for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression” to the Student Code of Conduct and the school district’s bullying and harassment policy
• The district is working with the Flagler Palm Coast Gay-Straight Alliance to create a series of public service announcements about bullying and harassment

“The Flagler County School District is taking action to make sure that what happened to Luke does not happen again,” stated Flagler County School District Attorney Kristy Gavin. “The School District takes bullying and harassment of all of its students very seriously and Luke’s case made us realize that we need to do more to prevent bullying and harassment and to ensure that district faculty, staff, and students are on notice of what is prohibited and know that bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.”

“We are pleased that the Flagler County School District is taking this issue seriously. While it should not take the ACLU intervening to get a school district’s attention, we hope that other districts will look at Flagler’s response as a good example of what schools should be doing to prevent and address bullying and harassment.” continued Day. “Bullying is a serious problem with tremendous ramifications for students. We should all be working to ensure that no student has to endure what Luke has suffered.”

# # #

About the ACLU of Florida

The ACLU of Florida is freedom’s watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  For additional information, visit our web site at: www.aclufl.org.

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2011/03/aclu-reaches-agreement-with-flagler-county-schools-to-address-harassment-of-lgbt-students.html

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

(CBS News) 

In Australia, a bullying victim has become an Internet hero after he turned the tables on his tormentor. And it was all caught on tape Monday.

Casey Heynes is seen backed up against a wall, being punched several times by a younger, smaller boy.

Suddenly, Casey body-slams the alleged bully, sending him scampering off.

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Footage of the fight at Chifley College, Dunheved Campus at North St. Mary’s has since gone viral, with hundreds of comments garnered on Facebook — many in support of Casey.

According to the Sydney Telegraph, both students were suspended for four days after the incident.

Casey’s father told the Australian publication on Tuesday his son had been the victim of bullying for several years and feared for his safety if he spoke about the fight.

“There’ll be reprisals from other kids in the school and he still has to go to school somewhere,” he said.

“He’s not a violent kid; it’s the first time he’s lashed out and I don’t want him to be victimized over that.

“He’s always been taught never to hit. Apparently, other people’s parents don’t teach their kids that.”

One student interviewed by the Sydney Telegraph said, “People pick on (Casey) every single day, they hit him around and stuff, and he just got sick of it and let out the anger.”

As for the student Casey body-slammed, according to New South Wales Department of Education and Training spokeswoman, he suffered a grazed knee in the incident.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/16/earlyshow/living/parenting/main20043808.shtml

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/