Pigtails For Peace! - Maisie Kate Miller's Story

This was a great article I found about a young girl who took a passive-resistant approach to the girls bullying her. Also a great example of how the cyber world can also be used for bringing people together to fight bullying. It's worth it to read the whole article, but I'll give you the abbreviated version anyway!

Maisie Kate Miller, far right, and some of the girls in her photography class who showed pigtail solidarity.

Maisie is a 15-year-old sophomore at Marblehead High, right here in Massachusetts. She was being bullied, though was commonly bullied though she didn't usually let it bother her. On a particularly hard week, one her classmates made fun of her hairstyle - pigtails - stating “Who wears pigtails still? What is this, kindergarten?” Maisie’s mom, Joanna Miller, told her to just let it go: “Don’t give it any energy.”

Instead of fighting the girl back by returning the mean-ness she received, she decided for a more passive approach - she decided to wear her hair in pigtails for the rest of the week. She posted her plan on Facebook and headed to her after-school job. When she came home she was surprised to see that she had over 500 hundred notifications and friend requests supporting her plan. 

Tons of kids at her school - girls, boys, even a teacher or two, plus a dog! - all decided to wear pigtails. The bully didn't show up that day, but backed off from bullying Maisie anymore. Maisie even got messages from people saying this girl had been bullying them as well but because of her pigtail movement, hasn't been bullied since.

Maisie is “someone who sticks up for people,’’ said Loren Weston, the counselor who leads the anti-bullying group at their High School, “and that’s why this response.”

Cyberbullying has only upped the ante, making it possible for Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers freshman who set up a webcam to catch his gay roommate making out, to disseminate his handiwork in a way that led to Tyler Clementi’s suicide. But here Maisie has shown us that social media can also be the bullhorn that amplifies the word “no” and stops the intimidation.


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Another Teen Suicide Due To Cyberbullying

Erin Gallagher was only 13 when she decided to take her own life due to cyberbulling she was experiencing on the website ask.fm (which seems to be the website for cyberbullies..)

Gallagher's death is the "third high-profile apparent suicide linked to cyberbullying in a matter of weeks," the Irish Examiner writes.

Earlier this month, Canadian teen Amanda Todd committed suicide after enduring years of being bullied online and offline. In a YouTube video posted in September, Todd described being blackmailed, taunted and assaulted by online acquaintances and schoolmates alike.

Just six weeks ago, another Irish teen, 15-year-old Ciara Pugsley, took her own life after "being bombarded with hate messages" on ask.fm.

Erin was found by relatives Saturday, and only 24 hours after telling her cyberbullies she intended to commit suicide.

A Facebook page has already been started as a tribute. Her older sister Shannon poster, "I love you darling. It's so hard to say you're gone. Everyone's heartbroken. I couldn't have asked for a better sister. You were a stunning girl. No one deserved what you went through," she wrote. "I'm sorry that I couldn't prevent it. Love you with all my heart."

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Should Bully Victims Fight Back?

Catherine Adam, a mother from Burnaby, British Columbia says children being bullied should be fighting back, but at what cost? She moved her and her seven-year-old son out of Burnaby and into Port Moody BC because he was being relentlessly bullied at school, however the school systems encourage a "don't hit back" policy which she says is pandering to bullies. The problem is that usually when the victims come forward they're also being punished in the same way the bullies are, but for what?

"The punishing of both the victim and the bully when caught empowers the bullies to escalate and makes the victims reluctant to come forward," Catherine said. "It happened to my son for over two years prior to getting shoved face first into a toilet."


Catherine spoke out about White Rock mom Lara Fominoff, whose six-year-old son fought back when confronted by a much older bully, but received the same punishment. As reporter Cassidy Olivier noted, Fominoff told her son never to start a fight, but if someone started one with him, he had the right to defend himself. A Surrey school district official, however, was quoted as saying violence of any kind is unacceptable and that, if kids are pushed or hit, they're simply supposed to report it to the appropriate authorities.


"I refuse, in eight or 10 years, to be a grieving parent of a teenager who just committed suicide like so many others that have been in the news recently and regularly," Catherine stated in an earlier article. She added that the recent high-profile suicide of Lower Mainland teen Amanda Todd, after prolonged bullying, showed she was absolutely right in refusing to accept the "pap" she felt she was being fed by Burnaby school officials.

"That to me is the absolute root of all this bullshit, that if the kid who is the victim fights back or even reports it, they get punished, too," she said. "And that teaches the bullies right from the age of six that they can get away with this crap."

