Free Republic

A British citizen who converted to Christianity from Islam and then complained to police when locals threatened to burn his house down was told by officers to “stop being a crusader”, according to a new report. Nissar Hussein, 43, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, who was born and raised in Britain, converted from Islam to Christianity with his wife, Qubra, in 1996. The report says that he was subjected to a number of attacks and, after being told that his house would be burnt down if he did not repent and return to Islam, reported the threat to the police. It...

Anthony Cataldo of Oakland first raised concerns about aggressive bullying at his son's elementary school last year after Zachary lost four teeth on the playground - but he said he received only a verbal assurance that things would change. Cataldo said he complained again when some boys at school kicked 7-year-old Zachary in the stomach three months ago but got no response. Now - two days after an older student slammed Zachary against a tree, fracturing his skull and sending the first-grader to intensive care - Cataldo is hiring a lawyer, and school officials are paying attention.

Family members first spoke to the Item Friday afternoon, alleging that 11-year-old Mathew Mumbauer was viciously attacked by bullies while he was in school, leaving him in intensive care at Massachusetts General Hospital, paralyzed from the chest down and suffering from a collapsed lung. Mumbauer's cousin, Audrey Spencer, said Friday that the injuries were caused when he was pushed down a flight of stairs at the school, and resulted in Mumbauer being placed on a ventilator with a tracheotomy tube. Spencer said the child's family is preparing to sue the School Department, and have organized the "Mission of Love for...

All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling. Moments earlier he left the sanctuary that is his home, passing those framed photographs of himself as a carefree child, back when he was 5. And now he is at the bus stop, wearing a baseball cap, vulnerable at 15. A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy...

In his speech last night following primary losses in the two huge states of Ohio and Texas, Barack Obama gave a speech that repeated most of the rhetoric he has been saying all campaign long. Included in that speech was a moment I have yet to hear anyone else comment on. Obama essentially said that America, under his Presidency, will stop being a "bully." In the video from the speech provided below (move the bar to the 5:45-6:09 section), you will hear Obama say that America needs to stop "substituting bluster and bullying for direct diplomacy. . ." It would...

Schools to retain course aimed at outcastsBy DONNA JONESSentinel staff writer Students and educators have been dealing with hazing, teasing and bullying since the first schools opened. But what may have been viewed as not-so-nice facts of life took on new urgency when outcast students like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold began to exact murderous revenge on those they perceived as their tormentors. In the wake of school shootings at Columbine High School and elsewhere, educators in Santa Cruz County and nationwide are turning increasingly to specialty companies that promise their workshops will bring kids together and ease campus tensions....

THERE is an air of desperation in Hillary Clinton’s camp. The New York senator has embarked on a door-die mission to hector and bully her way to victory, putting her on a potential collision course with Democratic party leaders. It is a risky strategy that could leave her more isolated and unpopular as voters defect to Barack Obama, the new front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama, 46, is being tarred as a cultish, messianic figure who talks big but cannot deliver. Clinton, 60, is being driven into her last redoubts as white women, blue collar workers and Hispanics –...

Nolan is one of 10 babies in a test of this latest education craze in Seattle-area schools. In all, more than 2,000 empathy babies are cooing, crawling and crying in classrooms in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. The idea is that children -- typically from kindergarten to eighth grade -- can learn by observing the emotional connection between the babies and their parents, who volunteer for the program and who are with them in the classroom. It's part of a wave of programs aimed at boosting the "emotional literacy" of youngsters in schools by getting them to recognize...

LEE'S SUMMIT, Missouri (AP) -- The bedroom bears the telltale signs of a typical boy on the cusp of his teen years: discarded food wrappers, video game consoles, clothes scattered on the floor. The disarray hides tragedy inside the suburban Kansas City home. The room is a memorial to 12-year-old Brandon Myers, who killed himself in February 2007. For Kim Myers, Brandon's death is the result of what she calls incessant bullying that her son's teachers and other administrators at Voy Spears Elementary School failed to stop. "He was teased in class on the day he died for acting depressed,"...

