Actually, cyber bullying was already here. Whatever happened to the good old days where the bullies just made everyone’s life miserable on the playground?
Area schools and parent-teacher organizations are meeting to discuss the growing trend of cyber bullying where children and teens use computers, hand-held devices, cell phones and blackberries to harass torture and embarrass their peers.
Apparently the problem is so epidemic that PW County Schools plan to include cyber bullying in the Code of Behavior. Regular bullying is already a point of emphasis. In the past few years, schools have become increasingly sensitive to the harmful affects of bullying. Deputy Superintendent Rae Darlington has been a champion of the anti-bullying programs that already exist in the county.
According to the News and Messenger:
The suggested changes to the Code of Behavior, which the School Board reviews and updates annually, would expand the definition of bullying to say that “cyber bullying, the intentional and/or repeated harm of others through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic or technological devices, is strictly forbidden.”
Clarice Torian, Director of Student Services for Prince William County Schools recently told the school board:
“The suggested additions to the code of behavior would apply to student behavior in school, and outside of school if the behavior impacts the school environment.”
News and Messenger also reports:
According to a study by criminology professors Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, who started the Web site http://www.cyberbullying.us, 9.4 percent of middle schoolers reported being recent victims of cyberbullying and 17.3 percent reported being victims at some point in their lives.
The study also said that 8.2 percent of middle schoolers reported being recent cyber bullies themselves and 17.6 percent reported being cyber bullies at some point in their lives.
According to the study, some examples of cyber bullying are sending harassing e-mails or instant messages, posting insulting or slanderous things on online bulletin boards or social networking sites.
Does this behavior stop at adolescence? Is this something kids outgrow or is it something we continue to see way into adulthood? Certainly those of us who have traveled about the blogosphere are quite familiar with bullying. Additionally, those of us who have dealt with political issues are certainly familiar with some of the bully tactics that are used in against the ‘enemy.’
What is adult cyber bullying? Would those who bully do so on the playground or is the anonymity of a computer what brings out this disturbing behavior? How does it manifest itself in the blogosphere? The chat rooms? Emails?
Over the weekend, let’s take a look at examples of cyber bullying as it relates to blogging and politics. I am sure many of us have a story to tell.
MH – a thread like this can bring out very raw feelings, as it obviously has. But it still is a good thing you put it up, I think. On balance a lot of interesting things here, some I agree with, some I disagree with. Things did heat up quite a bit though!
GR,I think if we all shared experiences like this a little more, we would see the more human side of each other. That’s what is missing in blogs, and that’s why there are so many communication problems. Words are so slippery, even when they have been carefully chosen.
Anyway, I’m not going to ask for a group hug or anything, and I wouldn’t suggest an online therapy session, but suffice to say, a lot of us know what it means to be beat up physically and emotionally.
Thanks for being brave about it and saying it.
Firedancer – I could not have dialogued in this way 20 years ago. Took a lot of self analysis, professional help, etc. to get me to this point. I have come along way since my very shy childhood, which was made worse by the constant bullying, etc. Yes, I recognize I was lucky, the outcome could have been much worse. In some ways it helps to tell this story to people, I have found that out to be true in the past too. Not an easy story to tell, and I just skimmed the surface of it without going into detail. No one, not even my parents, knew of the daily occurences at school. i led them to believe it was 2 or 3 times a month. They wanted me to report every incident to the principal – if so they would have needed to just set up a chair and desk for me in his office as I’d have been there every day! Looking back on it, not sure how I was able to bottle that up inside and not tell anyone the severity of it. Somehow I pulled it off, but not sure how. Some things I’ll never figure out. Some things I sort of have rationalized as to how they came about. Whatever, I suppose in some ways I led an interesting life in my past as a child, but not one I’d recommend to anyone. Gives me an interesting story to tell, so that’s something I guess.
I’m really trying to think on both sides of this great divide. I think that many people who advocated for the Resolution were falling prey to racial stereotypes and scapegoating courtesy of Greg and to some degree Corey Stewart and John Stirrup. That’s bad. It lead to a really bad policy and it has hurt our county in ways that few predicted.
