Teresa Barth sounds a lot like Robin Donlan and her pals at Chula Vista Elementary School District, although at least Barth didn't make an anonymous complaint. I believe that the public has a right to know when public servants go nuts. It seems that the harasser here is Barth, not Stocks.
Encinitas City Councilwoman Teresa Barth filed a harassment complaint with the city against Councilman Jerome Stocks late last year after he didn’t nominate her for deputy mayor and criticized her in remarks to newspaper reporters on why he didn’t choose her.
Legal counsel deemed the complaint invalid because Barth is not technically a city employee, but only after the city spent $15,249 in legal fees investigating it.
Stocks and Barth are accusing each other of political gamesmanship. Barth’s complaint also mentions Mayor Dan Dalager, saying he and Stocks are part of a “good old boy” culture at City Hall. Stocks has called for making the results of the investigation public, and the council will vote Wednesday on waiving the city’s confidentiality policy; Barth released the complaint itself last week.
“I tried to do this internally so that it would not be politicized, and it was Mr. Stocks who leaked the presence of the investigation to the media,” Barth said Friday.
She said Stocks and Dalager targeted her because of her “whistle-blowing in terms of open government.”
Stocks said, “These allegations demonstrate very clearly that Ms. Barth is vindictive, mean-spirited and is unhappy that she didn’t get her way.”...
Phoebe Prince killed herself on January 14. Today is April 12, and her name is still in the news, both locally and nationally. Why?
Partially, of course, it's because District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel has charged six teenagers in the case, all of whom were arraigned last week.
But there’s another – more wide-reaching – story here. A story not about violent, over-the-top bullying (the kind Prince endured) but about ordinary, run-of-the-mill bullying. Not so violent that any crime is committed. Not so horrific that school officials are clued in. But so ubiquitous that almost everyone has seen it or been targeted by it.
After all, particularly violent bullying – at least by girls – does not appear to be on the rise. Mike Males, a researcher at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, and Meda-Chesney Lind, a professor at the University of Hawaii, noted in The New York Times last week that the number of girls arrested for assault hit a “peak of 16,800 in 1995, then dropped sharply, to 13,300 in 2008. So, at best, claims that girls’ violence is rising apply to girls of 15 to 25 years ago, not today.”
General, non-violent harassment, though, is pervasive. And it can easily snowball...
E! Investigates Bullying - A National Epidemic
April 21, 2010, 10:00 PM, ET/PT
(Los Angeles, CA, April 7, 2010) - Every day, thousands of kids across the country are afraid to go to school thanks to an epidemic of vicious behavior among American teenagers. It is estimated that 20% of children are victims of bullying. These attacks come in the form of physical and verbal abuse, as well as by newer methods of harassment using cell phones and the internet. Once thought to be just harmless teasing, the real-life effects of bullying can include prolonged depression and even suicide. Recently, according to police, a 15-year-old girl in Massachusetts hung herself after being taunted by a group of girls who posted mocking messages on their Facebook pages. This one-hour episode sheds light on several recent stories and the tragic effects that can result from this all-too-common behavior when E! Investigates: Bullying airs April 21 at 10:00 PM ET/PT, only on E!.
By all accounts, Dylan Theno was a happy, well-adjusted boy in a small Kansas community. But when he entered 7th grade, a few of Dylan’s fellow students began making fun of him. For years the cruel taunts and name-calling continued. The Thenos claim they spoke with school officials on numerous occasions to no avail and they ultimately had to make the tough decision to pull Dylan from the classroom. Also in this episode, E! Investigates interviews students, parents and faculty in Calabasas, CA, to learn what really happened when red-haired kids were suddenly singled out and attacked on the infamous “Kick A Ginger Day.” E! Investigates: Bullying explores theories of what may be causing the increasingly cruel nature of these attacks, explains how the advent of hand-held technology has given bullies powerful new weapons, and shows what schools are and aren’t doing to prevent bullying. Finally, warning signs are identified that parents should look for if they suspect their child has become a bullying victim.
About Comcast Entertainment Group Based in Los Angeles, Comcast Entertainment Group operates E! Entertainment Television...
