Sioux City Journal, Iowa Newspaper, Devotes Front Page To 'Our Opinion' Editorial Fighting Bullying

-- In a rare and forceful act of advocacy, an Iowa newspaper devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to an anti-bullying editorial after a gay teen committed suicide.

Relatives have said 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. suffered intense harassment, including threatening cellphone calls and nasty comments posted online, after coming out to family and friends about a month ago. He died April 15 from what the local sheriff's office described only as a "self-inflicted injury."

The Sioux City Journal's front-page opinion piece calls on the community to be pro-active in stopping bullying and urges members to learn more about the problem by seeing the acclaimed new film, "Bully," which documents the harassment of a Sioux City middle school student. It notes that while many students are targeted for being gay, "we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike."

"In Kenneth's case, the warnings were everywhere," the editorial said. "We saw it happen in other communities, now it has hit home. Undoubtedly, it wasn't the first life lost to bullying here, but we can strive to make it the last.

Editor Mitch Pugh said the newspaper has run front-page editorials before but has never devoted the entire page to one.

"A lot of newspapers shy away from putting editorials on the front page, but we feel we have to be a strong advocate for our community," he said. "And if we don't do that, we're not sure who else is."

Weishuhn's mother, Jeannie Chambers, told the Journal last week that she and the rest of the family knew he was being harassed but didn't realize the extent of the bullying. His sister told a local television station that Weishuhn, a freshman, had many friends and was popular at South O'Brien High School in Paullina until he came out. Then students turned on him.

Weishuhn's family couldn't immediately be reached Sunday by The Associated Press.

Pugh said the newspaper didn't consult the family before printing the editorial.

"This was a bigger issue than one person," he said.

Andy Marra, a spokesman for the national anti-bullying group GLSEN, said the Journal's decision makes "complete sense."

"Public education is absolutely vital to addressing bullying and harassment in schools," he said, adding that community pressure could push schools to do more.

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Comments

[chykim1]

03:16 AM on 04/25/2012

who knew, this would have become this big of an issue??
personally i think parents should be more involved.. i recently found out my son and his jock friends were bullying less fortunate kids, i told him," u have nothing, everything u have belongs to me..even your freedom! itll be a shame if u dissapointed me and i took it all away"
shut it down! case closed!

[Since59]

11:57 AM on 04/25/2012

Is your post supposed to be sardonic or ironic?

[fozzi58]

09:45 AM on 04/24/2012

"Public education is absolutely vital to addressing bullying and harassment in schools," he said, adding that community pressure could push schools to do more."

Maybe we can eliminate science, or math, or English to fit this into the curriculum.

Can someone tell me what ever happened to PARENTING??? I was bullied as a kid too. My father said ignore as long as you can - if a bully doesn't get the desired results, he will get bored and not bother you. If he is persistent and relentless, knock his teeth out. I have no problem teaching my daughters the same lessons. Why is this the school's responsibility?

If you let your kids on Facebook, then the school is supposed to police it? Sorry but i can't agree with that.

We have become way too politically correct over the last 10 years. Teach your children to not be a bully, and teach then to knock the snot out of one when they pick on you. There's nothing wrong with self defense.

[joemondo]

10:01 AM on 04/24/2012

Much of bullying happens at school, and at school activities. The school is responsible for the safety of kids while in school custody. That should be simple enough to understand.

When schools are aware of bullying and do nothing to stop it, they are liable for the farm caused by it. Urging victims to ignore it is not an acceptable response.

[fozzi58]

02:32 PM on 04/24/2012

Facebook and Twitter aren't school, even if it happens during school hours. Parents and legislators are too lazy to be mindful of their own children so we dump it on the schools. In NJ the school is responsible for an off-campus, after hours "bullying" incident. How does that fall in the schools jurisdiction? How about adding Saturday too while we are at it. We are going to have a nation of children that have no idea of how to work out a conflict. Its getting ridiculous.

[Erin84]

07:58 PM on 04/24/2012

So you advocate committing assault to solve the problem? You advocate this even though your child could always underestimate the strength and fighting skills of the bully and get beaten up, on top of the ongoing verbal abuse. My sister didn't like what another girl said about her at school and decided the best way to go was to punch her in the face. She broke the girl's jaw and caused a head injury when the girl fell backwards onto the concrete. The girl's parents' pressed charges. People who tell their children to assault other children to settle conflict have the maturity level of children themselves, and it's a darn shame you couldn't grow up before you brought kids into the world. Oh, and insisting proactive classroom behavior management interferes with basic subjects is a rather lazy logical fallacy. You are right about one thing though. The school should not and cannot be responsible for the after hours behavior of their students, but they absolutely can control it during school hours, and that will only enhance the ability of students to learn their basic subjects.