New Jersey makes transgender-inclusion unequivocal in its hate crimes and safe schools laws “New Jersey has long been a national leader on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, but today rises to the top with two of the strongest hate crimes and safe schools laws in the country and unequivocal protections for transgender people.” — Matt Foreman, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — By a 65-10 vote, the New Jersey Assembly today approved legislation making the state’s anti-bullying and hate crimes laws two of the strongest in the country by making transgender-inclusion...

Getting a driver's license can be a top priority of teenagers. That is the reason West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced some proposals that would take it tough for troubled teens to get or keep their licenses. Manchin proposed last night in his state of the union address those teens who are not passing school or bullying others could get their driver's license yanked. As families and school leaders learn about the proposal, it could become controversial. Manchin said for teens who bully, detention and suspension isn't enough. However, he said if they lose their rights to the roads that...

DALLAS — As far as the Boy Scouts of America is concerned, knowing how to confront a bully is now as important as mastering a slip knot. For the first time in the 97-year history of the nation's largest youth organization, newcomers must show they have learned Scout-approved ways to avoid being pushed around and called names, if they want to advance through the ranks. Shaken down for your lunch money? Tell the bully how it hurts. Called a crater face? The 2008 Boy Scout Handbook recommends this comeback: "So what if I have a face full of zits. What's...

Excerpt from NJ101.5 "The legislature can't cure the problem," says State Senator Loretta Weinberg, "The only thing we can cure with legislation is to make sure that people know they can't act on those biases." Weinberg sponsors a bill scheduled for a vote today in the full Senate that would amend the law concerning the crime of bias intimidation to specifically provide that "gender identity or expression" and "national origin" are within the protected classes set forth in the statute. Currently a bias crime based on gender identity or expression or national origin can be prosecuted using the protected classes...

BULLIED BOY DIES ON FIRST DAY BACK AT SCHOOLAN 11-year-old boy who died after getting into difficulties during a school swimming lesson was being bullied, his mother told an inquest yesterday. Penny Matthews said she had taken Nathan out of school because of the bullies and the day of his death had been his first day back. Nathan had been taking part in a relay race at the end of a class when staff spotted him struggling under water. On the first day of a nine-day inquest his mother said he was a healthy boy who swam in the pool...

In recent years, a slew of books have offered parents ample insight into the minds of young bullies. But what if it's the teacher who screams, threatens, or uses biting sarcasm to humiliate a child in front of the class? Teacher bullying gets little attention, say Stuart Twemlow, MD, a psychiatrist who directs the Peaceful Schools and Communities Project at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. But his new study, published in The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, hints that the problem may be more common than people believe. In his anonymous survey of 116 teachers at seven elementary schools, more...

The mother of a 15-year-old Allegany High School student who was the victim of a beating by another student Monday in a school hallway said her son’s jaw was broken in half by the attack. Brenda Beal said her 5 foot 4 inch, 115-pound son, Hayden Tinsley, underwent two surgeries since he was rendered unconscious during the incident. “It wasn’t just two kids fighting in the hallway. My son’s jaw was broke in half. He was sucker-punched, his face slammed into a locker and then he was banged face first into a fire extinguisher. He was unconscious on the floor,...

The Galveston Independent School District became world famous for a few hours on Wednesday. Unfortunately, it was for doing something really dumb. On Oct. 17, the school board authorized its attorneys to take legal action to stop the posting of material that trustees say is libelous on a Web site run by a few angry parents. The Web site, gisdwatch.com, had about 100 registered users.

The legendary Ms Rabbit stopped by: all hopped up about the way Hillary was treated in the Democratic candidate debates.

Aryana McPike, a sixth-grader from Springfield, Ill., has a closet full of designer clothes from Dolce & Gabbana, Juicy Couture, True Religion and Seven For All Mankind. But her wardrobe, carefully selected by a fashion-conscious mother, hasn't won her friends at school. Kids in her class recently instructed her that she was wearing the wrong brands. She should wear Apple Bottoms jeans by the rapper Nelly, they told her, and designer sneakers, such as Air Force 1 by Nike. She came home complaining to her mother that "all the girls want to know if I will ever come to school...

Oprah Winfrey begged for forgiveness with tears in her eyes as she spoke to parents of students at her all-girls school in South Africa on Sunday.

