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"I am so excited," said Susan Burkinshaw, co-chair of the Health and Safety Committee of the Montgomery County, Maryland Council of PTAs, reacting to her upcoming participation in Thursday's White House Conference on Bullying Prevention.
In the wake of increased national attention to the problem of bullying President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are hosting the first ever White House conference on the issue Thursday.
The conference will bring together teachers, parents and students from across the country, including Burkinshaw who will participate via web site. She is thrilled that the issue has reached the national stage, "When it comes to bullying, everyone has to be on the same page."
Burkinshaw, a mother of three, recalled the incidents at a local middle school last year that compelled her PTA to call for a district-wide anti-bullying program.
"A girl's locker was vandalized with a used sanitary napkin," Burkinshaw said. "The girl's clothes were stained, so she had to wear gym clothes the rest of the day. Her locker was defaced with markers. But the school originally classified this as vandalism, even though the girl felt completely victimized."
In another incident, Burkinshaw spoke of a sixth grader who was "tormented" by different groups of students. "They called her ugly, ridiculed her clothing, and even took a picture of her in the bathroom with an iPod Touch. But it took a long time to resolve since so many different groups of children were bullying her."
It was stories such as these that compelled her PTA to implement a countywide, bully reporting program aligned with state policies.
'Connect for Respect'
Since then, the Montgomery Council of PTAs has organized ongoing meetings with students, parents, school authorities and local public officials, including the state attorney's office.
"I don't believe that our community would take this as seriously if the parents didn't press the issue," added Burkinshaw.
The need to combat bullying has propelled the National PTA to launch a nationwide initiative, "Connect for Respect."
"It's time to step it up because bullying is not just happening on playgrounds anymore. It's happening everywhere; online, via text, and on social networks. And parents may not know that it’s happening or what to do about it," said Chuck Saylor, National PTA President.
Dr. Tara L. Kuther, a professor of psychology at Western Connecticut State University who specializes in adolescent and at-risk children, added: "Social media makes bullying more public and humiliating, allowing students who once might have been bystanders to participate in the bullying. Some websites permit anonymous posting, which allows bullies to act without fear of retribution or getting caught."
Some of Kuther’s tips on understanding bullying are part of the National PTA’s website at www.PTA.org/bullying.
The National PTA's "Connect for Respect" initiative will provide resources for parents, as well as for local PTAs, to encourage anti-bullying events, as well as the creation of anti-bullying policies and practices.
Back in Montgomery County, Maryland, Susan Burkinshaw said the PTA was encouraged that "although the reporting of bullying incidents increased, the number of serious bullying incidents declined."
Organizers like Burkinshaw and the National PTA's Chuck Saylor hope the White House conference on bullying gives anti-bullying efforts more national exposure, thus helping more children avoid being victimized in their schools.
Related links:
Follow the conference LIVE on the White House web site
StopBullying.gov
Leave a Comment:
Bullying did not occur in the schools of yesteryear. Bully's were expelled from school and sent to reform schools. You have to separate the good from the bad. You might be able to convert a bully in the first four years of elementary school, but after that these bad eggs are beyond help and usually end up incarcerated.
If you think bullying didn't exist in "yesteryear", I guess you must have been one of the "cool kids". If you weren't, you would know better than to say this.
It's way past time our elected offcails strate act on this matter,its gotten way out of hand with the electronic devices kids have accues too bully need delt with before anymore tradgy happens or more kids are bulled too death..
Bighorn, that's not true at all. I went to school in the 70s. Bullies had a "constitutional right to an education" and the most the administration would do is "talk to them" about the abuse. They quickly learned that they could beat on anyone they wanted to and the worst punishment was having to listen to a boring lecture for fifteen minutes. Victims were "counseled" on "making more of an effort to get along" and chided for "tattling." Soon the victims quit bothering to report the abuse. We're not talking name-calling and teasing here, either..... physical injury was involved. Victims were punished for retaliating, but punished for "tattling" if they reported it. What the heck are you supposed to do?
Exactly. In my case I was told they didn't have these problems til I started school there so because I was the new student it was my fault.
There is gross misunderstanding/incompetency/distortion with
Cyber Bullying regarding the following:
Cyber Bullying would denote a term in which by the method "cyber"
someone Bullies another. Bullying is defined as one who uses a higher power or
knowledge over another. Cyber predators do not have higher power or knowledge.
They just have ability to type and use a mouse. When a person uses a device to
destroy one's ability to get employment, relationships, business, not over
truth, but what the cyber predator has posted, this is Cyber Victimization.
Let's not change the definition of the English language to
benefit the politicians, lawmakers and lobbyist promoting large media firms who
profit from lightening victimization to ALL of society (adults and children) to
merely bullying the children. Cyber Bullying is term that was made up by media
(those who want to promote free speech no even though death threats or other
speech promoting illegal acts they feel should be OK) The difference is that
the internet has enabled the victimization to occur continuously, never ending
as results have stayed in place for over a decade! The results of ignorance and
misunderstanding of technology has resulted in suicides.
Cyber Victimization effects adults worse than children as
the victimizing posts prevents life (Employment), liberty (enslaved to damages
a victimizing permanent internet post, that prevents obtaining money for a
civil trial EG $5000 or $10,000), and pursuit of happiness (Employers and people
are using internet searches for a new kind of background check) The
victimization IS what prevents a person to enact their rights. And if it
effects the adult it certainly effects the adults children.
Let's not waste time and have to later duplicate our
efforts. We simply need a national LAW FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN that prevents continuous threats,
harassment, stalking and defamation. Telling everyone to get along is not going
to do it.
