Pink Shirt Day Founder Spreads Anti-Bullying Message

Travis Price, Nova Scotia, was a victim of bullying throughout most of his childhood. It followed him from elementary school through middle school and even in to high school. In Grade 7, two girls from his school invited him to hang out with them after class. Later, Price was surprised to see a boy along with them, but considered it an opportunity to make a new friend. As the other three students began talking to each other, Price grew uncomfortable. He started to walk away when the boy grabbed him and flung Price over his shoulder. The two girls then kicked him repeatedly in the ribs. Price walked home and collapsed on his bedroom floor. He sustained serious injuries including a broken ankle and broken ribs.

He was out of school for four months, and upon returning was told by a girl in one of his classes, "We liked it better when you were in the hospital.”

Though he tried to take his own life, his grandfather convinced him he was here for a bigger purpose. 

When Price was 16, one of his best friend Falon Urquhart, 14, took her own life.
"We never stood up for her, I lost my friend because of it,” said Price.

In Price's freshman year of high school, he started Pink Shirt Day in support of a boy who was bullied for wearing pink to school. Today Pink Shirt Day has become an international movement involving 6.4 million students in thousands of schools. 

Pink Shirt Day found Travis Price

Price, now 22, travels to school in Canada sharing his ant-bullying message. At Monday’s presentation, Price told students to take action when they witness bullying.

“Don’t be a bystander” is the message Price is delivering to schools across Canada.

Pink Shirt Day is going to be February 27, 2013!
http://www.pinkshirtday.ca/about/


Click Here for the original article

Two Boys Bullied And Beaten Unconscious

Benjamin Rush Middle School in Rushville Indiana had two horrific cases of bullying recently. The first one was caught on tape via a camera at the school. A 15-year-old came up behind 13-year-old Austin McDaniel and beat him repeatedly. Austin says  says his eyes were closed and he doesn't remember what happened because he was beaten unconscious. Five of his teeth were knocked loose and he was left with a bruised and bloody lip.

Austin says many of his friends did nothing, just watched punch after punch: "I was just walking to my locker and he just came up behind me and beat me up."

A few days later, Austin's friend Logan Thomson was also attacked.  Logan's mother, Misty, explains, "He was knocked completely unconscious. The boy came at a dead run, jumped into the air, drew back and hit him with everything he had -- knocked him off his feet and his head hit the floor."

Logan stated that another student had put a "hit" on him for $300 to beat him up again. 

The two boys involved have been removed from the school, but the district will not say for how long. The superintendent issued this statement: "Rush County Schools provide a safe environment for our students and staff. We have had two isolated incidents which have been dealt with to the fullest extent of our policies and law."

There are now anit-bullying billboards up near the school. The families are just hoping to "raise awareness of bullying so what happened at Benjamin Rush Middle School doesn't happen to your child."

Click Here for the original article

Check Out My New Website!

Just a side note, my new website is up and running! It has all my great Rock Report tips, as well as my Stop Drunk Driving Now and Right Now Anti-Bullying information as well!

Check it out at http://ronbellanti.com/

Turning Bullying Into A Positive - Story of Helen Carroll

This is a great story I recommend for everyone to read through. It's the story of a woman who was badly bullied throughout school, both physically and verbally, and overcame it. Helen Carroll dealt with bullies throughout her life - in school, at home, and in the workplace - and actually thanks her bullies for what they've done.


"Incredible though it might sound, I believe it did me good. It was, quite possibly, one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I quickly worked out that unless they could provide me with a round-the-clock armed guard, neither my teachers nor my parents would be able to protect me from bullies. So I stopped reporting their crimes and got to work on strategies for handling them myself."

She fought the bullies by not actually fighting. She learned incredible self control and wouldn't cry in front of them, wouldn't get angry, and never let anything they said get to her. She just picked herself back up and pretended that nothing happened and eventually they stopped bothering her. Without that feedback, the bullies basically got bored -  a lessons he later taught her son when he was having bullying problems in school as well.

Click Here to check it out the fully story, you won't be disappointed!

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.


Click Here for the original article

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."

Click Here for the original article

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."





Click Here for the original article