[fozzi58]

10:20 AM on 04/25/2012

Its not a matter of advocating violence - it is about advocating self defense. Should a woman allow the rapist to finish and then go to the police or should she put up a struggle with the chance of getting free before the heinous act is committed? My example is extreme and in no way related to a bunch of kids arguing in a school yard, but the principle behind the idea is similar. I would never teach my daughters to slug someone if they picked on them for 5 minutes. I wouldn't advocate telling on them either. But if the kid is persistent over 2 weeks whats the alternative? Running to teacher? This isn't how we learned to deal with conflict growing up - running to an authoritative figure every time there was a disagreement. Kids worked things out on their own unless it got extreme. So where do we draw the line on extreme? Being called fat or 4 eyes for a week? A month? A year? Having spit balls shot at you? Physical conflicts like being shoved in a locker or pushed?

There are extremities on both ends of the spectrum. But it comes down to parenting. Educating kids in school about diversity and respecting others is all well and good, but if those values are not reinforced at home, all the schooling in the world is for naught.

[CultivateYMinds]

05:38 PM on 04/25/2012

Uhm...punching somebody in the face because they didn't like what was said is way different than punching someone in the face for repeated verbal abuse and who knows what other forms of bullying. If the person who said something against your sister was a repeated offender then praise your sister for knocking her out. I agree with self-defense. And if self-defense was more prominent...kids would think twice before being involved in stupid activities against another person.

[bystander9529]

02:25 AM on 04/24/2012

As a former Iowan, I am saddened that in Iowa the social network was the instrument used to take away Kenneth's safety net by telling him that his bashers included all his friends. That list seems a likely starting point in sorting out complicity in his death, which I consider a wrongful death even though the proximal cause was suicide.

By forcefully stating that bullying must end here, the SC Journal may find itself at odds with Steve King, who represents that district in Congress. King has earned a reputation as the least progressive member of Iowa's delegation. His rhetoric and voting record seem more in sympathy with the bullies and less in sympathy with those bullied.

During this school year, HuffPost has carried stories about two other young gays, Jonah Mowry and Scott Heggart, who also experienced constant fear of mistreatment. While Kenneth's story has ended tragically, I am cautiously optimistic that there will be better outcomes for Jonah and Scott. Please check out their stories for some rays of light in all this darkness.

Lastly, how I wish Kenneth had been able to be with us this Thursday, April 26, when another Iowan, Zach Wahls, has an author's event in New York City for the release of his book, My Two Moms. Zach is proving to be a forceful ally for LGBT rights, especially marriage equality. Kenneth, you will be in my heart as I read My Two Moms. RIP, gentle soul.

[DUTCHMAN67]

01:33 AM on 04/24/2012

Nowhere in ANY red state, bible belt, or in the south (The Stupid States) are LGBT children, teens and adults safe, at any time. Iowa is progressive in some ways, but still has too many
ignorant christians to make it to the 21st century. The schools system this boy was brutalzied in, is just the same as the brutal, homophobic "christian values" school system in Anoka Minnesota, for the same reason; christian prejudice.. When will be stop these irrational, violent, hateful people? Do we have to make christianity illegal? After all, it is a deviant lifestyle; attacking, humiliating and marginalizing those they oppose is their major accomplishment. Start with the catholic church; outlaw it, sieze their billions in assets, then lock up all the molester priests and the bishops who protected and hid them from justice.

[novabird]

06:48 AM on 04/24/2012

Do not paint all Christians with the same brush.
I attend a progressive, gay welcoming church that works for social justice. Yes, some irrational, violent and hateful people use Christianity as an excuse for the evil they do but many loving caring and peaceful people follow and live the peaceful words of Jesus.

[Razpooten]

08:20 PM on 04/23/2012

Let me guess, and christiann groups objected to it because it "promotes" homosexuality?

[Shannon Barber]

06:29 PM on 04/23/2012

This poor boy Kenneth, the most recent tragedy received death threats on his cell phone and via social media. This should not be hard to verify...why aren't those responsible in jail, or at least under investigation of some sort, along with their parents, and the school officials?

Good job to this newspaper for running this as front page news. A pro active stand by all is the only thing that will get this to stop.

[Razpooten]

08:21 PM on 04/23/2012

I concur.

[truefalse44]

05:41 PM on 04/23/2012

I think everyone here who is kind enough to be concerned, and mature enough to give thought to others outlooks on this issue are sadly waisting their time. To anyone who is paying attention to the comments you can see the usual suspects bird dogging others comments on almost every recent page. I ask myself why it is so hard for someone to hear or read a opinion different then theirs without having to shut down the other persons thought, or skillfully wrapping their total self absorbed view point in self righteous speech that cloaks itself in community love and peace. The only answer i can come up with is that the little red headed kid with a super hero mask has all the answers to this problem ( just ask him, or don't) and your thought has been deemed not needed or rediculous by him and the other realistic "1000+ friend" posters who take over every begining avenue of conversation. It is still entertaining seeing someone talk soley about "religious fantics" without a clue that they exposeing thier religious hang ups that they are consumed with. Who is really the fanatic at that point? Or the " I'm a champion of anti- bullying, it's all about the kids and not politicaly motivated.....but let me talk all about the adults, tea party, gop,new laws, etc.... but its really about the kids"! Where can adults go to have a conversation now a days?

