Measures Against Bullying
February 21, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Charlie has yet to be a target of bullying: He never goes anywhere in school without a teacher or instructor, nor does he go anywhere alone. Though his speech is limited, and it often seems to take him some time to understand what is being said to him, he is highly attuned to stares and whispers and certain looks in his direction, and those aren’t even “bullying behavior.” He is aware, I think, of being “different” and more and more aware of what other children can do and he cannot and I’m glad that he is protected.
Maryland legislators are considering four bills limiting bullying and cyberbullying. All of the bills ask local education officials and school boards to set policies on bullying:
The Herald-Mall reported on testimony by teenagers who had been bullied at school:
Shira Moskowitz, a 15-year-old from Montgomery County, Md., said two classmates assaulted her, but school officials downplayed it as “a terrible misunderstanding among friends.”
Her 16-year-old sister, Ilana, said someone related to one of the attackers threatened to slit her throat.
A teenage boy told the House Ways and Means Committee that someone created an account on Facebook, a social networking Web site, and people posted degrading comments about why they hate him.
The experience was “frightening, intimidating and humiliating,” the boy said, adding, “I felt like I lived in an unsafe world.”……
Hamza Khan, a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said he was anguished by bullying while in high school, causing a downward spiral in a promising academic career.
Bullying also has created such pain for his brother, who has autism, and his sister, who has Down syndrome, that “never in my life have I felt more helpless,” he said.
“We have a moral imperative to do something about bullying,” Khan told the committee.
Yes, we do.
Kristina, I have a series of posts up on my personal blog about this very topic and how it affects special needs kids. They, unfortunately, are targeted more than the norm because they are misunderstood by both adults and kids. Take a look.
It’s a topic that I hear mentioned all the time, for sure; there’s an “anti-bullying initiative” in our district and was in the previous one, too (though I’m not sure if everyone was the most pleased with the results). Thanks for the link!
Our son is shielded from it–so far. But I know that the time will come. I just know it.
It would be wonderful if everyone was on the same page about this in the school districts, but unfortunately it’s not.
Hazma did a wonderful job talking about it and standing up and doing something about it.
Good for him. Thanks for posting this.
did you all see the autistic girl on Tyra Banks model show? she was tormented by almost everyone. youtube has some of those scenes.
my son was the target of a middle school bully. he walked into a math class and announced that retards dont belong in “our” classes then dragged Ryan out into the hall.
Ryan is gentle and liked to walk a bit and then jump up and down and walk back during recess. the bully prevented him from enjoying his recesses and made him pretty sad. i went up to watch from the car one day and it made me super mad. on the verge of hiring goons kind of mad (i hope you gentle people dont know how i felt that day).
i talked to the teacher who said i should wait it out; the bully had targeted all the boys at one time or another she thought it would pass. it did. and Ryan dealt with it pretty well when it was “his turn”. though he was sad and resisted going to school he never fought back or reacted at all. he sort of ignored the bully even when he hit him a few times (Ryan doesnt react much to pain).
funny thing happened about 3 months later. the bully was chasing the boy who was his current target around. Ryan stopped walking (stemming some would call it) and went to the top of the jungle gym and shouted “up here!” “you cant catch me” the bully took the challenge and when he got to the top Ryan shoved him off. the entire playground applauded, and Ryan (very formal and strangely dramatic at times) took a small bow and i was told he said “it was nothing”.
the bully, who was much bigger than all the other kids, never picked another student to harrass. it was the talk of the school for a while. Ryan cured the bully.
Ryan would never talk about the incident except to say “bullies are despicable”. i agree.
Can’t vouch for the content so this is just FYI
Free webinar–need to register
Community Action: What YOU can do to Stop Bullying Now!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
1:30-3:00pm Eastern
http://www.mchcom.com/liveWebcastDetail.asp?leid=329