'Bullying: Words Can Kill' 48 Hours Special Addresses School Bullying (VIDEO)

As students are heading back to school for the start of a new year of learning, for many, the focus is beyond the scope of the textbook.

Every day, 160,000 kids miss school because they're afraid of being bullied, according to the National Crime Prevention Council. And when they don't skip school, students say they walk school halls with feelings of desperation, fear and hopelessness -- a constant battle that one mother told CBS correspondent Tracy Smith that she sees just dropping her son Johnny off at school.

"I felt like every day, I was sending him off to war," Lisa Cagno told Smith.

CBS' 48 Hours aired a special this week, Bullying: Words Can Kill, that featured several students from Birchwood Middle School in North Providence, R.I. CBS followed the students for six months to tell their stories and to delve into the school's efforts to combat bullying.

"You can be bullied for anything nowadays," Johnny Cagno tells Smith in the segment. "You're judged, constantly, whether it's your orientation, your clothing, how you look. You know, everything."

Studies have shown that beyond the emotional trauma associated with being bullied, students who report being bullied see lower GPAs, especially high achieving blacks and Latinos. Most recently, New Jersey instituted in its schools what is considered to be the toughest anti-bullying law in the country, and its measures have garnered both praise and criticism.

In addition to the full segment above, 48 Hours has added several Web extras that were not aired, focusing even more on the students that are featured in the special. Smith also includes a piece on what she was able to learn about bullying by working on the piece for 48 Hours.

"If these children had knives in their hands, she would've been dead a long time ago," one mother says in the piece as she reflects on her daughter being bullied. "The words can kill."

Comments

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

03:40 PM on 10/18/2011

While it is true that kids can commit suicide for more reasons than just bullying, the fact that they are being bullied still stands. By raising awareness about bullying, we can educate people on what it is and how to cope. Bullied students need to know they are not alone in what they go through, so they have a reason to live. They need to be surrounded by friends, so they have pride in themselves and the strength to withstand bullying. It worked well for me and I've seen it work for others.

[sdcs15]

03:30 PM on 09/20/2011

Cyber bullying can be tough to monitor, especially because there are so many different ways cyber bullying takes shape. According to studies, well over half of young people don’t tell their parents when cyber bullying occurs. If you are worried about your child, AmberWatch SafeText allows parents to monitor their child’s mobile device for cyber bullying in a safe, trusted manner. You can find it online at the AmberWatch SafeText website.

[Desolati0n]

08:12 AM on 09/20/2011

Kids nowadays are too afraid to stand up for themselves, kids need to either tell an adult or make their own decisions. Bullies will follow you throughout your life, if you don't learn how to deal with it now, when mommy is gone you will just be left feeling even worse than you do now. And kids don't kill themselves just because they are being bullied, other things factor into those suicides, whether it be their life at home, neglect, depression, a loss of a loved one, whatever. Bullying has been evident throughout history so this is nothing new.

[pblues]

01:54 PM on 09/20/2011

Bullying is nothing new so kids should just suck it up, huh? Genocide is nothing new so people should just deal. Rape has been an issue forever because women are just too afraid to stand up for themselves, or they wore slutty clothes. You can't stop racism because it's too big of a problem. You're justification for abuse and torture is laughable, to say the least. But you've probably been thinking in simple minded terms like this since you were born, so I doubt you'll ever be capable of comprehending how severely ignorant your comments are.

[Desolati0n]

08:18 AM on 09/21/2011

The fact you would even compare bullying to rape or genocide is just despicable. They are completely different, kids don't just kill themselves because they are being bullied, they kill themselves for many other reasons, the bullying is just the last straw for many kids.

[Bfry420]

02:24 AM on 09/20/2011

Gotta help kids learn confidence. Be postive and shake those haters off. I faught back and later learned it's hard to survive. I love kids. I have a 5 year old. I love you Raiden Luke!