SOUTH HADLEY - A friend of Phoebe Prince’s family yesterday called the South Hadley School Committee “gutless” for failing to find out why the school’s investigation into the bullying the 15-year-old endured differed so widely from the district attorney’s.
Darby O’Brien, a father of two who has spoken for the Prince family in recent weeks, said the school board should have called an emergency meeting after Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced the indictments of six students in connection with the teen’s suicide.
“Where’s the gutless school committee?” O’Brien said, urging people to attend Wednesday’s 6:30 p.m. meeting at the high school.
School Committee Chairman Edward Boiselle, who has questioned Scheibel’s findings, could not be reached for comment yesterday as new details emerged about the months of torment Prince allegedly endured before she hanged herself Jan. 14 in the stairwell of her home.
In court filings, prosecutors allege that one 16-year-old defendant told students that she was going to beat Prince up for going out with another of the defendants, a 17-year-old boy, and that Prince “needed to watch out at break.”
Prince allegedly was also verbally assaulted in class, in the library, in the cafeteria, in the bathroom and on her way home from school by the defendants, who called her a “whore” and an “Irish slut,” leaving her in tears, according to court documents.
By Jan. 13, prosecutors allege, Prince told a confidante that school had become “close to intolerable.”
...As Dr. Ablow suggests, people who fit the standard profile of a bully can quickly detect a weakness in their prey, as they did with the Phoebe Prince Facebook. Such bullies are fueled by a need to tear down others, so they quickly develop the ability to find their openings with bitter efficiency.
Being a teenager is difficult for anyone, but for a girl like Phoebe Prince, who was both pretty and unsure of her place in the world, it is particularly difficult. While millions would give anything to be good looking, the reality as Dr. Ablow has observed is that if a teens lack confidence, being attractive can make them targets, rather than popular. Bands of bullies look to tear down people whom they feel do not have the defenses to mount resistance.
Hating was the Mean Girls’ drug, suggests Dr. Ablow
“Dehumanizing her had to have been intoxicating,” he told Fox. Otherwise, what would have been the point? Gleaning information from the Phoebe Prince Facebook was a means to an end – in this case, a high, says Ablow. Considering how widespread social media like Facebook are today, it’s easy to see how dangerous sensitive personal information can be in the wrong hands. Not only can identity theft issues arise and destroy credit, but as in the case of the Phoebe Prince Facebook, it can destroy the psyche.
Is controlling bullying possible?
Dr. Ablow asserts that “In a controlled population like a school system, it is possible, from early grades, to instill in young people a psychiatrist’s view of those who perpetrate violence toward others—as broken, rather than brazen; gripped by emotional disorder, rather than in control.”
Once bullies are no longer glamorized as James Dean-esque rebels, then perhaps the needed cultural shift can occur. Detention and suspensions are ineffective tools, Dr. Ablow feels – better methods for dealing with discipline in schools are needed. Concern is needed, not scorn. Total removal and home schooling until a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist can assure a school that the bully is no longer a threat to themselves or others. Parents or caregivers have to step up...
PARENTS OF BULLIES AND ADULTS IN SCHOOL FAILED IN PHOEBE PRINCE CASE
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick says Massachusetts has to recapture a sense of cross-family parental responsibility to prevent bullying and other harm to children highlighted by the Phoebe Prince case.
During his monthly appearance on WTKK-FM, Patrick said Friday it was "incredibly upsetting" to him "that the adults did not seem to have acted like adults."
He didn’t distinguish between school administrators who allegedly were told about the South Hadley high schooler’s problem, or the parents of the six schoolmates charged with bullying her. The 15-year-old committed suicide in January after one day that was described as especially rough.
Some parents are demanding resignations from school staff in this case, but to be effective, such measures should take place BEFORE a suicide or other serious harm occurs. Board members and administrators at Chula Vista Elementary who were involved in covering up bullying should resign now: Lowell Billings, Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham, and former board members Bertha Lopez, Pat Judd and Cheryl Cox should issue apologies.
Three more arraignments are slated for today in the case of Phoebe Prince, the South Hadley High School student who committed suicide after what law enforcement officials say was an extreme case of bullying.