But, it is also a stereotype to assume that every member of Help Save Manassas was blinded by those stereotypes. It seems that when GR posted some things that sounded a bit like an HSM person, some people assumed they were like the “stereotype” of an HSM person. Possible?
–It seems that when GR posted some things that sounded a bit like an HSM person, some people assumed they were like the “stereotype” of an HSM person. Possible?–
Yup.
It makes me mad that GL could even create and encourage such a stereotype.
True enough, writing about personal expeiences allows others to see the human side of a person, Pinko. This medium is bad in a way as it can be impersonal and lead to misunderstandings. Problematic when all it is are a bunch of words. English being my worst subject, I may not be the best at conveying things when I get a little bit on the defensive side. Writing slight bits of my backstory as a child is a little theraputical for me in some ways, in a strange sort of way.
But will agree with you, helps for posters to present a more human side of themselves from time to time. Otherwise a person on here is just a faceless entity behind a pseudonym, and lots of words make it sometimes hard to discern who is behind them. Particularly when (and not trying to sound sexist) – i have a little easier time figuring out a poster if I know if they are male or female. Don’t know why that is, shouldn’t matter – but have a harder time if I don’t know person is male of female. May be a bit sexist, and apologize if so – but just maybe some quirky way my brain works. As you can figure out – have spent long periods of time pondering how the human brain works, mine in particular. I am by no means a perfect person and have a set of quirky behaviors but it is just who I am. Obviously spent a long time trying to figure out motivations of my childhood enemies. When you are shy and in situation I was in, gives you lots of time to think and ponder about “how the world works” as it were. Hard to really explain, but guess I had a lot of time as a kid to reflect on my lot in life at that time.
We all carry pain inside, and telling our stories helps break down barriers and build community. But someone has to be brave to take the first step to share. Thanks for being brave tonight, GR! Buenas noches.
Witness Too – I’d rather not rehash this too much more, but initially just said I thought watered down version of resolution was good thing. I came into this debate late in the game, maybe a week or two after resolution was watered down. Was not part of debate while initial resolution was in force, or leading up to its action. Puzzled me when the attacks came for me just saying I liked the watered down version of the resolution. Yes, I know – still allegedly costed a lot of money, but no one has ever been able to quantify what that amount of money was. Let’s not revisit that – I don’t want to reopen that debate either!
Anyway, at this point I think i’ve said enough on re: initial reaction to my presence on this blog about a year ago now. Let’s leave that discussion behind – as in “past is past” and let’s all move on. I made my point, and we can all agree to disagree so to speak. My temper may have been raised the other day by WHWN unwittingly when he said I should talk to Greg and Corey. That made me “fly off the handle’ so to speak and perhaps I hadn’t totally come back down today, and maybe just maybe revisiting my childhood past a bit slightly opened up old wounds. But I still think MH did a good thing here putting up the childhood cyber-bullying topic – interesting discussion here even if I don’t agree with all of it.
So, think i won’t rehash early days on teh blog anymore. Let’s all move on from that topic. Healthier for all of us all way around.
Buenas Noches, Firedancer!
This thread was not intended to be about bvbl or about hsm.
It certainly has been a spirited discussion, however. I really respect those who have shared personal experiences. I wonder how many adults today have any notion of the impact they had on others as children? Somehow when most of us grow up, we learn better social behavior. Kids can be extremely cruel.
Agreed MH – not sure how it turned into that! Actually, reading from top, I might have made second post refering to bvbl in this thread. For that, I apologize – as was not my intention either to turn it into bvbl stuff – however unwittingly i may have contributed to that. Don’t think I really did as I reread things – but certainly I wanted it focused on chidhood cyber-bullying/chidlhood bullying in general – which is much MORE of personal interest to me than any debate about bvbl, immigration, etc. Again, I am glad you put it up, seems like in the end some good things came out of this thread – even though it got a little heated in the middle! As long as the cake didn’t get burnt through and through, and seems like in the end it didn’t, maybe some good came out of it!