[MartiniVirtuoso]

05:36 PM on 04/23/2012

We have laws against assault and against harassment and stalking as well. We have laws against slander. We have laws and rules against doing any of these in the workplace. Even if it's for some religious motivation, no one can do these things to me as an adult...But somehow some people lose all sense of reason when it comes to applying these laws to kids. We need to prosecute, lock up and financially bankrupt the kids, parents and school officials who participate in, or facilitate the bullying of our children. The laws aren't different for the bullies of kids. They should be held to the same standards and it will change quickly.

[Trevor Marlin]

07:05 PM on 04/23/2012

Laws are slightly different for minors, actually.

[MartiniVirtuoso]

07:48 PM on 04/23/2012

You are right, of course. But the problem is that in many cases the laws in place are not being enforced. And the civil court power isn't being tapped. If a parent can prove that a school administrator didn't act when confronted multiple times, then he can sue for individual damages. A few school principals lose their savings and things will change. Then, while the penalties for underage offender may be different, if parents of bullied kids pushed hard on DAs to charge kids, they would end up in juvenile detention and that would be a good step as well. Consequences are lacking here. And there should be some.

[Atwill]

08:30 PM on 04/23/2012

sad but true. but that shoudln't matter. After all, to quote Horton. "A person is a person, no matter how small."

[Gary Brooks]

05:22 PM on 04/23/2012

Reading down below yes technology has changed the way people get bullied , but if I am correct these computers have different pages kind of like a TV if you don"t like the program change the page or change the channel but don"t tell me what I should be watching and not watching, also I think they both have off-on buttons

[wmad]

06:25 PM on 04/23/2012

So kids, whose social lives often revolve around social media, should have to abandon technology because they're being bullied? He'd have to have stayed away from Facebook, which is pretty much the teen social hub, which would make him even worse off socially. And they were texting him threatening things too, so he would have to stop using his phone as well. Basically, he would have to give up whatever contact he had with the few friends he had with, which would actually make things worse.

[EuroRant1]

09:19 PM on 04/23/2012

If you go back to the initial news posts you'll find that young Kenneth was not being attacked per se on HIS social web pages. If I recall correctly, those that were tormenting him created social webpage sites entitled "Gay Friends of Kenneth Weishuhn" or "Kenneth Weishuhn Gay Page" (???). They were also sending him death threat text messages and phone calls.

I'm not familiar with how social websites function as I have made a conscience effort not to participate. But I can only imagine, at that age, when school and friends are your whole world and you're doing your best to fit in... I don't believe this young man had much choice about participating or not-participating in his tormentors "innocent" little games.

In other words, young Kenneth didn't have a choice of an "off-on button".

[Sunie Dae]

04:58 PM on 04/23/2012

Make an example of the bullies round them up send them to an island we'll call bullyland and have bigger stronger bullies pulverize them and broadcast it on the daily news so that potential and other bullies get the message. One strike law you strike someone 1 time and you go to bullyland. Sunie Dae for President!

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

05:06 PM on 04/23/2012

Read "Lord of the Flies".

[Trevor Marlin]

07:06 PM on 04/23/2012

[Atwill]

04:55 PM on 04/23/2012

The reason this is getting worse for gay teens is because of people like Michele Bachman, Romney , Little Ricky, that fat Gov from NJ and others who preach against gays and , as frightening as it may seem, want to be president. Then add these idiot "Dont say gay " laws they want to pass. This is all, ALL of it, done by adults. Adults are by far the worst bullies when it comes to gays and gay teens. I dont recall any time in my 52 years where so much hate for gays has been expressed by adults who are actually in change of our states and congress and the government. I remember Anita Bryant, i was a teen then. She was a laughing stock even then. But now, we have government leaders saying far worse then she ever did. And we wonder where the bullies come from. It is a disgrace that we elect such evil people.

[Razpooten]

08:25 PM on 04/23/2012

Well stated.

[Atwill]

08:28 PM on 04/23/2012

Thanks. Sad so many dont understand this.

[EuroRant1]

09:38 PM on 04/23/2012

Your words moved me in so many ways and as a journalist that's not often easy. You put in a nutshell what we in Europe worry about concerning America towards it's fellow citizens. I will never understand how Americans that go about the world sharing their democracy don't seem to understand the depth of the concept at home. Yours is the only country that has a term in your Constitution that other countries and citizens literally envy: "the pursuit of happiness". It is so mind blowing to any citizen of the world that a country would actually place such a beautiful term in their Constitution.