Flannery Mullins, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, and Ashley Longe, all 16 and from South Hadley, are slated to be arraigned in Hampshire-Franklin Juvenile Court in Hadley. They are being charged both as adults and as youthful offenders with civil rights violations and stalking.
Three others were arraigned Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court, with their attorneys entering not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Prince, who came from Ireland and was starting her first year at the high school, hanged herself Jan. 14 after enduring what prosecutors called relentless bullying.
Shock and anger has spread through a rural Massachusetts town where prosecutors have charged nine teenagers with bullying an Irish immigrant girl who later committed suicide.
Parents in South Hadley were struggling to deal with the tragedy in which US authorities have accused students of hounding 15-year-old Phoebe Prince until she killed herself. And they allege school staff failed to intervene.
The local district attorney, Elizabeth Scheibel, charged nine students with a variety of crimes, including stalking, harassment and statutory rape, saying they had made Prince's last day alive "tortuous".
"She was subjected to verbal harassment and threatened physical abuse," Scheibel said.
"The events were not isolated, but the culmination of a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behaviour and threats of physical harm."
Prince enrolled last year at the high school in idyllic South Hadley after emigrating from County Clare in Ireland. On January 14, she walked home and hanged herself, to be discovered by her younger sister.
What might have remained a private tragedy erupted into public outrage on Monday when authorities announced the charges.
That outrage grew on Tuesday as parents confronted the disturbing details of the case, in which a student clique reportedly known as the Mean Girls allegedly made the newcomer's life hell in revenge for dating an older boy.
Worse, it was alleged that teachers were out of touch with student relationships and did not think of stepping in.
Scheibel said the bullying had been "common knowledge".
"Certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death. Prior to Phoebe's death, her mother spoke with at least two school staff members about the harassment Phoebe had reported to her," the prosecutor said...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. When state senator Bob Reisdorph (D-Pettis County) was a teenager, he was teased unmercifully by a boy whose name and face are etched in his memory. "Jimmy Dale Embree would wait for me to come out of Garst's," a 50's-style drive-in restaurant in Sedalia. "Then he and his gang would throw ketchup packs at me," staining Reisdorph's clothes and, more importantly, his sense of self-esteem.
Four decades later, Reisdorph is fighting back the only way he knows how; by filing legislation to create penalties for bullying, and making "aggravated" bullying punishable by jail, with no ability to avoid prison by paying a fine. "We as a society have got to stand up collectively to bullies, since there are so many who are unable to do so individually."
The bill is the sort of feel-good legislation that ought to pass both houses of the legislature in a breeze, as has been the case with similar laws in twenty-seven other states. There's just one problem: "Jimmy Dale Embree, Jr.", Reisdorph says as he looks warily over his shoulder before dashing to his car, which is parked in a reserved space outside the state Capitol...
[Maura Larkins comment: There is indeed a Pettis County in Missouri. HERE is a list of state senators.]
...She adds that social media networks such as Twitter encourage bullying because it "facilitates a schoolyard dynamic."
"People nudge each other and whisper to each other and say 'did you hear what she said? Pass it on!'," she says. "Someone reacts to what you've posted or tweeted and seeks out agreement from others, who in turn react, and so on and so forth. It can make bullying viral in a way that it just wouldn't be otherwise."
The culture of bullying isn't limited to the virtual world. An opinion piece in the Huffington Post points out that even being a good ecological citizen can give parents license to talk down to -- and yes, even harass -- parents who have different philosophies about child-rearing.
"A new competition has developed pitting the so-called 'green' parent against the 'helicopter' parent who tends to micro-manage and control every part of her children's lives," writes psychotherapist Carol Smaldino. "Directly or not, the bullying tendency within our culture encourages the 'liberated' and ecologically correct parents to openly snicker at those caught in a web of anxiety that is all too frequently culturally induced."
Lillian Gould tells ParentDish about her best friend, who turned on her once she became a fellow parent.
"There was constant bullying," the Charleston, West Virginia mom writes in an e-mail. "Everything from how much weight I gained to the house my husband and I bought."...