I thought I would start a semi-Daily thread to inform Freepers what their Represenatives are up to. I will post a bill that was passed each day (as available) with the details and voting records. Today's bill- National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week Whereas bullying among school-aged children is aggressive behavior that is intentional, often involves an imbalance of power or strength, and is typically repeated over time; (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House) HRES 762 EH H. Res. 762 In the House of Representatives, U. S., October 22, 2007. Whereas bullying among school-aged children is aggressive behavior that...

CAMBRIDGE — Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt. The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up. The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying. "It’s my last...

In the wake of the disgraceful yet defining full-page MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times, the one that denigrated Gen. Petraeus, we stand witness to the benchmark in today’s political tactical maneuvering, the Bully Tactic. Increasingly, political operatives and zealots alike are turning to the coercive tactic of bullying those who aren’t on-board with their candidates or agendas. This benchmark signals some of the darkest days in American politics. Organizations like MoveOn.org have employed the Bully Tactic quite effectively. By utilizing deep-pocketed, agenda-driven benefactors and exploiting small donor advocates to advance their special interest causes, especially through the mainstream...

Somali meatpacking workers complain of religious harassment By OSKAR GARCIA Sunday, July 22, 2007 3:44 PM CDT OMAHA, Neb. - An American-Islamic advocacy group has drafted a complaint to federal officials that is awaiting the signatures of dozens of Muslim Somali workers who allege they were fired or harassed by supervisors at a Grand Island meatpacking plant for trying to pray at sunset. The complaint from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, to be filed with federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officials, compiles testimony from at least 44 workers who say they quit or were either fired or verbally and physically...

Two news stories about hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lesbian gangs across the nation attacking and raping young girls in schools and other public locations have prompted a backlash against the reporters by members of the homosexual community. The broadcasts by Memphis television station WPTY and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly quoted law enforcement authorities, victims, and even some gang members to document the growing number of attacks on young girls by lesbian gang members. "The Eyewitness News Everywhere" report in Memphis documented incidents of gangs known as GTOs, or "Gays" Taking Over, attacking schoolgirls. Two prison inmates affiliated with the...

MEMPHIS, July 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, the Fox News' O'Reilly Factor exposed the increasing trend of lesbian gang violence terrorizing neighbourhoods and schools, especially in large cities across the United States. According to FOX News crime analyst Rod Wheeler there are some 150 such gangs in the DC area alone, including Washington, Maryland, and Virginia. The gangs, known as Dykes Taking Over (DTO) or Gays Taking Over, are forcing children into homosexuality. Wheeler told host Bill O'Reilly: "there is this national underground network, if you will, Bill, of women that's lesbians and also some men groups that's actually...

New government guidelines will "compel" faith schools to comply with gay agenda normalization of homosexuality LONDON, July 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Britain's minister for Children, Schools and Families told gay activists yesterday that the Labour government is committed to working closely with the homosexual activist organization Stonewall in eradicating "homophobic bullying" in schools. He told activists that new government guidelines are planned that will "compel" faith schools to comply with the homosexual movement's agenda to normalize homosexuality and outlaw opposition. At the same time, Stonewall has produced a survey claiming that religious schools are responsible for 65 per cent of...

UNISEX wash basin areas could be built in schools to help tackle bullying. The move is part of recommendations covering schools in England being rebuilt or refurbished as part of the Government's £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. BSF aims to rebuild or renew every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the initiative. The new guidelines were issued by the Government agency responsible for delivering the programme, Partnerships for Schools. Toilets in Schools was published earlier this month and details new toilet block designs to be incorporated into all BSF schools. It...

FReepers are some of the most level headed people I know and I have been up all night fretting about this. Here is the backround. My daughters participate in a Slovak dance class at our church. One assistant is a mother with 5 children including a new baby. Her husband has problems and she is trying to hold it together. She is a wonderfully sweet lady, however.... Her son is violent. Two years ago, he stomped on my daughter's foot with full force. We got an apology. Last year both my daughter and this boy were Shepherds in the Nativity...

Long before he boiled over, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was pushed around and laughed at as a schoolboy in suburban Washington because of his shyness and the strange, mumbly way he talked, former classmates say. Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation. Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled....

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Long before he snapped, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in the Washington suburbs, former classmates say. Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation. Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked...

