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On December 4, 2013 Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million member American Federation of Teachers(AFT), spoke on C-Span about bullying, particularly of gay students. Ms. Weingarten said, with surprise in her voice, that she doesn't understand why gay students are still bullied in public schools, because in 2013, "It's cool to be gay." She also said she is gay, and now speaks about it openly.As a psychotherapist, I tell clients that being surprised by another person's behavior often results from erroneous assumptions about the person, usually because you see them as you want them to be rather than as they...

Anyone else see this. Just catching it now. Very unsettling the way this kid acted. Mother gripping her close, her pausing a long tmie to answer questions, constantly looking to her left as if getting cues.

ORLANDO -- Two teenagers accused of cyberbullying a Polk County teen who committed suicide will not face charges. The lawyers of a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl accused of bullying Rebecca Sedwick before her suicide, announced Wednesday that their clients will no longer face aggravated stalking charges. Defense attorney Jose Baez has announced the State of Florida dropped charges against his 12-year-old client during a news conference. “We are very pleased that the State Attorney’s Office through hard work and through extreme professionalism has decided to do the right thing," said Baez, adding that he never believed there was...

As readers may or may not be aware, it’s School Choice Week. However, given the items in the news, you could be forgiven for not knowing. In fact, given those same items, one might get the idea that we’ve instead been going through something like Bullying Month. After years of hand-wringing about the phenomenon of bullying, whether in its generic form oragainst specific groups, it appears to have taken the phenomenon of hazing in the National Football League to get the practice widely condemned to the degree it deserves. In an ideal world, this would lead into a wider discussion...

A New Jersey family is calling for an investigation of a Rutgers University football coach over an alleged bullying incident in which the coach berated a scholarship player during a study hall and threatened to head-butt him. NJ.com reports Mark and Clarice Tyree say Rutgers Defensive Coordinator Dave Cohen established a pattern of verbally abusing their son, Jevon Tyree – a defensive back – during practices and team functions before their relationship escalated into threats of violence during a study hall in the spring. “He was just trying to really make me feel as if I was soft,” Jevon Tyree...

It is common for kids to be teased or bullied for their physical features. Some parents nowadays, instead of teaching their child to love themselves for who they are, are changing their child's physical appearance to prevent bullying. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said plastic surgery has grown 30% in the past decade. In 2008, 160,283 children under 18 had surgery, and 76,000 surgeries were performed on teenagers in 2011. Many children undergo surgery to fix features that cause health problems, such as cleft palates or serious deformities. For example, in 2009, then-eight-year-old Ryan Cunningham of New York state was born with two perfectly...

A facebook group dedicated to criticizing 'ugly' babies proves that bullying is not just an act of teenagers. The private facebook group, which has since been removed, is composed of grown women around the country who grab photos of toddlers from other mothers' facebook pages without approval and post them online for criticizing. The group was originally designed to trade and sell children's clothing but took a nasty turn. One mother, Melissa Anetucci, of Palm Beach, Fla. has made it her mission to fight against the self-proclaimed 'mean girls group' and to expose their wildly inappropriate behavior. She began posting...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo directed state police and the Division of Human Rights on Friday to investigate allegations of anti-Semitic harassment in a New York state school district. “The reports of rampant anti-Semitic harassment and physical assaults at Pine Bush schools, if true, are deeply disturbing,” Cuomo said in a statement to the state education commissioner. … The alleged physical attacks against Jewish students included a swastika drawn on a student’s face against her will, the severe beating of one with a hockey stick, and repeated slapping of another in the head, according to the lawsuit that (lawyer Ilann...

The Miami Dolphins have suspended starting guard Richie Incognito for conduct detrimental to the team. Incognito was being reviewed by the Dolphins, the NFL and the NFL Players Association for harassment of teammate Jonathan Martin, who left the team last week following a lunchroom incident. "The Miami Dolphins have suspended Richie Incognito for conduct detrimental to the team," the team said in a statement released late Sunday night. "We believe in maintaining a culture of respect for one another and as a result we believe this decision is in the best interest of the organization at this time. Incognito, who...

Islamic students were chained to the wall and beaten at the Masjad As-Salaamah Mosque in Ohio. The mosque’s name translates to “Mosque of Peace.” Via IM41:

A high school football coach in Texas was slapped with a formal bullying complaint after his team won 91-0 on Friday. Aledo High School, the football team that put up a score you’d expect to see in a basketball game, has scored 77 points or more in their last four games. This is the first complaint that has been filed against head coach Tim Buchanan for his team’s blowout victories. The dad of a player on the team that was blown out, Western Hills High School, claims Buchanan encouraged his players to bully their opponents by running up the score....

