SUBSTANTIAL Disruption » Bullying

Bullying legislation prompts opposition from conservative groups

Mike Tully — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:21:09 +0000

A new bill in Illinois would require schools to adopt anti-bullying policies, but the Illinois Family Institute and Concerned Christians of America say that the law would challenge certain students’ religious and moral beliefs.

Some Illinois conservatives fear their children are about to face an assault on their morals and religious beliefs. They worry that state lawmakers will muzzle students who hold unpopular opinions and force them into indoctrination sessions.

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Rally against bullying held in WHS student’s memory

Mike Tully — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:18:59 +0000

The word was love. The color was blue, a symbol of peace and serenity.

About 250 parents, students and other citizens clothed in every hue of blue gathered Monday in front of Watertown High School to protest against the emotional destruction caused by bullies.

Last week, rally organizer and Jefferson Community College student Patrick M. Fleming created a Facebook “event” calling for people to write “love” on their arms in memory of Erin K. Foley, a Watertown High senior who committed suicide last Tuesday.

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Legislature approves bill to crack down on bullying in schools

Mike Tully — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:02:38 +0000

AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill that toughens Maine’s stance on bullying in schools won legislative approval this week after months of revisions.

The measure, LD 1237, provides educators and administrators with a clear definition of bullying, explicitly forbids bullying behavior, offers schools alternative discipline strategies, and outlines prevention policies and training for teachers.

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Norton school bully survey shows more incidents than actually reported (MA)

Mike Tully — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:58 +0000

NORTON – Many students who feel bullied at school are still not reporting the abuse to teachers or administrators, with some saying the taunts and teasing occurs within supposedly safe confines of the classroom, according to a recently released survey of students.

Jennifer O’Neill, the district’s curriculum director, presented the school committee with the survey results this week.

The most recent survey comes after a baseline survey in October.

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Parent bullies a ‘growing trend’ (AU)

Mike Tully — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:16:10 +0000

Teachers are increasingly being bullied, yelled at, and in rarer cases, physically assaulted by some assertive parents who believe they have an ”inalienable right to scream and demand things for their children,” the NSW Teachers Federation says.

More than 80 per cent of the 2500 teachers and school staff surveyed say they have been bullied by parents, according to research in a new book by academics, Deirdre Duncan, Dan Riley and John Edwards.

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School district plans community discussions about bullying (MN)

Mike Tully — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:14:42 +0000

Rochester schools Superintendent Michael Muñoz said the district is in the early stages of planning public meetings that would focus and encourage a community-wide discussion on the looming problem of bullying in the schools.

“I’ve had some conversations with our community partners, and I think we’re looking at some type of World Cafe-type discussions inviting our community to come and talk about this,” Muñoz said Tuesday at a regular meeting of the Rochester School Board. The district recently used World Cafe discussions to develop a strategic plan.

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Romney hair-cutting prank: School leaders say similar incidents today would bring punishment

Mike Tully — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:47:16 +0000

Many of today’s principals would be likely to throw the book at a student who pinned down a classmate and clipped his hair, as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney did as a high school senior in 1965.

Romney was not disciplined at the time. If such an attack happened in the public schools of 2012, it would probably lead to suspension and might also be referred for expulsion, a number of local school leaders said following a Washington Post report of the incident involving Romney.

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‘Hijinks’ then, ‘bullying’ today

Mike Tully — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:45:06 +0000

NEW YORK – When Mitt Romney was a good-looking teen in the buttoned-up ’60s, corporal punishment was the norm and bullying had a different, more acceptable name: hijinks.

Yet in today’s zero-tolerance world when it comes to, well, just about everything, things haven’t changed all that much for young victims of bullies. Definitions have tightened, become law, but bullying is far from over.

“Bullying’s never going to go away,” said one crusader, ex-Marine James McGibney, a dad who founded a new social network, BullyVille.com, where victims can find help. “What makes it a million times worse is the advent of the Internet.”

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Bully Pulpit Second Thoughts

Mike Tully — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:08:46 +0000

I fear that I went too easy on Mitt Romney with regard to his high school bullying escapades. It’s not the incident itself that troubles me — though it was, obviously, outrageous and disgraceful — so much as his current response: He doesn’t remember it. This is patent nonsense. How could he not remember it? Obviously he remembers it, or he wouldn’t have been so quick to issue his blanket apology yesterday for any and all hurt he may have caused at Cranbrook. And this transparent fudge once again raises questions about his character.

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What Romney should have said to schoolchildren about his ‘prank’ and bullying

Mike Tully — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:09:46 +0000

My colleague Jason Horowitz wrote in this Washington Post story about how Mitt Romney, when he was a senior at an elite private high school in Michigan, led a group of boys who “tackled” a boy who was presumed to be gay and had bleached-blond hair, held him down and chopped his hair off with a scissors even as the boy pleaded for help.

A spokesman for Romney told Horowitz that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate didn’t remember the incident which was the most serious of many “pranks” Romney was reported to have engaged in as a student.

Yes, Romney said he didn’t remember behavior that today would clearly be defined as bullying and would land the perpetrators in serious trouble. (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it is worse that he doesn’t remember or simply said he didn’t.) Some of his friends who were involved in the episode remembered it well enough to talk to Horowitz in some detail.

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