Wow MH – Elena and Alanna out of town? Wait to they get back and read this thread…
Oops nevermind, thought i saw MH say that, maybe I misread something as now I don’t see that anymore. I take back what I said in my post right above this one.
MH – Kids can be EXTREMELY cruel. In my opinion crueler than adults. But I am heavily biased obviously. Still, I do wonder how many kids who were bullies ponder the damage they did to people like me. Wonder if any of them feel any remorse. That and more are some of the things I’ve pondered over the years. However, have no answers for those questions – to me those are as complex questions as “what is the meaning of life”!
Oh I think they will be interested in reading it. Alanna might be reading it on her blackberry as we speak or in her hotel room.
It took me a long time to catch up, and that wasnt even reading carefully.
Yep MH, can imagine took you a long time to catch up on this thread, lots of words, lots of heat, finally more light than heat in the end! Has me a bit exhausted just thinking about the ups/downs this thread went through today.
Thanks, MH for bringing this topic up.
In your post you asked for examples of cyber bullying. You said, “Over the weekend, let’s take a look at examples of cyber bullying as it relates to blogging and politics. I am sure many of us have a story to tell.” So I gave you some BVBL specials.
Good night, everyone, and thanks. This really meant a lot to me.
GR, yeah….writing is very therapeutic. It’s also hard. But I don’t have to tell you that.
Somehow, I like to know age and gender, too. I don’t think that’s sexist. Except some people just want to dismiss you all together if you’re a woman. I don’t think that is what you were saying.
Bless you….sir? 🙂
It isn’t sexist. It is part of who we are. A tag, as it were.
Kids can be meaner than snakes. Most of us are taught as kids not to be mean and as we get older, it sinks in more. I suppose we become more socialize or domesticated.
One of the things that has not come up yet is the idea of group mentality. How many people do things in a group, as part of a group, that they would never dream of doing as an individual?
The flip side of this question is how many people would do something totally nasty and heinous if they thought no one was watching?
Most of us can think of historical examples of each situation.
Pinko – age to me is more irrelevant compared to sex – I can’t explain why and I know it sounds odd. Wish I could explain it. Yes, I am male. I am also middle aged, which probably could be figured out when I’ve said I lived in Point of Woods for more than 20 years.
Group mentality MH – can only bring up my childhood once again. 90% of time, bullying was done to me by more than one person. Very very infrequently was just one person against me. Seemed to be group dynamics of many against one (2,3, or 4 mostly) that encouraged it and they fed off each other. Just an observation – something again I’ve pondered but have not a real answer for but only own personal experience.
With that, it is late, I’m calling it a night. Goodnight all to anyone still on here. Past my bedtime even for a weekend!
@Witness Too
Witness, I somehow missed your post on women-haters. Last night was pretty intense. I woke up thinking about it and GR’s incredible story and what amazing people we have around us. And to think, it took something like this blog to bring it out.
I find that truly racist people (I mean deep down haters and manipulators, not mere jerks) usually hate more than one group. We know BVBL is also a place where gay bashing is acceptable. They’ve gone after other vulnerable groups as well, but I don’t have the quotes to show that here. So why not women? Minority groups of all kinds are the most vulnerable, and these sick people feel the need to prey on the vulnerable.
As far as feeling bad about ganging up on GL and RD….I don’t see they have been ganged up on. They have always had their close group of supporters and defenders in HSM and in county government. They have power and authority. You can’t gang up on people who are so connected and unified like that.
HSM is its own support system.
Anti isn’t a group. 9500Liberty isn’t a group. We are a bunch of individuals, mostly bloggers, who want to put an end to this thing, but we aren’t some organized force. All we really have is a blog and some big mouths 🙂
But that makes US vulnerable.
So I guess I don’t feel bad for GL and the gang in that sense.
I do feel bad in the sense that people who are so angry and hateful have a kind of sickness. They are destructive to themselves and others. And that makes me sad on all kinds of levels.