Bullying doesn't just happen on the playground," so begins an article in an online Health and Human Services (HHS) publication called Let's Talk. The HHS's Federal Occupational Health agency cites a recent study finding that more than a third of Americans report being bullied at work, though only 15 percent report having observed bullying in the workplace. The newsletter is illustrated with this graphic: The article defines bullying as "aggressive, inappropriate, and unreasonable behavior," and says that bullying "[h]as many of the same characteristics of domestic violence – the abuser uses intimidation and manipulation to get what he or she...

Countless tax dollars have been spent on anti-bullying programs, and 49 states have anti-bullying laws. After New Jersey passed a broad anti-bullying law, hundreds of schools “snapped up a $1,295 package put together by a consulting firm that includes a 100-page manual.” But a University of Texas researcher found that anti-bullying programs increase bullying, and “actually teach students different bullying techniques—and even educate about new ways to bully” classmates. … The term “bullying” is increasingly being used as an excuse for censorship of speech protected by the First Amendment, such as anti-abortion advocacy, publicly revealing the names of students who...

(CNN) -- In the last few months, the word rippled through news reports of tragic teen suicides in Connecticut, New York, Nova Scotia and Britain. It's the same word sometimes used to describe the way reality TV stars treat one another on camera, or how unfriendly office mates interact or why grade school pals stop getting along. Every parent, teacher and child knows the word: "bullying." But this month, as schools and communities launch fresh campaigns around National Bullying Prevention Month, some are urging more precise use of the B-word. "Bullying," some researchers say, has been misused and abused in...

The news this week of two arrests in the case of a 12-year-old suicide is a reminder of how middle school drama can go awry. When personality clashes move from misunderstanding and conflict to tormenting and bullying, and when there appears to be no safe place -- terrible events can occur. Last month, 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, of Winter Haven, Florida, jumped to her death from the top of an abandoned concrete plant. The two arrests this past weekend included a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old who were charged with aggravated stalking. Posts online from the 14-year-old's Facebook account led Grady...

Authorities in Pennsylvania are to file criminal charges against three students involved in a brutal beating on a school bus on Wednesday - and the bus driver who did nothing to stop the attack and didn't allow the two victims to flee from the vehicle. Police in Chester acted after they viewed video posted onto Facebook that shows one student on the Delaware County Alternative High School bus allegedly hitting 17-year-old Dylan Fonner in the face repeatedly. The grainy video which shows Fonner's face being bloodied, lasts seven minutes and was posted on the Facebook page belonging to one of...

A 12-year-old from Stamford, Conn., was arrested on Tuesday after police say she continually bullied, taunted and harassed another student while at school. Police said the victim’s parents contacted the department to report the bullying on Sept. 20. Both students attend a private middle school. The bullying intensified while police and school administrators investigated, pushing the victim to make suicidal comments, according to police. Police said the pre-teen was charged with disorderly conduct and was released to the custody of her parents. “This behavior will not be tolerated by Stamford Police Department,” said Capt. Richard Conklin and Lt. Diedrich Hohn,...

A 12-year-old from Stamford, Conn., was arrested on Tuesday after police say she continually bullied, taunted and harassed another student while at school. Police said the victim’s parents contacted the department to report the bullying on Sept. 20. Both students attend a private middle school. The bullying intensified while police and school administrators investigated, pushing the victim to make suicidal comments, according to police.

Facebook has apologised for publishing a dating ad featuring a photo of a 17-year-old who had killed herself after complaining of being cyber-bullied. Canadian Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life in April having been severely bullied after a separate photo, showing her alleged rape by four boys, was circulated online, her mother has said. ... "This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the internet and using it in their ad campaign," a spokesman said.

His act of bravery earned him brutal beating from a trio of physically imposing bullies, including a fracture under his eye, stitches all over his face — including in his tear duct — and a concussion. But Wen Jones, 43, said he’d do it all over again. The former marine and father of two observed a 14-year-old boy and his 55-year-old father getting harassed and abused by three 20-year-old men at a Florida beach. The boy’s father, LeRoy Wright Jr., told the men to leave, but Jones sensed the bullies were about to attack. “I couldn’t stand there and watch...