Comments on: Bullying laws give scant protection

By: jessieka

jessieka — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:42:06 +0000

I came from a school were I had to carry a gun to school in 3 & 4th grade because 1st graders were being raped on the playground & the teachers were to big a cowards to stop it! No not suggesting we arm students with guns.I am suggesting we get involved in the schools since the “straigt” community refuses to intervine!Like the corward teachers in the 80’s.They want to be liked by the populer kids so they side with the bullies because sorry most straight teachers have not grown emotionaly past high school.Thats why all throughout my school days my clothes were ripped & torn.
my body bruised & walking home from school everyday was a war zone trying my best not to be raped.
Thats off piont sorry what I suggest is that we do what we do so well voulenter as hall monitors, crosswalk gaurds & classroom helpers.Were we can observe & identify these little felons in training.
Report & inform not just the schools but the pta & police!We can go to “family court” & testify to the CRIMINAL ACT’S!
We can offer support & yes phisical protection to children who are being victumized.
The economy is in the tank so many on unemployment why cant these creative & intelegent lgbt give some time to address these this issue.Maybe even catch some of these bullies young enough to aviode prison & a life of crime.
Which is the road kid bullies follow!

By: Wayne M.

Wayne M. — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:18:22 +0000

As a person who was bullied in school and then taught for over three decades, I can honestly say the situation is getting better, but it remains the elephant in the classroom.

Why?

While most teachers do watch out for bullying, it is also a fact that the bullies themselves are very good at hiding what they do and victims are often intimidated into not reporting the fact they are bullied.

However, even worse, there are those who either excuse bullying or fail to take it seriously. There are, for example, those who believe that being bullied will “toughen you up”. Others still hold to the idea that name-calling and spreading gossip is “not real bullying”.

There are also those who refuse to take the issue of homophobic bullying seriously. For example, there are groups of religious and social conservatives who will protest any effort by any school board to adopt policies against homophobic bullying on the grounds that such policies “encourage homosexuality”.

Furthermore, until schools are able to teach respect for sexual diversity, just as they should be teaching respect for racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and ability diversity, there will be homophobic bullying– and it will be aimed against both LGBT, Questioning and Heterosexual persons.

The first step to ending bullying is to demand comprehensive policies against all bullying, ensure school staff enforces the policy and give them the support they need when they do enforce it.

The second step is to ensure teachers teach and ALL students are taught respect for all forms of diversity– and this means when religious parents try to withdraw their children from such lessons, they are told NO.

By: WildwoodGuy

WildwoodGuy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:53:34 +0000

Interesting that this appeared today. I read another article on Boston.com this morning with relevant information.

Link here:http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/family/articles/2009/09/14/how_we_can_end_the_cycle_of_bullying/

By: Gerry Fisher

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:52:55 +0000

There are a lot of dynamics at play, here. Funding and enforcement are definitely two issues. But there are others. For example, I haven’t seen a solid body of research that shows which programs effectively reduce bullying and which do not. So, as is the case in GA, if a local school wanted to implement an effective anti-bullying program, they’re kind of on their own to figure out what “effective” means. (As a side note, I read a program that systematically targeted the *bullies*–not those bullied–for counseling and mentoring. It seemed like a very promising approach, and I hope further research shows more merit. If you think about it, it is kind of *ss-backward that the kid who gets pummeled has to be isolated from her classmates and sent to counseling, which classmates perceive of as “sped”…special education, which is a mark against you.)

This is also very indicative of the limits of laws. During the past ten years, I’ve been wondering how they were dealing with the bulk of the bullying that I saw perpetrated in school: the “I’ll get you on your way home after school” type of bullying. There’s a limit to how much bad behavior we can “catch and punish.” I think we need to think more in terms of education, training, and shifting the target of the most intense, in-school intervention from the bullied to the bullies.

By: Gay Jay

Gay Jay — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:00:21 +0000

The real problem is that in the eyes of this wonderful nation, children are an expense not a commodity.

I suffered during everyone of the 13 years I was in public school. i dealt with physical, sexual, verbal and emotion torment on a daily basis.

I was the big, weird looking sissy-boy, so I got what I deserved as far as many teacher & principle was concerned.

If an adult had gone through just a fraction of what I had to endure, there would be charges filed and lawsuits to contend with.

Children just aren’t important enough to society. The whole attitude seems to be one of “well there easy enough to make, so we’ll just replace them when they’re gone.”

Such a sad sad country we live in!