I’m not going to get overly philosophical (though I would really love to), but we’ve all got this side to us, this reactionary anger, that can destroy us. This kind of anger can fester and just rot you away and take others along with you. Most of us have felt that kind of anger. Fortunately, most of us can put a stop to it before it becomes out of control.
So that’s why I’m sad when I see what Gl/RD and some of these people have become. It’s hurting them and us and everyone else because we’re all human.
It’s all too easy for any of us to get there ourselves.
Quite the thread!! I don’t even know what I could possibly add. Well, maybe some bullying stuff from the local paper.
Well, here’s something that’s not bullying..
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!!!
Back at ya, Chris! And every other person who’s a mom or who feels like one. That might cover most of everyone.
I had family visiting so I am just now reading this thread! will comment later!!!
Happy mothers day!!!!!!!!!!
I am glad to see this thread ended up being productive. Reminds me of a really good group counseling session!
In todays outlook section there is an essay regarding whether or not the Post should accept and publish, or delete those with negative things one says on line. The ombusdman (sp) stated that all comments should be welcome, in an effort toward free speech. And the ombudsman stated that respondants should be allowed to hide behind an anon status as well. I thought this was interesting as far as the conversation about bullying.
I did not read the article, but I agree about allowing anonymous respondents. My hope is that many of the hateful and violent things that people say anonymously help them to vent their emotions, and thus they do not go out and act on them. It should be up to our elected officials not to look at such displays of hatred as an indication of public opinion. And for God’s sake, even if that IS the public opinion it should be up to our elected officials to lead rather than follow in such a situation.
I’m afraid what happened in PWC was that we had elected officials who looked at that kind of sentiment as somehow politically advantageous. So they even went so far as to legitimize it by relating to a highly manipulated and jaundiced blog like Greg’s like a public relations company. I believe that this disturbing relationship between our government and this kind of hatred is what turned our county upside down. It encouraged those who were filled with hatred, and this in turn alarmed those who are most vulnerable or most offended by hatred.
But to make myself clear, I am not faulting everyone who posted on Letiecq’s blog. Many were attempting to push back against the hatred. It’s too bad that most of those were banned, and it’s really too bad that so many people mistakenly believed the hate/bullying blog was a realistic portrayal of the type of folks who live in our county.
Also, if there were somehow a justification for disallowing anonymous comments, that would silence people who would otherwise be afraid to speak out in a hostile or oppressive environment. Readers just have to realize: when the anonymous comment is hateful, it’s probably an expression that a the person would not have made if their name was attached to it, so in that sense it can be taken less seriously (unless there are threats included). If the comment is a voice of dissent against hatred, then the reader should understand why the person behind the comment does not want to expose him or herself as a target of the hatred.
Oh, and Gainesville Resident. I would be surprised if a regular poster on this blog attacked you for supporting the “watered down” version of the Resolution. As I recall, it was Alanna and Elena who led the community in pushing for the repeal of Probable Cause. They were very brave in doing so, and earned the respect and admiration of most of the people who post here. Many contributed to the effort by calling or emailing their Supervisors.
So, GR, it was unfair to attack you for supporting this effort. Whoever did that probably should have attacked Alanna and Elena instead. All you did was say “good job.” I’m very sorry if someone attacked you. I was not a regular reader at the time but I would have defended you for certain.
All but the most extreme voices in our community agree that the Resolution without Probable Cause is much better than the Resolution with Probable Cause. It was going to force us to expend millions of dollars in law suits and was probably unconstitutional because it instructed police to try to identify members of our community who appear to be illegal and treat them differently than the rest of us. The Equal Protection Clause of our Constitution forbids this.
Many of the comments I read in all papers that allow comments are unconscionable. We got along for years without comments on everything. Everyone survived. I don’t think it is a free speech issue. In fact, the expression ‘free speech’ just about makes me barf every time I hear it or read it because it is so misused.