A national inquiry into the scale of bullying should be undertaken by ministers because of fears that the problem is being downplayed by schools seeking to protect their reputations, a report demands today. New guidance is also needed to ensure that victims who dare to fight back are not suspended or expelled. A report from the education select committee singles out Catholic schools, which, it says, should be forced to make public their commitment to stop gay pupils being bullied. The Catholic church has refused to follow government guidelines urging schools to set up specific policies against homophobic bullying. The...

Lawyers and a Muslim group say they will defend at no cost airline passengers caught up in a lawsuit between a group of imams and U.S. Airways if the passengers are named as "John Does" and sued for reporting suspicious behavior that got the Muslim clerics booted from a November flight. The six imams are suing the airline, Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission, and the unnamed "John Does" to be named later, for discrimination, saying they were removed from the flight for praying in the airport. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix-area physician and director of American Islamic Forum for...

Several years ago my wife and I attended the back-to-school festivities at my son's elementary school. This is the yearly exercise where hapless parents learn about all the new and wondrous miracle strategies that the public education system has cooked up to benefit "the children."The evening was winding down, finally, when we bumped into the principal in the hallway. Although I tried my best to avert my eyes and hurry toward the exit, he corralled us and asked if we had any questions. "Well," I said, "there is one thing I'd like to discuss. My son continues to be bullied...

Soldiers' Stories BBC Monitoring 13 February 2007 Just when you thought reports of bullying in the Russian army couldn’t get any worse. Accusations of bullying have dogged the Russian military for years. Recently, some soldiers have said they were forced into prostitution by their superiors. The military has denied these charges. -- TOL Text of report by Russian news agency Ekho Moskvy New shocking details of the goings-on in the Russian army have been revealed today. Bullying is rife in one of the Interior Troops units stationed in the centre of the northern capital [St Petersburg]. According to information supplied...

(Snip) Maybe it was the morning someone tripped him in the school hallway. Or the afternoon that kids spat on him from a bus window. Or just the constant slights -- the birthday party invitations that never arrived, the play-dates that never materialized, the teammates who screamed names because he is sometimes awkward when playing baseball. (snip) Haley Albertario remembers one of the few birthday party invitations Tyler received. She found him sitting by himself. Many times, she said, she called parents to ask them to have their kids stop teasing Tyler. Often the parents yelled at her or hung...

The summer I turned 6 years old, some of the neighborhood boys started bullying me. Back then, I owned a pair of cabbage patch kid roller-skates and my favorite activity was skating around the block singing nursery rhymes at the top of my lungs. One day, a few boys in the 8-10 range thought it would be pretty humorous to push me around and watch me flail. I tried to run from them, but I couldn’t skate faster than they could run. They taunted me for a while and then knocked me down. Angry, humiliated, and with two freshly skinned...

Schoolboy hanged himself using his favourite football team scarf after complaining that he was being persecuted on the bus ride home from lessons. Paul Moran, 13, would sometimes arrive in tears, his hair and clothes covered with food and drink thrown by other pupils, his mother said yesterday. On one occasion his beloved Liverpool FC bag was ripped and on another he was even thrown down stairs, Carole Moran added. Finally, after speaking about suicide to friends, the "sensitive and caring" teenager's mother found him suspended from his metal bunk bed with his Liverpool scarf, facing a poster of his...

A special court in northern Poland is to rule on allegations five teenage boys terrorized a 14-year-old girl, who later committed suicide. In a school classroom in the city of Gdansk a week ago, during their teacher's absence, the five boys took the girl, placed her on a bench, undressed her and simulated they were raping her, Radio Polonia said Thursday.

DVD of girl attack sparks cyber-bullying warning The father of a teenage girl is today warning other parents about the dangers of cyber-bullying. The father, known only as Alan, says he was filled with rage when he discovered that his daughter had been humiliated and filmed by teenage boys she first met through the Internet, and that a DVD of the incident is being sold in some Melbourne high schools. Victorian police are investigating the production and distribution of the DVD. It allegedly shows about 10 boys abusing the girl. Alan says his 17-year-old daughter made friends with two boys...

President Bill Clinton was overbearing, threatening, and in the face of "FOX News Sunday" host Chris Wallace. The wild eyed, finger wagging Clinton was astonishing to watch and embarrassing. He possibly could have been charged with assault and battery against the Fox host. Chris Wallace, the son of liberal 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace, appeared to be overwhelmed by the ire of his guest. Clinton was ready to pounce on anything the mild mannered interviewer asked. In most states, an assault/battery is committed when one person 1) tries to or does physically strike another, or 2) acts in a threatening...

