I am listening right now and Sirdeaner Walker. She is so beautifully sincere and deliberate with her words, I wish to reach through the speakers and give her a hug for her strength and conviction in the face of such a crushing and maddening tragedy. She is a hero.

Sirdeaner, please know I am committed to to stopping the silence on bullying, discrimination, and hate crimes to all people around the world.

In solidarity,
Tanya

Bullying:

Here in our school district we have major problems with educators and parents and how they deal with bullying! They say they have system, but in actuality we don’t!

Bully starts as early as 1 st grade!In the school and even in the the bus routes!

Our school system has an active and successful(although not perfect) anti-bullying program in place. We deal with it directly at the elementary and intermediate level whether it is on the bus, in the lunchroom, or in the classroom. A new problem, however, is dealing with the parents of these children who are usually bullies themselves. Our school system has drawn very clear lines for appropriate behavior and we monitor and follow the policy closely. Our classroom lessons, guidance lessons, PE lessons, etc encourage, model, and expect respect from children, teachers, and parents. In serious situations, parents who think the rules do not apply to them have been reminded by our city police exactly what the consequences are.
My heart aches for this family and for the others who have lost children from bullying. I have been teaching for 31 years and am proud that our school system, teachers, and administrators are addressing this issue directly and honestly.

I would like to give a hearty round of applause for Dick Moore for effectively leading his city through such a difficult time. I can’t imagine what 17% unemployment looks like.

I’m praying that the situation turns around soon for the citizens in Elkhart.

Bravo for Dick Moore of Elkhart, Indiana. Articulate and realistic, forward thinking and optimistic. How like the stingy, parsimonious, short-sighted, greedy Republicans to lead the cry that President Obama’s predictions have not been realized in the short six months since Obama’s last visit to Indiana. Really, the Republicans got us into this mess with their fearless leaders, Bush and Cheney. The heck with the first amendment— The Republicans should not be able to talk until 2016—- Shut up and put up!

Thanks so much for bringing attention and insight to the wide-spread problem of bullying. Your speakers provided important insights into bullying prevention, especially the role of bystanders in preventing bullying and providing a safe environment. I am so sorry that Carl’s school did not respond effectively to the relentless bullying and threats against Carl. We need to make a committment to prevent bullying by making sure all parents, teachers, caregivers, and children learn effective strategies for stopping bullying. An important new resource to help teachers, parents, and caregivers prevent bullying in children’s lives is the Eyes on Bullying program and toolkit, available at http://www.eyesonbullying.org
Kim Storey, Co-Author, Eyes on Bullying

Retirement Communities:

I tuned into this piece at the part about people not wanting to pay taxes for schools in which they have no children. I thought Mr. Blechman was speaking of the town in which I live in Cape Cod. Demographically, Yarmouth is the oldest town on Cape Cod. Votes on school funding are routinely voted down. The retirees and summer residents don’t want to fund “someone else’s brat” as it was recently stated at a town meeting. A few years ago they successfully petitioned to change town meeting to a time of year when there are more semi-residents here to make sure the golf courses get the money they need, and the schools don’t. It’s quite disheartening actually.

As a researcher who has worked for nearly 30 years on the problems of teen dating violence, bullying and school-based sexual harassment, I listened carefully to the WBUR show on bullying. I was very touched and impressed with the comments of the mother whose child committed suicide. Her advocacy following this tragedy is both important and commendable.

I would like to share some concerns, however on the research that Dr. Sege seemed to be promoting in the show — that of Professor Dan Olweus, the Norwegian social psychologist. Dr. Sege contradicts himself in the recent journal article he co-authored (Pediatrics, vol. 124, number 1, July 2009). In it, the authors note that there is a lack of peer-reviewed, published reports describing implementation and controlled evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in the U.S. The last thing we need is more duplication of programs that have not been proven effective.

Moreover, I think it is very important to remember that before we “import” programs from other countries, lock, stock and barrel into the U.S., common sense might direct us to recognize that Norway does not look like the U.S. …not in law, in socio-economic class or racial diversity, or even in how schools are structured or how curriculum is selected.

Those of us in the educational/violence prevention research community have been waiting for years for the Olweus devotees to publish their results; it’s “show me the money” time and thus far, there is no proof that the Olweus Bully Prevention Program would have diverted this tragedy or others like it. Our kids need to be safe in schools and our educators need to know that their investment of time and money for training do lead to better outcomes.

Nan D. Stein, Ed.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Wellesley Centers for Women
August 5, 2009

Every story on your show was especially good today. I listen at work on headphones and today I found myself trying to be invisible so no one would interrupt me, because I didn’t want to miss a word! I especially was grateful for the solutions they have found for dealing with bullies. I can’t wait to check out the website and information. Listening to that Indiana Mayor just made me feel good about things. Thanks for letting us hear from positive people!

They made it sound as if bullying is some new thing.

This is not new. I was bullied from 7th through 12th grade 40 years ago. I suspect the only way I made it through was by staying home except for the school day. This was well before the age of cell phones, texting and other anonymous forms of communication like email and facebook. Kids can’t get away from the bullies anymore.

I don’t know that it will help any bullied child, but there is an abrupt change between High School and college. There is a future, just make it through the present.

We had a teen suicide 4 years ago at one of the local high schools, clearly caused by bullying. He was an involved, normal kid.

There are now anti bullying school programs statewide because, like Mrs. Walker, his parents got involved. They didn’t even know about the bullying until after the suicide and they found bullying emails that had been sent to him. There was another suicide at the same school this past spring. I don’t know if it was related to bullying or not.

I hope the programs are doing some good though I’m not so sure. My daughter is friends with a group of girls who came up with an elaborate scheme at the end of the 2008 school year (7th grade) to seriously embarrass a boy because he was ‘annoying’. One ‘ringleader’ and variously involved others, including some boys.

I work with the mother of one of the boys (who is friends with the target, yet was still involved in the scheme!). She and I were appalled at the tone of the emails to the ‘group’ (Yes, she reads his email without his knowledge). CLEARLY well into the realm of bullying. I was disgusted; I know most of these kids, at least a little, and would not have thought any of them would be involved in such a thing. Shows what I know.

We informed the vice-principal who collected the guilty and dealt with it. NONE of these kids are ‘bad’ kids. They get good grades and have not been in trouble before. I’m sure they had all been through the school’s bullying assemblies. Yet, somehow, they didn’t see this as bullying or even wrong, at least not wrong enough to stop it.

My daughter got the emails but wasn’t directly involved. She didn’t respond and didn’t even read all of them. I know because I checked her mail and many of the notes had never been opened. BUT, she is still culpable in my mind as she did nothing to stop it. ‘Loyalty’ to the group led them to either go along to various degrees or remain silent.

The ‘target’ moved to another school this past year. Pretty sad.

I was waiting for the clip that was advertised
on African American Media. I missed the beginning
but notice that it is not listed on the website.
I tuned in late @ 1:30 pm. However, your site
mentions nothing about this topic.
Claudia Thomas

Dear Claudia,

Thanks for your interest in the show- we are hoping to have our segment on minority owned or focused media on Friday’s show. We hope you get a chance to listen,

Cheers,

-Jill Ryan, Here & Now