I did not talk about the article because I believed what it said was true. Nor do I really understand/accept the whole free speech thing unless I benefit. However, when one puts themselves out there in an article, an author of a blog, an author of an op ed piece, the author of a book, an open facebook account, a stupid twitterer, one who responds on a blog, a TLC family, one who runs a blog etc. then we are open, and have opened our opinions and lives to others. We got along for years without comments on everything because for years our comments were not made public on an online/immediate device. Now they are. We’ve made sure they are and the result is what it is.
Technology that has allowed online commenting on newspaper articles – has led to this sort of online venting of feelings. i kind of think what Witness Too said is hopefully true – allowing people to vent online precludes them moving on to more violent things. Venting can sometimes be good if not taken to extremes. Although, as i said, technology has caused a lot more visibility into vicious types of commentary about newspaper articles and so on. It is both good and bad. Now feedback is immediate – maybe sometimes too immediate as people don’t let things sink in and think about them. All of this is an interesting byproduct of today’s technology. As people said though, for years we got by without this – there was just the “letter to the editor” newspaper section and that was it!
In regards to my early days on here – kind of want to close that topic, but that was what got me on the defensive side – just saying something relatively innocuous. I even pointed out in response that I never said I supported the original resolution, as i came in late to the debate. what bugged me was attempts to link me to Greg, say I must be an HSM member, etc. Whatever, it is over with, so will just move on. Just thought some people – if they were wrong about that, they might have to step back and think they might be wrong about a lot of other people too – as far as who was and was not HSM members, bvbl posters, and what not. That’s all I’ll say on this now.
It was good to link that article in about comments to newspaper articles, in this thread – it does fit right in. I’ve only a little looked at Washington Post comments, and even on non-immigration topics boy is there some ugly stuff in there. I wouldn’t want to even try to post in there, it’s like jumping into the water with a bunch of sharks.
When I was in first grade, I can vividly recall, walking home from school, alone, singing and crying all at the same time, tears sometimes making it impossible to see in front of me. I was horribly teased by some older boys because of they way I looked. I had a severe overbite with front teeth that went their own direction. I started headgear in the latter part of first grade, wore it almost 24 hours a day, began braces in fifth grade. By seventh grade my teeth and overbite were corrected. I have never forgotten how incredibly sad those boys made me feel.
Behind the “scenes” here on anti, there are several posters who take “enjoyment” out of critiquing several anti women on their looks, it doesn’t bother me. It actually makes me wonder……how lonely, sad, and empty these people must feel to find it necessary to attempt to be so cruel. You can see it often on the dark screen, those very personal attacks on our physical appearance, but it truly only demonstrates how shallow their arguments have become, when they sink to such depths.
Gainesville,
I am so sorry to hear about your childhood pain, pain that clearly left scars. I think many people bear those scars from childhood, although not necessarily shared experiences, those times are when, as human beings, we are the most vulnerable.
Almost 20 years ago, a young man name Alex, aged 15 was killed by pervert. Alex was out riding his dirt bike in the woods, along where the Cardinal Drive power lines go through, when a guy named Michael George got him, tortured him, and eventually killed him. Michael George was executed in 1997 because he had also stolen Alex’s shoes. That theft allowed the death penalty to kick in.
Alex’s parents were highly thought of in our community. I later got to know his mother and she was a lovely, gracious lady who somehow had managed to forgive her son’s murderer.
Bear with me….during the trial period, someone wrote a letter to the editor. The writer spoke of bullying another boy on the school bus. They bullied him because he was slight, because he was poor, and I don’t remember all the other reasons–the usual lame reasons kids have for ganging up on others.
The writer then revealed the identity of the boy whom they had bullied on the school bus: Michael George. The author wondered if they had in any way influenced George’s adult behavior and would things have turned out differently had those on the bus not made that kid’s life miserable.
Rarely have I read a letter that hit me between the eyes like that one. The depth of the soul searching gave me chills, and it made wonder how many kids are permanently altered, in one way or another, from the cruelty of others. Who is to say?
I doubt that any one thing causes a murderer to evolve. But perhaps if one person stops, thinks, refuses to join the mob mentality, then that perfect storm from within that makes one person become a murderer….well, maybe it won’t happen.