[purplemaize]

01:19 AM on 09/20/2011

This happens everyday in schools, college, at work. Bullies don't stop because they don't have a life at home so they have to pick on somebody else to make themselves feel better. I have been bullied thru out school... and when I got into H. S. I started to punch the bullies back. Nobody messes with me, even when I see a child be hit in the store I grab that child away from the parent. But I only do it if the parent is beating the living crap out of the child. Then I call DYFUS and the police.

[Darlene Callahan]

08:19 AM on 09/19/2011

I had the same thing in junior high, a girl harassed me for weeks in class in between class then I gave her a quick snap to the nose. That was the end of that! She also went out of her way to be nice. It is a normal lesson in life on how to teach people how to treat you, but I am aware that some kids just don't have it in them to fight back and should be helped.

[ninjasrolled]

02:41 AM on 09/19/2011

There was a girl in junior high that constantly pushed, teased and ridiculed me. One punch...just one...and she never bothered me again. In fact, she offered to hold my blocks for the rest of the track season.

[StevenM]

06:41 AM on 09/19/2011

It is nice that you were able to resolve your particular situation, but unfortunately, that doesn't work in every situation. In some situations, violence only makes the situation worse.

[Gottlieb]

01:55 AM on 09/19/2011

I recommend http://www.stopbullying.gov/ which is also listed above under around the web.

I have found "Positive behavioral interventions & support (PBIS)" a very helpful tool.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/ttobin/

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

12:09 AM on 09/19/2011

True crazy anti-bully story:

A kid in my neighborhood was about 8 and he wanted a bicycle. His family had 16 kids, and they couldn't afford anything.

So, we went around to everyone he knew and asked to have any bicycle parts that they didn't need.

He cobbled together the worst looking bike you would ever see. But it worked.

We had a bully family in the neighborhood-5 sons of a vicious cop who abused them terribly.

They hated these kids from the big family. So when the 15 year old saw that the kid had a bike, he went ballistic.

So, he stole the bike. Started smashing it into things and laughing.

The kid opened the bow and arrow set he got for christmas, and guess what happened!

Shot the bully while he was riding the broken bike and laughing. Through and through the chest.

The bully lived. The 5 brothers turned into vicious alcoholic bullies later in life, and this one died while trying to jump a train while drunk.

[Brent Rossen]

12:37 AM on 09/19/2011

So, what happened after he got shot through the chest?

[PirateJohn]

12:41 AM on 09/19/2011

He stopped laughing.

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

12:57 PM on 09/19/2011

Oh, he went to the hospital and the docs pulled the thing out. He was back home in a couple of days.

The little kid strung the bow backwards, so it didn't have a lot of power. If he had strung it up the right way, he would have hit what he was aiming at, the center of the chest.

The little kid got arrested and ended up in counseling. When we got back to Cathaholic school in the fall the little kid was a hero.

The neighborhood kids fixed his bike and even put on a brand new "Bananna" seat.

The cop family tried to sue but no lawyer would take the case. They got a minimal settlement from the home insurer.

[Caryn Banker]

05:43 AM on 09/19/2011

LOL! HOLY SH*T!! What the heck kind of neighborhood did you live in!?? That is rough!

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

12:51 PM on 09/19/2011

Actually it was a really nice neighborhood, we just had a few clinkers.

The family with the 16 kids were a great group. The family of he cop were not a great group.

For instance, the survivors of latter group are in their 50's and still hang out near a convenience store harassing the people walking in and out. Been there since the 60's.

[Brent Rossen]

12:02 AM on 09/19/2011

Really, what I think we need to do is just put all the bullies together in a special "charter school" once they start acting up. It would be just like regular school except with even more cops. It would be good because then if you wanted to act like a hard ass then they could send you to bullying school where you could mingle with real hard asses. If somebody got bullied too much at bullying school then they could get a review to go back to normal school. After they made amends to the people they bullied. Hmm... sounds kind of like something we have here in the adult world.