Good luck, these days schools take a "now now" approach to irradicating bullying. God forbid we take an iron fist approach to the offenders. Wouldn't want to offend anyone! I tried very hard to get our school district to turn on the bus cameras only to have the school's principal tell me it's invasion of privacy. That's BS since my daughter and sons were harassed daily and my daughter had boys sexually harassing her in kindergarten. I finally got sick of the school doing nothing and pulled all three. They're all now home safe doing cyber schooling. No distractions or exposure to garbage this society keeps handing out at a younger age. Their cyber school has ZERO tollerance for any form of bullying and they expel them immediately. Their grades have vastly improved and they thank me daily for getting them out of there.
My kids were punshed for defending themselves to these bullies. This society is going down the crapper thanks to new laws that protect the offenders. I miss the old days where you stepped out of line, you paid for it dearly and KNEW not to do it again. Nowadays, all you have to do is claim you're mentally stupid or a past victim or even on meds that caused you to behave that way. We'll just keep taking hard earned tax money to put these morons in "programs".
I have no faith in this. It all starts at home.....
No one has the right to abuse another person SEE: www.acourageousheart.com
Florida has no anti-bullying law. Unless bullying happens in school and the school happens to have an anti-bullying policy, nothing can be done. Parents can bully and harass children as long as they don't leave physical marks on them. Some of the parents are worse bullies than the children. That's how children become bullies. They are following in their parents' footsteps.
As for bullying not happening in schools long ago, that's not true. When I was in high school in 1961, we had bullying. One of the boys in my class was consistently bullied. He was finally beaten up in the boys' room before the school reacted and threw the bullies out of school. He was hospitalized. The bullies were given a choice: join the military or go to prison. Actually, I think one joined the Merchant Marine and one joined the Army. No one went to prison. I don't know what happened to the rest of the bullies. I don't know if the the boy who was bullied ever returned to school that year. He wasn't the only one who was bullied, but he certainly got the worst of it. There were girls who were bullies also, and the school administrators ignored the problem. No one in a position of authority talked about it.
The difference today is that people are finally talking and we do have laws against cyber-bullying and school anti-bullying policies, if administrators will act on those policies
Views of a young Doctor
Following from a young physician by the name of Dr. Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph letter to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis". It's worth a quick read:
Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.
While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!
During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care?
I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me".
Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.
Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD
Well, Young Doctor,
It appears that your time spent in medical school did not give you any instruction in critical thinking. And you failed to get that quality of character called compassion, due possibly in part to the fact that you have had a silver spoon in your mouth your entire life.
It is possible that this young woman had HAD a job and paid for her tattoos herself, along with her shoes and gold filling. It's possible that she was given her cell phone, as a gift. It's possible that she could be receiving Medicaid for reasons that are irrelevant to you. It's possible that she has tried and failed to quit smoking. You, being that fresh, young doctor that you are, have no real understanding of how hard that habit is to break.
It's possible that you are being judgmental. It's even more possible that this is a piece of pure fiction, and you are not even a doctor at all.
Sure, all that you decribed is indeed a possibility. And once in a great while it may actually be true.
Unfortunately, what Young Doctor has described is more often the case rather than the exception. I know from my own personal observation that a lot of people DO have the "I breathe, therefore I deserve ______— (fill in the blank) whether I can afford it or not" attitude.
...but we digress from the topic of bullying...
The country is on the brink of financial disaster. The middle east is approaching a melt down. Gasoline prices will soon cause our economy to grind to a halt. And, the messiah is no where to be found, but he has time to host a national conference on bullying. There is no doubt bullying is a problem in our schools, but this is not an issue that rises to presidential importance. Once a community organizer, always a community organizer. World leaders have stopping laughing at his involvement in such minor issues because they have stopped paying attention to anything he does.
Bullying has been around for a long time. I attended a strict Catholic school in the 1950's and there were bullies. My parents taught me to defend myself and I was in a few scrapes with bullies. The bullying stopped when they knew you would fight back. Parents today should encourage their children to be strong and defend themselves. Raise hell with administrators and school boards of your child's school if they are lax on preventing bullying. Bullying will never end but, a strong child both mentally and physically is less apt to be bullied.
Greg-
Like my above post, our school did nothing. I even took it to the school board and was shot down. Was told in front of everyone the problem is too big but they're working on it. Not hard or soon enough. They were more upset I was taking my taxes away from their district. It all came down to money that they cared about. Only thing that did get attention was when I threatened the school I was going to press charges. That got their attention.
I wish it could be that easy, Greg....
Amazing. It seems that Mr. Obama, Mr. Reid, and Ms Pelosi are very well versed in Bullying since they used these tactics so successfully to ramrod their programs through Congress. Oh yes, I forgot to add intimidation as part of their methods. A real nice bunch of people wouldn't you say, or is their Bullying and intimidation more politically correct as "leadership"? Give me a break.
Obama is side stepping the main issues again!
Just teach your children to defend themselves---well. And to project a personality character that tells potential bullies to watch out "or else".
Simple. Perfect. No problems.
School-yard bullies grow up and become workplace bullies. It has been going on for YEARS, and because there are no laws to protect the victims, these crimes are never punished. The bullies have no incentive to change their ways.
It is just as devastating to an adult to be bullied on the job as it is for a child on the playground. The adult may have a family to support. This makes changing jobs more stressful. But the effects of bullying are low self-esteem, depression, fear, anxiety and stress. How many days are lost to the physical and/or mental aspects of these effects?
Isn't it time to put a stop to bullying everywhere? Other countries have laws against it. We should too!