The Anti-bully Blog series Edition #15

Logo Credit to Nate Williams

I’m not even SURE where to begin with THIS weeks blog! I’m doing an editorial type piece and typically speaking, I stick to what listeners have to say, and then a follow up. THAT is usually my editorial piece! However the Mother Hubbard syndrome continues, I have a lack of listener material, so I’m on my own.

SO I was VERY lucky to come across another blog like mine BUT in a different style a couple weeks ago. My last post was highlighting it. It was refreshing to see teachers in a position where they were doing something about the bullying because in FAR too many of our posts, teachers and faculty FAILED the victims of Bullying.

WELL PREPARE for an EPIC Fail! A story made it’s way to me, it’s a couple weeks old but it’s STILL worth sharing. It’s one thing when teachers turn a blind eye to bullying, it’s QUITE another when the Teacher is the Bully. This was the case in a New Jersey School. A 15 year old was bullied by his teacher. Most of the time when some one is being bullied we try and get them to talk to some one about it. Well this boy did….and no one believed him. SO thanks to modern Technology, he caught him in the act. Check this Video out

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/133858078.html

Did you watch it? Did your stomach TURN? Mine did. THIS is supposed to be some one that student should feel SAFE turning to…not scared to be in the same room with. The video seems to get worse and worse as it progresses, to the point where he’s IN the students face and threatening him. What pisses ME off is actually AFTER the video…this teacher is on paid leave because of it…soooo VACATION?! NO! You have PHYSICAL EVIDENCE this has happened…fine if you need to do an investigation do it, but don’t reward this guy with PAID TIME OFF! Speaking to ANYONE like this is NOT acceptable but a CHILD?! This is also a guy who is in a Role Model position…can you say BREEDING ground for bullies? This is a Story I’m PRETTY heated on, but I also want YOUR feedback. I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. PLEASE feel free to share your comments here!

DON’T forget I’m ALWAYS looking for Material for the Anti-Bully Blog, and yours would be fantastic! If you have questions or something I could use on an up coming edition you can FB me or e-mail me nancy.wood@mbsradio.com

The Anti-Bully Blog Series Edition #14

Logo Credit to Nate Williams

So It’s Wednesday, and I was feeling rather Mother Hubbardy (I know I’m not the only one who remembers the Nursery Rhyme). I went to look at my Material for today’s blog post. Well my blog usually is Chicken Soup like, I share the stories of others, yeah I do a follow up but it’s FUELED mostly by listeners being brave and kind enough to supply me with material. I get e-mails from Bullying Canada That I keep on hand so I can read the stories and do editorials on them should I ever be in this situation (PS if EVER you see one of these, Bullying Canada WILL Receive FULL credit for the story, we’re aware I LOVE that group). So I popped over to my e-mail and typed in Bullying looking for Material and came across an e-mail that I’d never seen dated like October 25^th…Hooray for Modern Technology! The E-mail was from a Woman named Jane, who was thanking me for some of my past posts. Turns out that she was a high school teacher for 31 years and was dead set on having her class room be a SAFE place. If you’ve read older posts, you know how it usually works with the school. If you haven’t let me get you up to speed. A LOT of bullying of course happens at School. TYPICALLY speaking, it would seem that the school FAILS the victims of bullying. So the fact that this person strived to make their classroom a safe place…THAT is HUGE! Jane should be getting an award of some sort for that ALONE! BUT there’s more to the story than that. She and her Husband, who also worked in the School system are now retired. Now what is WONDERFUL is they haven’t given up! They are STILL trying to fight and make Schools a safe place. They have put together a blog you should SO check out! It’s alwaysachance.com. What I like about their page is that it’s a little more official than mine. My blog, like I said, has a Chicken Soup feel to it. I’ve learned a lot from DOING this blog and I hope you have from reading it as well. But no two people are going to have the same blog, and some times a new angle is a wonderful thing. So I DO recommend checking out their blog. I have the home page open right now, and there ALONE it has a post on Warning signs your child may be a victim of Bullying, How a bully works with their group, Tools to deal with Bullying, and even School Faculty being involved in the act of Bullying. I fired back an e-mail to them and Will be book marking this page FOR SURE. Like I said this was the home page alone, so I WILL be digging deeper into their page. Thanks again SO much to Jane for e-mailing me, I hope we can stay in touch.

