"College to create antibullying program
Westfield State College is creating an antibullying program for schools after the deaths of two Western Massachusetts students who allegedly were bullied. The college’s teacher education center said its “Bully Proof Zones’’ plan will bring teachers, administrators, counselors, and students together. Westfield plans a two-day seminar followed by workshops to develop a model for schools. Center director Patricia Gardner said college students may be able to help younger people change attitudes about bullying (AP)."
And then it will be presented to the governments of Israel and AmeriKa, right?
"Bullying ruled out in student’s death
Authorities yesterday disputed widespread rumors that bullying had precipitated the death of a Gloucester middle-school student who was fatally struck by a commuter train Monday. “At this stage of the intensive, ongoing investigation, the evidence does not reflect that bullying or any other unlawful behavior by anyone else was the cause of this young boy’s death,’’ said Steve O’Connell, spokesman for the Essex district attorney’s office. Michael Grzybinski, 13, an eighth-grader at the Ralph B. O’Maley Middle School, was killed by a northbound commuter train in the area of Babson Reservoir around 6:30 p.m. His mother had reported him missing about two hours earlier. Investigators say they do not suspect foul play.
--more--"
"Teen in bullying case faces DUI charge
A teenager charged in the bullying of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide has been arrested on a drunken driving charge. The Republican newspaper of Springfield, citing a police report, yesterday said that Austin Renaud, 18, was arrested early Sunday in Holyoke and released on $40 bail. He was to be arraigned today in Holyoke District Court. Renaud has pleaded not guilty to statutory rape in the bullying case. He is among six teens charged in what prosecutors said was the “unrelenting’’ bullying of Phoebe Prince at South Hadley High School. Prince committed suicide Jan. 14 (AP)."
"S. Hadley School Committee head steps down" by Matt Rocheleau, Globe Correspondent | April 15, 2010
SOUTH HADLEY — A split, standing-room-only crowd of local residents addressed school officials last night, expressing both anger and support toward the administrators during a meeting that saw multiple outbursts, including by the first two speakers, who were removed by police at the request of Edward J. Boisselle, who has served on the South Hadley School Committee for the past 10 years....
One of those speakers indicated officials should be hanged, and the other person was forced to leave because the chairman felt he was beginning to get into 15-year-old Phoebe Prince’s personal life.
“The School Committee is coming off looking deplorable,’’ said a resident and high school parent, Barrie E. Chambers-Leonard....
The whole state does -- because it is.
--more--"
Lawmakers are poised to enact sweeping antibullying legislation after reaching agreement yesterday on a measure that would require school employees to report all instances of bullying and require principals to investigate them.
Both the House and the Senate are expected to pass the bill today, and Governor Deval Patrick has voiced strong support for the measure, which gained momentum after the highly publicized deaths of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince and 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who took their own lives after being bullied.
State Representative Martha Walz, the bill’s primary author, said the mandates will deter bullying and prevent it from reaching dangerous proportions.
“When this passes, it will the strongest antibullying legislation in the country,’’ said Walz, a Boston Democrat and House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Education. “Without mandatory reporting, things can spiral out of control.’’
The public outcry over the two suicides, and widespread anger at what was seen as the failure of school administrators in South Hadley to intervene against Prince’s tormentors, fueled support for the bill. Massachusetts has been one of just seven states without a specific law targeting school bullying, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and laws are pending in Wisconsin and Hawaii.
The reporting mandate would apply to all school staff, including cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, and coaches at public and private schools alike, legislators said....
The bill defines bullying as acts that cause physical or emotional harm, place students “in reasonable fear of harm,’’ or create an “unwelcoming or hostile environment at school for another person.’’
ISRAEL and the PALESTINIANS!!!!
It would prohibit bullying on school grounds, on school buses, at school-sponsored activities, and through electronic communications. Bullying via e-mail or social networking sites such as Facebook would fall under the purview of the schools when it creates a hostile school environment, legislators said.
I'm glad I don't go to school now.
The bill does not prescribe penalties for violators, leaving schools to choose their own sanctions for school employees who look the other way.
“Faculty and staff could potentially lose their job,’’ said Representative John Scibak, a Democrat from South Hadley. Last month, both legislative chambers unanimously passed earlier versions of the bill.
The bill also would require schools to teach students about bullying prevention each year, train staff to recognize it, and adopt plans to address the problem.
So do you RECOGNIZE ANYTHING in those TWO GOVERNMENTS I mentioned?
The plan must outline procedures for reporting and investigating bullying, and spell out the range of penalties for perpetrators. Schools must also offer parents education about bullying.
“The intent is to fundamentally change school cultures,’’ Walz said.
