School board member threatens Godwin teachers: I’ll be looking at you

MoonHowler

https://www.facebook.com/TracyAConroy/videos/10154143168594901/

 

I would be remiss as a former Prince William County educator if I did not address the behavior of Neabsco School Board member Ms Diane Ralston who told the Godwin Middle School teachers that she would be watching them. She also suggested that those teachers who had spoken against the name change did not belong at that school.

You have to hear it for yourselves.

I have to say Ms. Raulston’s remarks were threatening and totally unacceptable. I heard some teachers had considered resigning.

Teachers: Don’t be fools. Do not resign. Hold your heads up high and continue to teach and inspire the boys and girls of Godwin Middle School. There are legal resources to handle these kinds of threats from your employer. I was approached tonight by someone who will represent you. Please contact me and I will pass along the information to you. [email protected]

Ms. Raulston should consider resigning immediately. Her behavior makes her unsuited for any role of leadership in Prince William County Schools. We absolutely cannot have our teachers threatened in this way.

It’s one thing to threaten a colleague as she did Willie Deutsch, ordering him to stay out of her district. It’s quite another thing to threaten employees.

It is my greatest hope that Ms. Raulston will think about the liabilities associated with her actions and at least attempt to walk back her remarks. We cannot have teachers threatened and admonished for their thoughts and opinions.  The first amendment is still functioning in Prince William County.  Those Godwin teachers are the closest ones to the community and the children. We want happy teachers, not beaten down, scared, watched teachers.

We cannot have members of our school board bullying their colleagues or their employees.

Another Bullying Story with a Bad Ending

MoonHowler

 

The cable news channels are full of the sad story of Tyler Clementi.  Tyler was a freshman at Rutgers University and committed suicide last week by jumping off a bridge to his death in the Hudson River.  What caused this young man to go to such drastic measures to end his life?

Tyler had a sexual encounter in his dorm room.  Apparently he asked for the room until midnight.  Unbeknownst to him, the roommate left his computer open and the web cam streamed the entire episode onto the Internet.  The roommate and a friend tweeted the information.  Tyler’s encounter was with another man. 

One has to ask what kind of monsters would do something like this?  Recording this young man’s personal sexual encounter was just another form of bullying.  Bullying goes on all the time.  In fact, there is an epidemic going on in this country and it isn’t just against gays.  Phoebe Prince  of Massachusetts wasn’t gay.  She was basically tortured to death by her peers, who have been charged in her death.  Tyler’s bullies, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy.  They can receive punishment of up to five years in prison. 

People don’t send their children to public school or to college to have them bullied by others to the point they take their own lives. Suicide with gay youth is 4 times that of straight kids. Yet, is bullying just a phenomena with young people or can it happen with any group? Does it happen at the office, in the neighborhood, in our political dealings, on the blogs? Bullying can and does happen everywhere.

We all need to look to see if our behavior involves bullying. We also need to watch for bullying behavior with our kids. Some of the most serious bullying starts with older siblings. However, experts say that today’s technology allows bullying to be carried to new levels. No longer are kids just beaten up on the playground or jumped on the way home and their lunch money stolen like in the good old days. Now people can sit behind a computer, such as happened with Tyler Clementi, and create situations that make someone’s life no longer worth living. Some folks survive and laugh at their tormentors. Others, like Tyler, decide to end it all.

Manassas Old Town Merchants Asked to Close up Shop for an Hour

MoonHowler

It has come to our attention that the merchants of  Old Town Manassas are being asked by the anti-KK zealots to close up shop for 1 hour during the middle of Fall Festival, between 12:00 and 1:00 pm.  Are they nuts? 

Fall Festival and the other events held in the City are to promote fun, highlight the city, and bring in folks to spend money in the City of Manassas.  Localities all over America do this and each place tries to add its own unique touch to an event; something that makes the festival special. 

What kind of a self-serving, narcissistic, selfish person would ask merchants in this economic crunch to turn away potential business for an hour?  Why?  Are they going to pay each merchant their lost revenue?  Are they going to replace the BPOL tax loss for the  City?  Are they going to replace the sales tax to the state?  Are they going to pay the salaries of the worker bees who might get put on unpaid ‘break’ for an hour? 

Do these people think that the average shopper coming from outside Old Town Manassas gives a fig about KK Temptations, which by the way,  isn’t even open for business yet?   The Moonhowlings roving reporters will be taking note of which businesses were bullied into closing.  We will publish those names.  Our readers and contributors may handle the situation as they feel best. 

[Clarification:  People may chose to spend their money in establishments opposing KK Temptations or instead they may choose to withhold their money from said establishments.]

One has to ask what on earth these people are trying to do to the City.  This proposed behavior is illogical.  What people boycott themselves?  The object of the boycott won’t even be open for business. 

Knowledge is power.  This boycott is all about bullying and power.  Some of us will not allow ourselves to be bullied.

Elena

Moon-howler

What’s a Dad to Do?

MoonHowler

There’s a story on all the cable channels today about the father of a handicapped child who got so upset and enraged over his child being bullied that he got on the school bus, asked his child to point out her tormentors, and verbally blasted the kids hazing his daughter.

Teams of ‘experts’ are analyzing the situation.  The dad was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.  He said he had complained to the school and nothing was done.  He will now stand trial.  We don’t know what will happen with the daughter or the boys who were throwing stuff on her and pinning her ears back.  The daughter has cerebral palsy and it has been reported that she is on suicide watch.

First off, let’s look at all the sides.   The father is frustrated.  He reports his concern to the school and the horrible behavior towards his daughter continues.  Most of it apparently is happening on the bus.  He is so upset over his inability to protect his child that he loses it and cusses out and threatens the kids who are perpetrating the problem.

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Bullied Teen’s Tormentors Indicted

MoonHowler

 

Bullying is a serious problem in the United States. It has always been around on playgrounds, at schools, and in the neighborhood. However, with the widespread use of the Internet, bullying has become more pervasive and yes, virulent.  Verbal taunts and physical threats became a way of life for one  young immigrant girl. 

15-year-old Phoebe Prince was the victim of extreme bullying from her peers. Phoebe, who recently moved  South Hadley, MA from Ireland, was bullied by classmates until she hanged herself in January. The bullying was described as relentless and happened in the halls, at school, in the library, in class, via cell phone messages and on the Internet. Nine teenagers   have been indicted for the death of this young girl.

According to the New York Times:

The prosecutor brought charges Monday against nine teenagers, saying their taunting and physical threats were beyond the pale and led the freshman, Phoebe Prince, to hang herself from a stairwell in January.

The charges were an unusually sharp legal response to the problem of adolescent bullying, which is increasingly conducted in cyberspace as well as in the schoolyard and has drawn growing concern from parents, educators and lawmakers

Of course the tormentors bear the main responsibility for the girl’s death. But are others culpable? How about the parents of those kids? How about the school? How about her friends?  Was anyone aware that this was going on? Didn’t some teacher notice that a child was being tortured? How do parents help their children when they are being bullied? This tragedy seems so avoidable.