Kremlin 'bullying' leaves western energy companies furious By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 23/09/2006) In the past few years, mention of Vladimir Putin at the dinner table of some western leaders could have brought on a case of indigestion. In the past week, though, the Russian president has been causing ulcers. Sakhalin Energy extracts oil and gas from one of the world's most inhospitable regions On Monday, Russia suspended an environmental permit for an oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell on Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The international community has watched with queasiness as democracy in...

From kindergarten through college, returning students may not be coming back to more difficult reading, writing and mathematical tasks, but they will be able to ascend to the next level of sensitivity. But to what avail? Gender-Bending Etiquette For example, students may graduate high school not ready to read at college level but they will know what to say to someone who just had a sex-change operation. “There’s news today that students at Batavia High School in New York will be greeted by administrators, counselors, and psychologists when they return on September 6th for forums and question-and-answer sessions about ‘gender...

America, Bully of the World I remember our high school bully. I did not like him, and neither did anyone else. We tried to get back at him for his mean treatment, but not with any success. How glad we were when his family moved away. Undoubtedly, the world's bully today is the United States of America, with all its political and military dominance throughout the world. No wonder we are plagued with terrorists. How can we deal with it? Certainly not by more bullying, but by drawing back and allowing other nations to play their parts. Why can't we...

LONDON - A woman who said a bullying mother-in-law made her life a misery was been awarded compensation by a British court. Nottingham County Court on Monday ordered Dalbir Kaur Bhakar to pay 35,000 pounds ($65,000) to her daughter-in-law, Gina Satvir Singh. Singh, 26, claimed she suffered months of abuse following her arranged marriage to Bhakar's son Hardeep Bhakar in November 2002. Singh claimed her mother-in-law, who lived with the couple in Ilford, east London, kept her a virtual prisoner and forced her to rise at 6:30 a.m. to perform "excessive and unnecessary" household chores, including cleaning the toilet without...

A brutal beating was caught on tape from inside a school bus. The graphic video showed a middle school teen repeatedly hitting and taunting a 10-year-old boy. The female bus driver can be heard yelling at the teen, and then moments later removing two teens from the bus; one of them just 14 years old.

SILVER SPRING, MD – Hundreds of concerned citizens and leaders from across the nation will join Hurricane Katrina survivors Wednesday to call for the resignation of the heads of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the NOAA Headquarters just outside of Washington, D.C. During an 11 a.m. demonstration, advocates will demand that NOAA stop covering up the growing scientific link between severe hurricanes and global warming while insisting on real solutions to the problem of global warming. The protest comes at the start of the 2006 Hurricane season, which officials at the...

"Plans to shut down the senior part of Hermodsdal school in Malmö have prompted the Liberals to request an extra parliamentary debate on the problem of discipline in Swedish schools. "In Malmö a gang of troublemakers has dictated the decision. It's unacceptable," said the Liberal Party's Jan Björklund. The proposal to close the high school with 200 students, which was put forward during the Easter break, was due to "lack of security, vandalism and poor study results". The school has been vandalised several times and in January part of it was damaged in an arson attack." ... "It's the first...

The Neshaminy School District, attempting to end school bullying as we know it, has a policy that punishes not only bullies, but heroes who take on bullies. Say a kid goes to the aid of some poor soul getting the spit kicked out of him, and the hero ends up scuffling with the bully or throwing a punch in self-defense. Neshaminy will punish the hero along with the bully. A case similar to this allegedly occurred about three weeks ago at Ferderbar Elementary School in Feasterville, according to the parents of an 11-year-old student. The parents say the boy is...

The Long Beach Board of Education has just mailed a letter to 235,000 constituents declaring that the board will not be bullied by the teachers union into providing more than the 4 percent pay raise being offered. Most of us love teachers. The popular perception is that they are self-sacrificing altruists dedicated to guiding our children to a golden future. The image is that they struggle to survive on low pay and carry on instruction with few resources. While this romanticized image may actually fit a few teachers, mostly at private schools, what is seldom considered is that the unions...