Then the world's citizens look on and find that in reality Americans don't really stand by those words. It just meaningless and false rhetoric. That "happiness" is only allowed to those that fit their ideal concept of who they demand you be.
Thank you Atwill.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." -- Joseph Goebbels (1933-1945, German National Socialist Minister of Propaganda)

[Atwill]

04:25 PM on 05/08/2012

Thanks .  kind of an old post, I forgeot I wrote it, but I guess in cyber space nothing is ever gone.

[Victoria Institutions]

04:53 PM on 04/23/2012

On the sideline, a few thoughts can be set aside on what is the use of such huge number of years studying books, when most people can built up technical and trade skills by entering the rituals of an active life.

[jcourtland]

05:04 PM on 04/23/2012

What in the world did you just say in a poorly grammar manner?

[Victoria Institutions]

12:20 AM on 04/26/2012

With all the rebuke I encountered for 'hijacking' the theme, I better not elaborate here!

[Tribalenvy]

05:09 PM on 04/23/2012

I'm not sure what this has to do with the article in question, but...

A huge number of years studying gives our young people a well rounded education. It allows them to explore a variety of topics/interests to determine what path they wish to follow in the future. If that path does not work out (injury, loss of interest) they have early developed skills in other areas that can help them make such transitions.

Those years of studying also create a more flexible mind and expand horizons by teaching topics the student might not otherwise have engaged on their own.

[Victoria Institutions]

12:21 AM on 04/26/2012

I hope to reply in a more appropriate article.

[Gloria Rinderman]

04:39 PM on 04/23/2012

It is important that young children learn that bullying is wrong. Many schools and libraries have purchased this CD:

"BE A BUDDY, NOT A BULLY-10 unique, timely, upbeat songs of various music styles to help combat bullying that kids up to age 9 love to sing & dance to. INSTRUMENTAL tracks. LYRICS available from publisher for purchasers of CD.

Reviewed by School Library Journal

LINKS to hear or download songs:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/gennaro4

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/be-a-buddy-not-a-bully/id291765635

“A very educational & positive children's music album that reinforces hospitality, acceptance, & togetherness.”

[theagrace]

03:52 PM on 04/23/2012

good for Souix City newspaper..Sioux City area is one of the most conservative voting areas in the state of Iowa...home to Rep. Steve King...wonder if there is any connection? do people even recognize their own part in bullying? voting for people who consider women and gays and immigrants as 'other' as King does and giving power to this voice, is a part of the picture...we are witnessing a tremendous amount of 'dialogue' that is really bullying on the national political scene..and if adults can call people names and get away with it, why can't the youngsters?

[EclecticWarrioress]

03:52 PM on 04/23/2012

I think the biggest problem about bullying is the fact that it continues into adulthood. We have lost the will to stand up, as adults to OUR bullies (boss, family, strangers), or to discuss with our children not only how to report and rebound from bullies, but that there are ALWAYS bullies.
American society & culture have pushed the envelope by introducing and encouraging tv/shows/movies/video games that speak more of being mean/take what you want/no concern for other people (Survivor/Reality TV/etc).
Until we acknowledge that our society is poisionous to peoples perception of acceptable behavior, we will continue to have a reactive response to this issue. I applaud the newspaper for bringing it into the open.

[Atwill]

04:27 PM on 04/23/2012

I agree. but not all of us, as adults, take it lying down. I have stacks and stacks of write ups and suspensions in files from different jobs where i spoke my mind to bosses and supervisiours who i thought were bullies. i didnt get the nick name, "Insubordinate" at most jobs for nothing.

[simzillyjp]

04:36 PM on 04/23/2012

Good for you for standing up to those bullies....reguardless of who they are. That's the problem with most people....They refuse to stand up to those bullies. Parents do not teach their kids to fight back. If you stand up to that bully & fight back...the bully will leave you alone because they know you will fight back.

[EclecticWarrioress]

06:20 PM on 04/23/2012

I'm glad you are one of the ones strong enough to speak up. I too have write ups, and am a social outcast in my working place, because I dont tolerate bullies, and will call them on it. I'm seeing more and more people starting to stand up for themselves, and think it may change soon...

[oklaliberal]

11:45 PM on 04/23/2012

I have noticed on social sites, such as the HP, where there is a forum to express ideas and have a conversation that there is a lot of bullying. Three is a lot of back and forth nonsense and name calling, and just very hateful things said. I posted on here this morning, and I don't even want to look at the responses from others because I know how hateful they will be, because I have a different view. I have tried to be civil with others that don't hold my point of view, but to no avail. People can hide behind an avatar or screen name and bully others because it is safe. We as adults are not very good role models if we bully other adults on social websites.