State Legislation on Bullying

Here is a link to

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12903

Media Portraying Bullying

When Austin Williams' character, Shane Morasco, on the soap opera, One Life to Live, started receiving mean text messages and comments on his "MyFace," it was CLEAR that producers and writers have chosen to do a bullying storyline. Usually television shows do storylines like bullying, teenage pregnancy, etc. because they want to make people (especially parents) aware of how serious these things are. The storyline has been building up quickly in the last couple of weeks and will lead to Shane trying to commit suicide.

The bully, Jack Manning, played by Andrew Trischitta, has been playing cruel jokes on Shane, calling him names like “Weezy”, getting him in trouble, taking his money, and the worst of all, leaving him without his inhaler when he absolutely needed it. Shane and Jack’s parents have no idea that this is going on. In reality, most parents never do. They’re in sort of that denial that their kids don’t have problems and are ‘good’ kids. Kids like Shane are very good at hiding it. They won’t seek help because they don’t want to be perceived as weak.

As a viewer of One Life to Live, I’ve seen both sides of the bully and the victim. Jack’s father is one of the biggest bullies on the show. Of course as a kid, Jack would look up to him, so it didn’t surprise me that he ended up being a bully as well. Shane is a good kid, who doesn’t come from a prosperous family like Jack does. He is far from a troublemaker. He has asthma and always has his inhaler on him. Having asthma keeps him from doing certain activities. So, Jack looks at Shane as a weak link or an easy target.

I believe the writers have been doing a great job of portraying the bully and the victim in this storyline. We see stories in the news all the time about people being bullied to the point where they commit suicide. It’s a sad truth. However, we never know the whole story. We don’t know anything about the bully and we know very little about the victim. There are so many sides to a story and on a television show like this, every detail is clear. I don’t know what will happen to Jack or Shane. I’m anticipating that Jack will be punished by his parents and Shane will get some psychiatric help.

Cyber Bullying to The Extreme

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cyberbullying-takes-a-new-twist-with-facebook-smut-list-118569144.html

Bullying, while a traditional physical torment, has taken a whole new form in this age of technology. Now people of all ages can be attacked via the internet by use of links, words, pictures, videos, etc. Recently, by use of Facebook, a page had been created listing a number of high school girls (Harrison, Port Chester, Greenwich, Scarsdale, Rye, New Rochelle and Yonkers being some of them.) based on their "slutiness" whether it be based on rumor and reality. The page garnered thousands of views and became the talk of the town. Names and lives were ruined. And the punishment? There was none. Of course the page was took down but other then that the creators were not sought out for. Is this how bullying is handled? Because it was done on the internet, where it becomes a bit harder to get someone for posting things under such things like the First Amendment, these bullies got away with it. The link above argues with this issue, listing the problems of this situation. A solution needs to be sought soon and it will help move one more step to ending the issue of bullying.

A Message from President Obama & Mrs. Obama Against Bullying

 

President Obama and Mrs. Obama posted this video on Facebook about anti-bullying. They wanted to get the message out there that they will be hosting a meeting at the White House on Thursday, March 10, 2011. President Obama starts with a minor joke saying, "Hello everybody. I'm not here to ask you to accept my friend request." I'm glad that in the midst of everything that has been happening, he can still have a sense of humor and at the same time take bullying very seriously. I think it was very smart of him to post this video on Facebook because Facebook is one of the top social networks. Everyone from students, to parents, and even teachers has a Facebook. Therefore, he knows who his target audience is. President Obama and Mrs. Obama are going to have this meeting to raise awareness of how serious bullying is and how to stop it. They want to show that they too are taking this seriously. President Obama and the First Lady are concerned parents just like all the other parents in the country. President Obama says, "This isn't an issue that makes headlines everyday, but it affects every single young person in our country." It may not be an issue that makes headlines everyday, but it still happens everyday to every kid out there. Bullying these days is like a reflex and it really shouldn't be. Therefore, join the conversation online at stopbullying.gov or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/fbsafety). It's important for everyone out there to learn to be respectful towards one another and themselves.

Young teens may have more to fear while walking home from school

Click the link below to read the story of how a 13-year-old boy was attacked in Philadelphia while walking home from school on January 11.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/17/pennsylvania.teen.beating/index.html?iref=allsearch

The highlights of the story:

* Victim says he had been bullied for months
* Police superintendent: "It was a wolf pack"
* The boy was kicked, dragged and hung from a fence by his jacket
* One of the alleged assailants recorded the beating

There has been an increase in coverage of bullying cases in recent years. It is awful to see and read about the rise in bullying. The victims of bullying are getting younger and younger.

What about the perpetrators? Do they feel guilt or remorse? Do they realize there actions were wrong? What is their punishment? Perhaps a better question to ask is, what ails and motivates these children,teens and young adults to commit such acts?

In this case, the perpetrators not only recorded the attack but they laughed as the defenseless 13-year-old cried out in pain and humiliation.

According to the prosecutor the punishment is:

-They must abide by curfews

-Perform community service

-Have electronic monitoring

The family of the 13-year-old boy who was attacked agreed to the disposition.

Is this punishment enough? Will these boys think twice before they bully another person. There should be a follow up of the progress about victim and the perpetrators. An experience like this is enough to scar a young child permanently for life.

Does the media portray bullying correctly?

On the television show Bully Beatdown (which airs on MTV), audiences are given an inside look at the suffering endured by victims of bullies; a topic that does not usually receive adequate attention in the media today. With bullying on the rise in the US, it is imperative to look at the sources and reasons behind bullying, and research ways to provide proper methods for dealing with such violent/harmful occurences. However, Bully Beatdown appears to do quite the opposite. Rather than educating victims on preventative measures that they can take to ensure safety against a bully or other outlets they can turn to for support, the theme of the show is centered around gaining revenge against the victim's antagonizer. Is this the message we should be sending to our nation's youth? If they are learning how to be a bully, instead of standing up to one and their delinquent behavior, how can we expect this issue to be resolved? Here is a link of the trailer for the show, including the plot line and some of the accusers/accused of bullying.


http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/351903/bully-beatdown-trailer.jhtml

What is bullying?

What is bullying? Well, as defined by bullying.org it is "...a learned behaviour. It is when a person or group tries to hurt or control another person in a harmful way." The main idea of bullying is that there is absolutely no reason for it to exist, it stems from anger or hurt that a person can not properly deal with so in turn that unleash it on others. Bullying.org's definition goes on to say, "There are three aspects of this hurtful behaviour that almost all experts agree; in bullying there is a difference in power between those being hurt and those doing the hurting, bullying involves hurtful behaviours that are repeated and intentional." Everyone and I mean everyone has had their own experiences with bullying whether they had done it themselves, been on the receiving end, or have watched as a bystander. School is the perfect example for this and it doesn't even matter what grade you're in. Age doesn't effect it and neither does gender. Like I said, everyone has had their experience with bullying. A article, "Stranger Days Indeed" written by Eric Edmondson describes his own personal experience with the subject and how fora great deal of time he was in extreme states of depression after being a victim of bullying. He does state the only positive thing that happened was him having more time to read and study but other than that it was a pretty dark time. I believe bullying is a issue that is being overshadowed but I also believe it is no one's fault. It is a such a hard issue to gain control over because one can never be constantly watching out for it, especially in children, you just have to hope people will do the right thing. Victims also add to the difficulty because some don't even tell about their hardships. We need to get a better control on the issue, no matter what the cost.