Dear Safe Schools Coalition Members and Friends:

(1) “Two Virginia Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Bullying Bills”
(2) “When The Teacher is the Bully”

(3) “Four Ways to Deal with a Bully Situation at School”

(4) “SC Equality Publishes Monumental Study of State’s LGBT Community”

(5) “Does Bullying Really Get Better?”

(6) “Glee’s Gay Suicide PSA: It Got Worse”

(7) “Bullying: Are You The One?”

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(1) “Two Virginia Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Bullying Bills”
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/two_virginia_lawmakers_introduce_anti-bullying_bil.php

As I have written before here and here, Virginia's current anti-bullying laws are nothing less than a joke and school personnel who fail to address bullying are pretty much given blanket immunity while the bullies face virtually no consequences - even when the bullying leads to a student's suicide as happened last May at Grafton High School in nearby York County in the case of Christian Taylor (pictured at right). In Taylor's case, his principal bully continues to strut around the school and likely bullies others - still with zero consequences.

Now, two members of the Virginia General Assembly - one gay and one straight have introduced bills that would address this shameful deficiency in Virginia's laws.

These bills deserve passage yet I am sure will be strongly opposed by the Christianists at The Family Foundation (a Focus on the Family and FRC affiliate) who want no conceivable constraints on their ability to denigrate and make life a living hell for LGBT students and others who do not subscribe to their vile and perverted version of Christianity. One can only hope that all too spineless members of the General Assembly with for once stand up to Victoria Cobb and her fellow hate merchants. Here are highlights from the Washington Blade's coverage:

This article is continued at http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/two_virginia_lawmakers_introduce_anti-bullying_bil.php 

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(2) “When The Teacher is the Bully”

http://drdeborahserani.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-teacher-is-bully.html

Bullying has been front and center in the public arena for some time now. In recent years, schools have promoted a zero tolerance for schoolyard bullying. Guidelines and resources are more readily available to cope with the workplace bully, as well as for cyber bullying that happens on the computer superhighway.

But what if your child's teacher is the bully? Recent research shows that 2% of children are bullied by a teacher in their lifetime. Teachers who are bullies have the same characteristics of other bullies. They are sadistic and petty, gaining self-esteem through the humiliation of others. In the school environment, a teacher-bully will shame a child in front of classmates, often using their position of authority in abusive ways. The teacher-bully may make an example of a child, sending him out of the room or to the corner. Maybe an extra assignment or denying your child recess becomes the vehicle for bullying.

I had a teacher who was a bully. I was in the 10th grade and she made my life miserable. She was my Spanish teacher, and all year long she picked on me, calling on me to answer impossible questions, throwing me out of the class for making noise and even accusing me of cheating on the Regents exam. Luckily, I had a reputation as being a very quiet student, never getting into any trouble or mischief. I hardly spoke in class and was painfully shy. Administrators responsible for overseeing my “discipline” knew there was a bullying situation going on. Unfortunately, there were two choices. Either drop Spanish and not graduate or stay in the class, since there were no other Spanish classes to transfer into. The lesser of two evils was to stay in the class. And though I had support from my parents and from my friends, the teacher’s bullying was traumatic for me. I was young and ill-equipped to deal with the humiliation and accusations. Like a deer in headlights, I just stood there, helpless.

You may read the rest of this blog, including some tips for dealing with a bully teacher at http://drdeborahserani.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-teacher-is-bully.html

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(3) “Four Ways to Deal with a Bully Situation at School”

http://christinejavier.blogspot.com/2011/01/four-ways-to-deal-with-bully-situation.html

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(4) “SC Equality Publishes Monumental Study of State’s LGBT Community”

http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2011/01/sc-equality-publishes-monumental-study.html

South Carolina Equality, a group dealing with lgbt education and advocacy in SC, has come out with a monumental survey of over 1,000 of the state's lgbt community.

According to Q-Notes: 

The survey exposes several needs and challenges currently facing the state’s estimated 117,000 LGBT citizens, advocates say, particularly among LGBT youth in the state’s public schools. 

Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents indicated they’d experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in South Carolina’s public education.

Christine Johnson, head of SC Equality said that she has already begun conversations with state lawmakers in order to get the ball rolling on anti-bullying legislation.

However, according to South Carolina Republican strategist Wesley Donehue, this may be a difficult fight. Donehue said the following in a piece at ProcessStory.com:

There are many Republicans in the General Assembly who will flat out try to kill any bill providing more gay rights. They aren’t the problem for the SC (Equality). Their problem will be the many forward-thinking Republicans who are sympathetic to their cause, but won’t go for putting more laws on the books and creating a special protected class. 

