If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Anti-gay bullying truncates a child's academic ability to excel. And the cost, while immediately about the child, is an equally greater cost to us as a society down the road. Anti-gay bullying is not to be endured or tolerated. It must be stopped by us all.
Here are five "Stop and Think" rules I offer to parents as they are first teaching their kids about netiquette.
They watch the way you snicker with your friends or make off-handed comments about the way that someone looks. They absorb everything. You are their first teacher. You are their role model. You are their everything. This is a huge responsibility.
Middle school isn't an easy timeline for many kids. It is especially hard when you're about 4'6" and only weigh about 60 pounds. That was me.
Friendship, family and core values can trump fears, politics and lack of knowledge. But I also must remind you that many families cannot be this open because the risk is too great. Many families have similar stories tell and most cannot. This has to change!
I contend that we must not view bullying and harassment as simply youth problems and behaviors, but rather, investigate the contexts in which bullying "trickles down" from the larger society and is reproduced within the schools.
As in any state of the Union, good and bad things happen in Texas. As in any city or town in our country, things happen in our state's beautiful capital, Austin, that can make one feel ashamed and that can make one feel proud.
he hopeful news about the epidemic of bullying is that while no magic wand cure-alls exist, there are all kinds of quick and easy things adults can do to truly make a difference in the lives of kids.
We need to take steps to make sure that bullying becomes a thing of the past.
I was asked by someone in the group why I started the charity. At this point I got choked up and slowly started talking about how I was bullied horribly when I was younger. Then I started to cry.
Today, our kids face a new form of bullying through the use of social media. Simply search "Facebook bullying" on Google and the horrors of what is happening in cyberspace to kids around the world is instantly revealed.
I was asked to give a presentation focusing on bullying prevention to approximately 200 high-school students in a moderately sized Midwestern city. The next day, the organizer of the event emailed me to say that five parents had called the principal to complain.
It takes a community to prevent bullying in schools, which is expected to affect 13 million children in the U.S. in the current school year.
I'm not writing from the perspective of a dad. I'm writing from the perspective of having lived in my own personal hell as an early teen -- one of which no one was aware, but from which I could see no hope.
Recently we published a blog addressing educator reactions to the presence of transgender children in elementary schools. Since then we have received requests for more specific information about our vision for proactive policies and practices. This is a response to those questions.
As kids head back to classrooms this month -- many of them on school buses -- it's time for parents and guardians to step in and step up to their responsibility, and help avert another year of bullying before it has a chance to begin.