I wish I had saved that letter to the editor. It has haunted me for 20 years.
That was a powerful post Moon-Howler. For me, the pain those boys caused had the opposite effect. I never allowed anyone in my presence to be teased or ridiculed, never happened, no matter how popular the kids, I always let them know what I thought of their behavior. But I can see, how that kind of pain, without the right support system, on those that are not resilient, can twist their souls. This is not an excuse, we all make choices in life, and we are responsible for those choices, but I can see how suffering alone can change people.
The scary thing is we do not know how a person might be affected. For you, it made you a champion of the underdog, it sounds like. I will never forget that letter I read. It was one of those things you never forget. I made my kids read it. They still remember it.
Witness, it’s true not everyone on BVBL is a hater. Some people vent online. I know I have. The problem is, you vent and people vent back at you and so it continues and gets nastier. However, for most people, venting is just that–venting.
That said, there are too many people who take their venting into real life because for them, it’s not just venting. There are too many people who act out what they say, and sometimes, when there are so many people venting, it all festers, crazy people feel empowered, and it all gets mixed together.
I never would have believed it until a few years ago…and I’m going to put this out there…that I was raped and beat up by an internet wacko. When I was talking to him online, I was already in a very bad place psychologically (bad depression and ADHD meds, bad doc etc.), and I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe him. I didn’t believe people could ever be like that, that messed up. I mean, I was pretty messed up, but NEVER like that.
So you can see why I take threats online VERY seriously. You don’t know who will take the hate out of cyberspace and into real life.
That said, I’ve always had some moral outrage, but this made me crazy outraged at anyone whom I perceived was getting picked on.
The experience also gave me lovely things like PTSD which I have survived, thank God, but there are certainly days…and even with all the progress I have made (got a new doc, BTW, soon after that happened, appropriate depression meds, etc.), I about cracked when these people started to invade my blog space with their hate. I went right back to a place I hadn’t been in awhile. So I turned off my comments. I had to. It wasn’t good for my psyche, and I just don’t need it in my life.
I didn’t listen to the “testimony” against me at the little “hearing” attended and promoted by a laughable sized group. Again, I just didn’t need that in my life. But that five members of the BOCS supported hatred, thwarted free speech and listened to a pathetic minority (What? About 50 emails and 4 people at the meeting out of 400,000 residents in PWC?) told me something about this county. They don’t want to repair this county’s reputation.
They STILL support hatred.
And they support people who complain about stupid things like potty mouth–like that’s a valid reason to deny non-political, civic engagement.
WTF?
Elena, I also had the teeth problem but didn’t get my braces until 4th grade if I remember right, got them off in 8th grade. Added to my problems obviously.
Yes, anyone who is making fun of people’s weight or whatever behind the scenes as it were, is really stooping low and must not have much better things to do with their time I guess. Truly uncalled for, and downright mean.
KG – sorry to hear about your bad experience with online internet activity that led to physical violence. There’s a lot of wackos out there, but there’s plenty of cases out there where women have started out online with someone that led to unfortunate physical encounter.
Actually meant to say “BET there’s plenty of cases out there…”
Haha…I’m another member of the overbite crowd except that I never had mine straightened. By the time I got over my childhood fear of dentists and had the money to have them corrected, I didn’t bother. I remember being teased about my teeth only once as a child – by another child that was teased about his weight. I guess I didn’t let it bother me enough to take my parents up on their offer for braces.
Bullying at school didn’t occur often when I was a child. Corporal punishment was still practiced by the school principal so most of us stayed in line. At home in our neighborhoods, we were subject to scolding by all the neighborhood “moms”. There wasn’t a lot of “my child can do no wrong” attitude at play in the “olden days”. It’s probably much tougher being a child now and being subject to harassment from a variety of commonly used devices – pretty much inescapable.