When John Halligan's son Ryan committed suicide six years ago at the age of 13, he and his wife tore the house apart looking for the suicide note that would explain why he did it.
They didn't find one. But when Halligan, then an engineer with IBM in Vermont, logged onto his son's instant messaging account, he found the answer he was looking for: Ryan Halligan was a victim of cyberbullying.
Halligan was the keynote speaker at the 10th Annual Suicide Prevention Conference at Brigham Young University on Friday. The conference was conducted by the Utah County HOPE Task Force, a coalition of community groups focused on preventing suicide, and attracted educators, social workers and students.
Greg Hudnall, HOPE's executive director, said the group this year is attempting to get at the root causes of teen suicide, including bullying in its many forms.
"People don't realize the impact of bullying," he said.
Barbara Blotter, student services director at Nebo School District, said students who know a friend is being bullied can let counselors or parents know, especially if the friend threatens suicide. Because some signs of suicidal behavior -- depression, drastic changes in behavior, falling grades, feelings of loneliness, extreme sensitivity, impulsive behavior or drug and alcohol abuse -- can be mistaken for teen angst, Blotter said the key is erring on the side of caution.
Advertisement EarthShare "One of the things we do as counselors, if we have a question [about whether a student is suicidal], we don't let them leave until we notify their parents and let them know," Blotter said in an interview.
Cyberbullying makes school administrators' jobs more difficult, Blotter said. The problem: The bullying takes place on home computers outside school -- and outside a principal's jurisdiction. But Blotter said the school can intervene if the online bullying disrupts school life.
Halligan said bullying was a major factor in his son's suicide.
A bully and his friends targeted Ryan, who had problems with learning and physical coordination, in fifth grade. The taunting became so bad that in seventh grade, Ryan asked his parents to take him out of school. He said talking to the principal would only make matters worse, since he would be labeled a "tattletale."
Instead, Halligan and his son turned to one of their favorite movies, "The Karate Kid," about a bullied teen who develops self-confidence and defeats his tormentor through the discipline of martial arts. But Ryan chose kick-boxing instead of karate, and he and his father practiced in the basement.
Ryan had a showdown with his oppressor, and he thought the bullying was over. Near the end of the school year, he said he had befriended the bully, which Halligan now believes was a mistake.
That summer, he said Ryan spent most of his time on the computer. After Ryan's suicide, Halligan learned from Ryan's friends online and through chat logs that Ryan was the target of a rumor that he was gay, a rumor spread by the bully who was supposedly now his friend...
Have you ever been punched, tripped, kicked, shoved or had a rumor spread about you?” filmmaker JC Pohl asked students at Escondido's Bear Valley Middle School at a special assembly last week. About 350 seventh-graders in were the room, and they all stood up.
“Now, if you have ever done that to anyone else, sit down,” Pohl said.
Five students remained standing.
In three years of taking his Teen Truth Live assemblies on bullying to about 350 schools in 20 states, Pohl said that 99 percent of the 400,000 students his group has reached say they have been bullied or have bullied someone else.
Pohl, a San Diego native who lives in Los Angeles, and his partner, fellow filmmaker Erahm Christopher, were prompted by the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colo., to create a message for children.
“After Columbine we were frustrated because the media just talked to adults, and we felt that students were the ones who could explain why this happened,” Pohl said.
So they gave cameras to five California students to film their lives for a year.
Using 100 hours of raw video from students and security camera footage from Columbine, they produced the award-winning documentary, “Teen Truth,” the centerpiece of their assemblies.
Bullying can be anything from “a bad attempt at humor” to physical violence, and includes intimidation, teasing, labeling and put-downs, Pohl told the students Friday.
“The result is the same. It causes anger, and if kids hold a lot inside, they can explode and may even kill someone,” Pohl said.
In the past 13 years, 148 students and 27 teachers have been killed in school violence in 26 states and 14 countries, and 195 students have been wounded, according to figures compiled by Pohl. Twelve students and one teacher were slain at Columbine.
“Students are the eyes and ears of the school. If you see it or hear it, report it,” he said. “Start doing something today to make a difference. Be more understanding, show compassion, learn how to love each other.” ...