[MrMike17]

11:46 PM on 09/18/2011

I have developed a bully prevention show for elementary school. You can learn more about it here...

http://youtu.be/2qAvD01RD9E
http://www.StopBullyingShow.com

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

11:59 PM on 09/18/2011

Is it free use/public domain?

[carmenalex]

11:04 AM on 09/19/2011

thank you Mr. Mike!

[Brent Rossen]

11:25 PM on 09/18/2011

School is just a microcosm of its society. I mean, who do you think raises these little bullies? Bigger bullies! If you want to fix this problem then you will have to stop making adult bullies into business heroes and superstars. Stop rewarding them with fame and fortune.

[FreedomBeforeSecurity]

11:03 PM on 09/18/2011

If kids were actually treated like young adults, and given a sense of ownership over the school (A student run judicial system, and a student government with actual power.) they'd police themselves. Instead we treat them like prisoners, and ask nothing more of them than attendance, and decent grades.

[careerline]

10:43 PM on 09/18/2011

As a parent I know just how heartbreaking it can be to have a child who is bullied. Usually they are the weaker and more unconfident children who seem to attract this type of attention. We ended up having to teach our child with ASD to 'give as good as he was getting', how horrible that our lovely, sensitve child has had to learn to do to this, but it probably may be an important life skill. In the end he did manage to give as good as he got, and he's been pretty much left alone since. Bullies can be around you no matter how old you are or where you are so you need to support your children to deal with it as best they can. Its a learning curve for all involved.

[cerebrogasm]

10:56 PM on 09/18/2011

You may have saved a huge portion of his future identity - as an adult. You didn't re-enforce victim-hood - by making him confront the bully on his own - a positive experience that can last a lifetime.

Good for you - I know it was painful - I've been there with my own son - but you did the right thing - and you may have even reduced the impact anti-social disorder can have on a growing child.

Beyond that - bullies typically have a stable of victims whose lives they've nearly ruined - they, their parents, the school, and the Social Network (Facebook) should all face class action lawsuits against their failure to intervene or even further enable bullies, significantly often through the use of technology.

[careerline]

11:30 PM on 09/18/2011

Hi, thank you for your comments. In truth I find parenting an exercise in isolated decision making; never quite sure if I should turn left or right, so thank you very much. I orginally wanted to home school him and it still may come to that as he is due to enter high school in a year to two. I've actually set up my own distance education school so that I can support him to be home schooled if necessary. I want to make this available to parents of children with Asperger's etc who dont cope.

I do agree, sometimes we need events like these in order to help us grow. This is of course extremely uncomfortable for us parents (not to mention the children). But this is why we need to teach them to not run but to face the problems they face. Otherwise what do you do? spend your whole life running? He ended up punching the bully when the kid started shaking him for missing a ball, needless the bully burst into tears and went and told on him. He then tackled the worst bully in his class, my child threw sand in his face (! OMG) and pushed him over. The child deserved it (pushing kids over, teasing etc), however I must say I felt a bit shocked. This bully also left him alone after this. I bet the bully didn't go home and get support for his life journey though - sad.

[cerebrogasm]

10:21 PM on 09/18/2011

Bullying and pack-attack behavior is a primal trait - the animal kingdom uses bullying techniques to intimidate and weaken prey. But most of us don't become bullies - you've usually got to witness this behavior first-hand - often you are the victim of it from an abusive parent - and that helplessness felt becomes codified as a weakness - and a display of aggression (bullying) to easy prey (the victims of bullies) helps re-enforce the lie of which bullies try to convince themselves: that they are powerful and superior. Most bullies are internally cowards, (unless, of course, you're dealing with a true psychopath or sociopath). I don't relish the draconian idea of "fighting fire with fire" - but a young person being victimized by a bully (or bully-pack) will define themselves as victims or assertive adults, based on how they handle these mal-adjusted cowards.

[acumenguy]

10:56 PM on 09/18/2011

Man, this point is SO spot on.