Remember the Anti Bully Blog Series comes out Wednesdays, and it keeps going because YOU keep it going! Remember if you have questions about the Blog or you have a piece you’d like to do for me you can Facebook me or e-mail me nancy.wood@mbsradio.com

The Anti-Bully Blog Series Edition #13 Follow Up

Logo Credit to Nate Williams

I wanted to start this Blog with an explanation of what's going on here "behind the scenes" with the series! So I'd like to point out, I've now gone to a post a week. There are a couple reasons for that. For starters there is a lack of content, so I'm trying to stretch it as far as I can. Remember this keeps going because of your contributions. I post how to reach me with pieces and questions at the bottom of EVERY post, this one will be no exception.

So I wanted to cover that but I also wanted to explain why there wasn't a new post last week. My Grandfather passed away last Wednesday. I was at the station and ACTUALLY about to start writing the follow up when I got the news. So I kind of rushed to NS to be with my Fam, so sorry, but I was slightly distracted.

I kind of feel bad it's been THIS long since I posted, and feel I SHOULD apologize to this Anti-bully. I don't want them, to think I in ANY way have trivialized their piece. So without Further delay (we've had enough) I'll start into the Follow Up

I'd like to start by saying it's GREAT that this piece actually had a happy ending, because there was potential for it to not have. I'm SO glad it did because well no one wants to see the other ending, BUT this person is also a FANTASTIC person. Just think, with how many people we've lost to bullying, how many possibly AMAZING adults we have. People say they weep for the future all the time, and I'd like to point out, the bullies survive.

I know I'm a liberal person, so not everyone may not feel the same, but it AMAZES me, that in today's society calling some one "Gay" as an insult is STILL so common. For starters, the fact it's still considered the "Ultimate insult" sickens me. Secondly...that's the best you got? REALLY?

So FURTHER along in this post it brought up a topic that there has been A LOT of coverage on in the series, and it's SUCH an issue these days I'm glad it was brought up (not that it happened though obviously). Cyber Bullying. Cyber Bullying, I probably know about as much as most adults. Facebook came out when I was in college, and therefore, I've never witnessed it as a kid. I've seen it though, I have young listeners on FB and have seen them say "I'm going to punch her in the face", "What a Bitch", "she's Ugly", "I wish she'd die", "No one likes you, go away", "You better watch yourself"...and the list goes on. Notice most were actually females there as well...yeah I noticed that too. Also I love how people say block them. If you think that is where it ends, you're VERY much in the dark on this topic. We're in the age of technology, and guess what, many of the adults are not as smart as the kids on this one. There are ways around blocking. It's SO easy to start up a new FB account. Groups, those are easy to make too, and Bullies THRIVE off the sheep who follow them, on a social network think how high that number can get. PS you can also be added to groups by others on FB now too...so they can hand picktheir followers.

I'd like to point out too how this person said "I thought that because it was verbal it was nothing". THAT can be worse than pounding the crap out of some one (I said CAN not always, depends on the case). I remember I had a class in Middle School that was taught by my Guidance Counselor. It was a total bird course, but I remember a "story" he told us. It was completely cheesey but it got the point across. He took a piece of paper and wrote IALAC on it. It was an Acronym for I Am Lovable And Capable (Kind of impresses I remembered that). So he told this story to us about this kid who had his metaphorical IALAC sign, and each time he was picked on a piece of the sign was ripped off, until there was nothing left. At NO point in the story did this kid get physically bullied. SO in case you missed the symbolism here, this kids feelings were ripped away until he couldn't take it anymore. So Verbal bullying? STILL BULLYING. Humans have emotions and they're strong, so hurting them, REALLY effects them.

Another thing to mention about this is that this person felt they had no one to talk to. This is why groups like Bullying Canada and Kids Help Phone.You've ALWAYS got some one to talk to, and that can be such an important thing. I know there are times I just need to talk to some one, it can make a world of difference. SO if you're going through this PLEASE remember there's ALWAYS some one to talk to.

I want to thank this Anti-Bully once again for sharing their story. Remember if you want to share yours or ask me about the blog you can FB or e-mail me in complete confidence (I never use a name or mention the sex of an Anti-Bully unless I'm given permission). nancy.wood@mbsradio.com