AGENDA-PUSHING BRAINWASHING by a MASS-MURDERING STATE, great!
The changes would take effect at the beginning of the next school year.
Advocates, who had feared the Legislature would approve a half-measure, praised the bill as tough and comprehensive.
“This is really going to make a difference for kids,’’ said Arline Isaacson, cochairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus, who praised the bill’s training requirement.
“If the staff is trained in how to deal with bullying, that will take a real bite out of the problem.’’
Derrek Shulman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, which lobbied for the bill, said the legislation marked a “serious attempt’’ to address the problem.
“It requires students to be aware of the destructive impact of bullying,’’ he said.
These people make me sick!
TELL IT to ISRAEL, a**hole!
Elizabeth Englander, a bullying specialist at Bridgewater State College, said the legislation will serve as a strong deterrent.
“You’re really sending a message that this is serious,’’ she said....
Yeah, so we don't deal with the REAL PROBLEMS of THIS COUNTRY, like a LYING, WAR-MONGERING, MASS-MURDERING GOVERNMENT and MSM!!!!!
Under the bill, the state education department must develop a model bullying prevention plan. Children who are vulnerable to bullying because of a disability, and children with autism, must have provisions in their special-education plans to help them deal with bullies....
Prosecutors say Prince, an Irish immigrant, was relentlessly harassed by two groups of students after she had a brief relationship with an older student.
Her death, and the subsequent charges against the students, have drawn international attention as a symbol of the perils of bullying.
That would be the Israeli national flag, folks.
--more--"
"State bill targeting bullying approved; Aims at school, cyber behavior; One of toughest measures in US" by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | April 30, 2010
Lawmakers unanimously approved a sweeping measure to crack down on school bullying, saying its strict requirements for reporting student harassment make it one of the nation’s toughest.
Yesterday’s legislation emerged with broad prohibitions against any actions that could cause emotional or physical harm, including text messages and taunting over the Internet.
They going to SPY on the kids, too?
It also mandates antibullying training, for faculty as well as students, and requires that parents be informed of incidents at school.
But at the heart of the measure, lawmakers said, is the requirement that every school employee, including custodians and cafeteria workers, report incidents of suspected bullying and that principals investigate each case.
“This is a day that we can be proud we have done something positive — to eradicate bullying and to demonstrate to this Commonwealth and to the nation that bullying will no longer be tolerated,’’ said Representative John W. Scibak, a South Hadley Democrat....
Just like sex has been eradicated?
From the minute one man found he was bigger and stronger than another man and could exploit him under threat of physical violence we have had bullies.
But MASS-MURDERING, WAR-MONGERING GOVERNMENT and its AGENDA-PUSHING MSM is going to stop bullying, yup!
“Bullying in our schools cannot be tolerated and teachers and administrators need additional tools to ensure our kids are learning in safe and nurturing environments,’’ Governor Deval Patrick, who praised the bill and said he would sign it in short order in a statement....
It will be only if it is Israel doing the bullying.
“Bullying is not new. Bullying has been with us from time immemorial. But what has changed is that it appears to be more pervasive, more destructive,’’ Senator Robert O’Leary said as he introduced the bill yesterday. “We’re going to send out a message that this kind of behavior is not acceptable.’’
F*** you, PoS a**hole!
O’Leary and other legislators said it was regrettable that they did not address the problem until the two suicides, but expressed hope that the law would in some way honor their memory....
Supporters praised the scope and reach of the measure.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to protect our kids from the destructive impact of bullying and cyberbullying by requiring the training of school staff to prevent and respond to incidents of bullying,’’ said Derrek Shulman, who directs the region’s chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.
School officials said the bill, coupled with intense public pressure to deter bullying, will force teachers and staff to crack down on even mild insults and teasing.
And the COURT SYSTEMS will be CLOGGED EVEN MORE!
So WHEN are the LYING, WAR-MONGERING, AmeriKan newspapers going to be shut down?
“What every school administrator is realizing now is that we have to step it up a notch,’’ said George Usevich, principal of Norwood High School. The bill has “heightened awareness in every school, and rightfully so.’’
Administrators said the mandate to involve authorities in extreme bullying cases would give potential bullies pause. But some school officials said lawmakers had overreached and that the bill could lead to discipline for even minor incidents and create a bureaucratic nightmare.
THAT is what GOVERNMENT ALWAYS DOES!!
“It’s a noble bill,’’ said Paul Dakin, superintendent of the Revere public schools. “But it remains to be seen how policy set at the State House can be practically implemented in our schools. As the rubber hits the road, it’s another unfunded mandate.’’
As THEY STEAL ALL the TAX LOOT and give it to banks, favored corporations and agenda-pushing interests, etc, etc, etc!
