anti-bullying

CNN, Facebook, Cartoon Network and Time Inc. have teamed for a special multi-platform effort aimed at anti-bullying. A special audience of students, parents, educators and policy makers will help Anderson Cooper reveal the results of a six-month long pilot study that provides new insight about why kids bully each other and how parents and educators can more effectively stop the problem. Cooper and guests will question whether new legislation, laws and significant media attention has helped the bullying prevention efforts. Anderson Cooper 360° will air a week-long series focused on bullying.

THE RAINBOW CURRICULUM:
Teaching Teens about LGBT Issues
By Hal W. Lanse, PhD.

Release date: October 4, 2012

Amazon.com

In February, we teach Black History. March is Women's History Month. But what about June? What about Gay Pride Month? This book is the answer! It includes an LGBT history unit and guidelines for teaching queer-themed literature. There's also an easy-to-implement anti-bullying program and a common-sense approach to launching a gay/straight alliance at your school.

Before killing himself recently, a high school freshman talked to his mother about being gay, and he contributed an online video to “It Gets Better”. But the teasing that followed him was relentless. “Years ago, drunken driving wasn't viewed as a big deal, even though it has the potential to kill people. What we're doing with bullying is changing people's perception of it,” said a rep for NY state Senator Jeffrey Klein (pic), who supports legislation to stop cyber-bullying.

Colorado's Gov. Hickenlooper [pic] signed an anti-bullying bill that includes personal characteristics such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Colorado is the twelfth state to pass similar anti-bullying laws.

The 11 other states that have such laws are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Broad support for such policies in states like Colorado has fueled optimism that the federal Safe Schools Improvement Act, introduced in both the Senate and House, also will become law.

Anything that makes someone feel mistreated by others in the school community (not only physical but any form of social, emotional or verbal abuse) can be defined as "bullying".

At a different type of high school assembly, Northampton High School students shared experiences of bullying. Two students who both have lesbian moms, shared real-life experiences such as anti-gay slurs in the school's hallways. Students clapped and cheered both students on when they kindly asked their schoolmates to choose their words more carefully.

Aye Jay Long [pictured], a high school freshman, gave testimony before a Kentucky House panel that was considering strengthening a proposed school bullying bill. Immediately after the testimony, lawmakers passed the bill that includes sexual orientation in school bully policies. Long testified before state lawmakers that he was bullied constantly by classmates after he told them he was gay. "They started out with names like gay, fag and all that stuff," Long said. "And then it got to the point where I was being shoved into lockers.