Donehue's comments no doubt leaves many (myself included) bewildered, particularly in light of a legislative battle which took place last year over a bill regarding teen dating violence.

To read the rest of this blog, please visit http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2011/01/sc-equality-publishes-monumental-study.html

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(5) “Does Bullying Really Get Better?”

http://neatoday.org/2011/01/19/does-bullying-really-get-better/ 

High-profile and heartbreaking incidents of student bullying have happened so frequently in recent months, especially among gay and lesbian students, that there’s a new word for the phenomenon: bullicide. And it’s left educators and parents alike wondering—just what in the world are we doing wrong? How is it some of our children can be so mean? And others so despairing? Aren’t these anti-bullying programs, popular in so many schools, working at all?

It’s possible that what we think we know about bullying isn’t all we need to know — it’s also possible that some of the most commonly held assumptions are misguided or that far too many adults still don’t believe bullying is a serious problem. 

But finding the right answers is critical to NEA’s mission of ensuring a quality education for every student. Bullying robs students of their opportunity to learn and “exacts scars that can last a lifetime,” notes NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Its victims are more likely to fall behind, miss school, and eventually drop out.  We owe them more that that. Says Van Roekel: “It is our shared responsibility to ensure that every child can attend a safe public school.”  

Many bullying programs apply a one-size-fits-all approach to problems on campus. They train teachers and support professionals to be watchful and consistent (often at a high price). But while it’s critically important for every adult on campus to recognize and stop bullying, Colby College professor Lyn Mikel Brown, co-director of the nonprofit Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, believes most of these “top-down” programs look promising, but don’t go far enough.

“You really have to do this work with students,” Brown says. “Those programs don’t allow for the messy, on-the-ground work of educating kids. That’s what has to happen and it looks different in different schools and communities.”

It likely starts with a needs assessment, going into a school and understanding what are the major issues. Is it harassment of gay kids? Is it kids with disabilities? Who are the harassers? Then, Brown says, you have to engage kids in creative ways to work through those issues: “[R]esponsive classroom work, the work where you have kids sitting in circles and processing this information. That’s the most powerful work.”

To read the rest of this blog, visit this link

http://neatoday.org/2011/01/19/does-bullying-really-get-better/

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(6) “Glee’s Gay Suicide PSA: It Got Worse”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-anthony-libresco/glees-gay-suicide-psa-it_b_781815.html

Popular TV show Glee has had a tendency to go off the rails when it tackles serious issues. The show's irreverent, ironic tone had led them to strike occasional false notes when they address issues of disability and discrimination in the past. Last night's episode, framed as a response to the rash of gay suicides early this year was extraordinary counterproductive.

When Mr. Schuester, the glee club advisor, sees Kurt being hit by a member of the football team, the teacher does not discipline the bully himself or go to the principal's office to make sure the bullying is resolved. He accepts at face value Kurt's statement that Mr. Schuester can do nothing to help him. Once Schuester feels like he is off the hook, he reframes the problem as Kurt's responsibility, asking him why Kurt is "letting it get to you" and rebuking him for becoming withdrawn and belligerent.

Depression or anger is a reasonable response to abuse. Although Kurt would probably prefer to be less upset by his bullies, it is unfair for Schuester to frame Kurt's response as the problem, rather than the abuse provoking his response.

If Glee had set up Mr. Schuester's response as a reflection of the lapses of some teachers and districts and had provided a better model later in the episode, his counterproductive message could have been redeemed. However, the mistakes of Mr. Schuester were repeated and amplified a few scenes later by the episode's unambiguous 'good guy.'

Kurt meets Blaine, a gay student at a more tolerant school, and turns to him for advice. Blaine was also bullied at his old school before he transferred to his new, zero-tolerance private school. Since private school tuition isn't an option for Kurt, Blaine tells him he should "refuse to be the victim."

This advice to gay teens is misleading and dangerous. It is ridiculous to say that bullied students need to "refuse to be the victim." No one consents to assault. Kurt is not allowing or condoning bullying because he is upset by it. No one should feel ashamed that they could not stop a bully on their own or that they had to withdraw from a painful situation.

To read the rest of this blog, visit this link http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-anthony-libresco/glees-gay-suicide-psa-it_b_781815.html

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(7) “Bullying: Are You The One?”

http://lilysblackboard.org/2010/12/bullying-are-you-the-one