I have mixed feelings about the reply section to news articles. It’s sometimes good to be able to post an opinion without having to fear real life harassment. I would hope it’s an opinion expressed rationally. However, most of the replies to WaPo articles -and particularly those in the MJM/PN – can be so loony/hateful that they’re not the least instructional except that one would become aware that there are plenty of unbalanced folks out there. Believe me, they’re out there at neighborhood meetings as well – they’re often the screamers who won’t allow others to speak, the tire-puncturers who retaliate against opposing positions, the folks that the police have to keep away from the construction equipment moved on site. What I don’t like about the newspaper replies is that bullying/abrasive public behavior that most people would be ashamed of is now becoming standard. It’s a lowering off the bar that I hate to see – even if it’s inevitable.
Off=of
(and there are probably more typos)
Censored, I didn’t have much fear of the dentist, but still it wasn’t much fun. Had to get total of 6 teeth pulled to make room in my mouth before I got the braces.
Didn’t have corporal punishement in school. Few times I reported bullies, not sure exactly what happened. One time though one almost broke my jaw – and after going to nurses office because I had to, at principal’s office was interviewed by police officer. I didn’t even know this kid, had never really seen him before (semi-large junior high school of roughly 900 students). Didn’t even know his name and almost couldn’t ID him (but did on request of principal next time I saw him in hall surreptitously followed him to class and reported him, which was a few days later). Anyway, police officer interviewed me, never knew what happen, suspect they just scared the pants off that kid as he never bugged me again, but then again I rarely saw him or encountered him. Was just random encounter getting off school bus when it arrived at school, he was getting off some other school bus I guess, or just milling around front of school waitintg to make trouble with some unsuspecting victim. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time so to speak, as I’d never even seen this kid before, who was a big kid, much bigger in size than me or bigger than size of average person (I was short and thin). Anyway, that’s the only time that the school maybe came close to some serious discipline. I only reported maybe 1% or less of times I was victimized, my parents thought I was reporting everything – little did they know I only told them and school authorities the most very serious ones. Otherwise they might as well have set up desk and chair for me in principals office!
These days, maybe things might be handled more differently, maybe some of them would have led to assault charges I suppose. Things were much different in 60’s/70’s when I went to school then today. Then again, I fear that today those bullies would be carrying around hidden knives, probably, so glad I don’t go to school today. This was in upper middle class area, although had pieces that were not upper middle class, most bullies seemed to belong to those lower class areas of community I lived in. Elementary school not so bad, things got worse in Middle School which seved entire township (in New Jersey) – and first started mixing with those lower class kids.
Thanks GR. It has taken me a long time to get past all this. If anything, it taught me that clowning around on the Internet isn’t safe. I watch my kids’ internet activity VERY closely.
I am glad Gainesville implemented the bullying policy, and I hope more schools follow suit.
PWCS has a general bullying rule. One problem, however, is how to define bullying. PWCS’s is still a little subjective.
Definition of Bullying
Bully/victim violence occurs whenever a student intentionally, repeatedly, and over time inflicts or threatens to inflict physical or emotional injury or discomfort on another’s body, feelings, or possessions.
A person is being bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more persons. Bullying behaviors include actions which cause the physical, verbal or emotional abuse of others and shall not be tolerated. Taunts, threats, insults, gossip, humiliation, teasing, pushing, tripping, and hitting are all considered bullying behaviors. Violators are subject to corrective action up to and including suspension and expulsion.
http://www.pwcs.edu/admin/pwcs/admin_pdfs/R733.01-1.pdf
PAP,
So sorry to hear about your horrific trauma by a nutcase.
LOL! I like how you put that. “Trauma by nutcase.” Sounds like a great book title!
Like I said, it has gotten MUCH better between time and better medical care. It’s a long process, though, as you can imagine. This happened 4 years ago.
Interesting Pinko – did just the Gainesvile part of PWC schools implement the bullying policy? Reading your post it sounds that way. Don’t know PWC schools as never went to them and have no children, but would have hoped policies like that would automatically be implemented county-wide.
Good question, GR. I only know what you know from the article.
I might ask. My older daughter goes to Gainesville.