Shouldn't we be teaching children to stand up for themselves? And not punish them when they're defending themselves against the people who should really be getting punished. If it wasn't for the fact I've seen this happen with people I know I'd question the validity of it because how can schools be so stupid? Even the government has laws for defending yourself which allows "a person to use reasonable force in her or her own defense or the defense of others."





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FOX8 Project - Bullying Satistics

Starting Tuesday Oct. 23, FOX8 will take on The FOX8 Bully Project. They're going to be covering tons of stories related to bullying as well as talking to groups dedicated to stopping bullying. It'll be going through the month of November, so check them out. Below are some statistics Fox has provided.

• More than 160,000 U.S. students stay home from school each day from fear of being bullied.
• Bullying directly affects a student’s ability to learn. Students who are bullied find it difficult to concentrate, show a decline in grades, and lose self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth.
• Students who are bullied report more physical symptoms, such as headaches or stomachaches, and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, than other students.
• In some cases, bullying has led to devastating consequences, such as school shootings and suicide.
• Bullying affects witnesses as well as targets. Witnesses often report feeling unsafe, helpless, and afraid that they will be the next target.
• Bullying is a communitywide issue that must no longer be ignored or thought of as a rite of passage. Students, parents, and educators all have a role in addressing bullying situations and changing school culture.
• The two keys to creating change are: increasing awareness that bullying has lifelong impact, and giving people the tools they need to respond effectively.
• Students can be especially effective in bullying intervention. More than 55 percent of bullying situations will stop when a peer intervenes. Student education of how to address bullying for peers is critical, as is the support of adults.
• Silence is no longer an acceptable response to bullying. Adults, students, and educators can no longer look away when they see bullying. Ignoring it won’t work. Everyone needs to be empowered with options to respond.

Check out their Facebook page!

Bullying - Caused By A Mental Disorder?

This is a great article from Dr. John Grohol about bullying and mental disorders. Some might wonder if bullies don't actually have some sort of a mental disorder that causes them to be so cruel and ruthless to others without considering the consequences. Well, studies from Brown University show that might actually be the case.

After analyzing responses from a parent survey, the researchers found that those who were considered bullies were more than twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety and ADD/ADHD.


Because of the survey nature of the study, the researchers couldn’t say whether the mental health problems might be a contributing causal factor of bullying, or whether such disorders are a result of someone who engages in bullying behavior.

It might be time to start focusing more on helping the bullies, and maybe the number of victims will become less and less over time. Though previous studies show that both bullies and their victims have suicidal thoughts three times more often than your average child.

Bullying is never an excusable behavior. Studies like this help shed light on the complicated dynamics at play with this behavior, and offers parents and professionals ideas on how to help reduce it.


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Mom Arrested For Bullying Daugther's Bullies

Never mess with an angry mother! Rebecca Sardoni was arrested after fighting back for her daughter when she found out she had been being bullied. Though that might not sound like a bad thing, Sardoni actually boarded her daughters bus and got physical with the students that were bullying her 9-year-old. 

Sardoni brought the bullying to the attention of school officials when she learned the attacks were beyond just bullying and becoming physical. Her daughter was so humiliated that she couldn't even bring her self to speak about it to her mother, but rather had to write it down to tell her. Sardoni felt the school wasn't doing enough to prevent the bullying from happening and wasn't taking the matter seriously enough. That's when she decided to take matters into her own hands.

She reportedly climbed onto the bus and demanded to speak to the boys that were bullying her daughter. She then proceeded to then slap them and slam one of their heads into the window, and as she states, "[The boys] weren't the ones who were suffering; my daughter was." 

Sardonia has been charged with assault, criminal trespass and making terrorist threats.


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The Man Who Blackmailed Amanda Todd?

The man who allegedly was the one who blackmailed Amanda Todd with screenshots of her bare chest when she refused to do provocative things in front of a webcam was finally tracked down. He, however, denies any connection to Amanda Todd and pushes blame over to an anonymous man who goes by "Viper." 

Oddly enough, this man was had a court hearing this week for "charges of sexual assault and sexual interference of a person under 16".. unrelated to the Amanda Todd case. 

He claims Todd came to him for help to track down the hacker, and he did everything he could to try to help. He also stated that he is "really pissed off and annoyed" that he's getting the blame for the case. 

NJAnon, the group trying to find the responsible parties for the Amanda Todd suicide, don't believe he's as innocent as he may want you to believe, and says his claims are "bullshit". 


Once a scumbag, always a scumbag if you ask me.. 




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