Others said the measure did not go far enough, citing the bill’s lack of penalties for employees who do not report bullying.
“It lacks teeth,’’ said Representative Robert S. Hargraves, a Groton Republican and former high school principal. “But anything is better than nothing.’’
Actually, when it comes to government these days, no.
***************
Others faulted the bill for not making bullying a crime, but legislators said prosecutors have plenty of weapons in existing statutes, such as those against stalking and harassment.
Then WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER STINKING LAW?
Btw, isn't a WEAPON a TOOL of BULLIES?
The legislation would amend harassment and stalking laws to include electronic communication.
Civil libertarians said the bill defines bullying so broadly that students could get in trouble for teasing or other free speech that, while offensive, is constitutionally protected.
This GOVERNMENT NO LONGER CARES about that document and has made it painfully clear.
The bill prohibits bullying on school grounds, on school buses, at school-sponsored activities, and through electronic communications. Bullying via e-mail or social networking sites such as Facebook would fall under the purview of the schools when it creates a hostile school environment, legislators said.
STAY OFF the "social networks," kids!!!!!
Supporters, recalling the heartrending testimony of students who had been bullied, said the problem demanded a legal remedy.
“It’s so profoundly disturbing, what the adults are letting them get away with,’’ said Representative Martha M. Walz, House chairwoman of the Education Committee and the bill’s primary author.
Who, Israel, Walz!?
Some parents said they hoped the bill would force adults to take bullying more seriously, but added....
Tired of the AMOUNT of PRINT devoted to the agenda-pushing s***, folks?
And you know where it is all going, right?
"Antibully law may face free speech challenges" by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | May 4, 2010
When Governor Deval Patrick signed Massachusetts’ first antibullying law yesterday, supporters heralded it as the most far-reaching effort yet by a state to deter behavior that has driven youngsters to suicide.
But a number of civil rights lawyers and plaintiffs’ attorneys across the country and in Massachusetts say the new law may go too far, limiting students’ constitutionally protected free speech. They said it will almost certainly lead to legal challenges.
Hey, that is Massachushitts!
Related: Massachusetts Governor Maligns Obama Opponents as Insurgents
The CHIEF BULLY in the state, 'eh?
Fueled in large part by soaring recent complaints about “cyber-bullying,’’ some 44 states, including Massachusetts, now have laws that prohibit bullying of students in school and online. But federal lawsuits have also increased because parents of students who have been disciplined are fighting back.
“The people who pass these laws want to make everything better, I understand that,’’ said Evan S. Cohen, a Los Angeles lawyer. He won a federal lawsuit in November on behalf of his daughter after she was suspended by her Beverly Hills middle school for posting a video on YouTube that she shot of her friends making vulgar remarks about a classmate at a restaurant. “They want to protect children, I understand that, too. But that doesn’t mean it’s constitutional.’’
In the case involving Cohen’s daughter, US District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson ruled that schools cannot suspend a student “simply because another student takes offense to their speech, without any evidence that such speech caused a substantial disruption of the school’s activities.’’
“The court cannot uphold school discipline of student speech simply because young persons are unpredictable or immature, or because, in general, teenagers are emotionally fragile and may often fight over hurtful comments,’’ he wrote in his 57-page opinion.
Damn kids!
In February, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled that a Mercer County district had no right to suspend a high school student for 10 days for creating a lewd phony MySpace profile of his principal. The court said the profile, in which the student referred to the principal as a “big steroid freak’’ and a “big whore,’’ was protected free speech.
But in an illustration of how murky this area of evolving law is, a federal appeals court panel in Pennsylvania ruled the same day that a school in another county had the authority to suspend an eighth-grader who posted sexually explicit material along with her principal’s photograph on a fake MySpace page.
Don't you LOVE the WASTE of TAX DOLLARS?
The US Supreme Court has yet to take up a case involving student speech online, so many school districts are struggling to find the right balance between combating cyber-bullying and avoiding free speech violations, according to legal specialists.
State Representative Martha Walz, the primary sponsor of the antibullying bill passed last week by unanimous votes in the Massachusetts House and Senate, said she took pains to draft a bill that would address an epidemic of bullying — online and otherwise — and preserve the First Amendment rights of students. She pored over the laws of other states and read numerous federal cases.
“That was a very significant concern of mine — that we do not trample on the civil liberties of students,’’ said Walz, a Boston Democrat and House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Education.
Just on everyone else.
Walz said the Massachusetts bill, which gained momentum after the January suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince in South Hadley made international headlines, builds on what other states do right but is also unique. For one thing, she said, she was unaware of any other state that requires, as Massachusetts now does, that every student from kindergarten through 12th grade participate in an antibullying curriculum every year.
“The way we’re going to address the bullying problem is to fundamentally change the school culture,’’ she said. “One of the ways to do that is to educate the students from a very early age about how to interact with one another, how to deal with conflict, and how to help classmates when they are being treated inappropriately.’’
So WHEN is the LYING, WAR-MONGERING GOVERNMENT going to LEARN?
Only Massachusetts, she said, requires that private schools, not just public schools, have bullying prevention and intervention programs. Moreover, antibullying laws in other states specifically ban bullying that targets individuals based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or other traits. The Massachusetts law deliberately eschewed that, Walz said, because bullies elsewhere have avoided discipline by claiming they never intended to target a member of a certain group.
“We look at the bully’s actions, rather than the bully’s intent,’’ she said.
ISRAEL!
But some aspects of the law are so general that civil rights lawyers are concerned about how schools will apply it. The law, for example, defines one form of bullying as “repeated use’’ of a written, verbal, or physical act that “causes physical or emotional harm to the victim.’’
By that standard, said Gavi Wolfe, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, a student who calls another student “loser’’ twice on the school bus and hurts the youngster’s feelings could qualify as a bully. A bus driver who heard the remarks would have to report them to school officials, who would then have to contact the parents of both children and take appropriate disciplinary action.
Yeah, what a GREAT LAW, huh?
This is going to be a F***ING DISASTER AREA for SCHOOL OFFICIALS!
I'm GLAD I did NOT become a TEACHER like they told me!!!
Harvey A. Silverglate, a well-known Boston civil rights lawyer, said, “School authorities are going to overreact, and we’re going to have a firestorm of administrative actions against kids for saying things that are merely slightly unpleasant but do not qualify as bullying or harassment or stalking or any other such thing.’’
Wolfe also objected to a provision that requires school principals to notify the police if the administrator “believes that criminal charges may be pursued against a perpetrator.’’
Hey, school is just another name for a prison anyway.
Although the law does not make bullying itself a new crime, Wolfe said he feared that the open-ended language will encourage more principals to go to the police.
“We already have a well-documented problem with a kind of funnel of schools into prisons,’’ Wolfe said. “Mandatory reporting of children to the police is going to increase the flow of the school-to-prison pipeline.’’
And WHO MAKE$ OUT on THAT, huh?
Walz said she took such concerns seriously and added that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will draft a policy for when schools should contact the police. But she expected the majority of bullying cases to stay school matters. She noted that law enforcement authorities were already able to charge egregious cases of bullying under existing criminal laws.
Then WHY did we need ANOTHER LAW, 'eh?
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel charged six teenagers in March with a variety of crimes in the alleged bullying of Prince, including criminal harassment and civil rights violations.
And she is on thin ice with them, but why mention that, 'eh?
Champions of the new law, including the Anti-Defamation League of New England and the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, also expressed confidence that with training, school officials will do their best to staunch bullying and protect civil liberties.
Yeah, I'm sure those sickies really care about kids.
We know who they -- and the agenda-pushing paper -- represent.
Related: Grieving family by his side, governor signs legislation
"ACLU admonishes South Hadley school board
The American Civil Liberties Union says the South Hadley School Committee violated the free speech rights of a parent who wanted to speak about the suicide of a teenager who killed herself after allegedly being bullied by classmates. Luke Gelinas was ruled out of order and escorted out of the April 14 meeting when he attempted to criticize school officials about the handling of the Phoebe Prince case.
Welcome to AmeriKa, folks!
SIG HEIL, school s***!
ACLU lawyer William Newman says he sent a letter to the committee this month saying cutting Gelinas short was a "clear violation" of his First Amendment rights. The board's chairman says there have been no attempts to infringe on anyone's free speech.
Yeah, give a little PoS a title and watch him grow to a log of turd!
--more--"
And they are KEEPING the SUPER, huh?
"Mass. school chief in bullying case gets extension
The Massachusetts school superintendent who's come under intense fire since a high school student in his district hanged herself following alleged harassment by classmates has been granted a contract extension. The South Hadley School Committee voted unanimously at Wednesday's meeting to extend the employment contract of Superintendent Gus Sayer for one year. Some parents called for Sayer to be fired after 15-year-old freshman Phoebe Prince hanged herself in January following what prosecutors called "relentless" bullying by classmates. Six fellow students have pleaded not guilty to charges connected to her death. Sayer, who earned high marks from the school committee, tells The Republican of Springfield that he's pleased the board still has confidence in him.
--more--"
Related: Bullying investigated in Ala. death
Also see: Shut Down South Hadley High School
That is the only way to stop it as far as I can see.
Shut 'em all down; maybe the kids will finally be taught truth and not lies.
