Look out, Tony Robbins - ‘Thumbs Up’ biker kid a YouTube hit with motivational speech

A pint-sized Minnesota child is rocking and rolling across the internet with his inspirational message to other kids who are struggling to learn how to ride a two-wheeler.

The San Francisco Giants posted their "It Gets Better" video on YouTube and the team website

...becoming the first professional sports team to join the online campaign against gay bullying and homophobia.





Pitchers Matt Cain, Barry Zito and Sergio Romo; centerfielder Andres Torres; and batting coach Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens.

itgetsbetter.org

Fall seven times, get up eight. - Japanese Proverb

Teen girl sues Seattle school, alleges relentless bullying

'Each day was like a war zone'

By VANESSA HO, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Olivia, who did not want her face shown, has sued a Seattle middle school for allegedly failing to protect her from bullies. (Photo by Vanessa Ho) Photo: Seattlepi.com / SL

A 16-year-old girl has sued a small, private girls' school in Seattle, where she said administrators failed to protect her from two years of assaults, Facebook taunts and near-daily name-calling.

The girl, who wanted to be identified by her first name Olivia, said she was initially excited to enroll at the Seattle Girls' School in 2006, a Central District middle school known for its intimate setting and math and science curriculums.
But soon after she started sixth grade, another girl slapped her at a dance for no apparent reason, the girl said. She told her teacher, but nothing reportedly happened.
Instead, the bullying escalated to frequent name-calling, profane insults on Facebook and ostracism. She said other girls called her "ugly" and "fat pig." They arranged "secret meetings" in the bathroom to talk about her, while she overheard them in a stall and cried.
"Eacy day was like a war zone," said the girl's complaint, filed Thursday in King County Superior Court. "She was subjected to things being thrown at her head and face."
She began to dread going to her locker, where another girl with the locker above hers regularly abused her.
'I felt like I was suffocating'
"She would stand above me and shove my head down," said the girl, a slight, soft-spoken teen with braces. "I felt like I was suffocating."
But when she reported the incidents to her teachers and an advisor, she said little happened. She said they assured her that they would deal with the bullies – a group of about 10 girls – but the taunts never really stopped. She said none of the girls were suspended or expelled.
Instead, the advisor reportedly told the girl to talk to her bullies and said every grade seemed to single out a victim for bullying each year.
"Sadly, that was me," the girl said. "She said I was going to have to man up and deal with it. It was sort of like an unavoidable thing I was going to be bullied."
On Thursday, the 120-student school - which launched in 2000 with a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant - responded with a statement about its anti-bullying efforts.
But it made no mention of the complaint or the girl, now in high school.
"We take the issue of bullying, relational aggression and cyber bullying very seriously," the statement said.
"The commitment to our students who are entrusted to us is to equip them with the necessary tools and self confidence to combat issues of bullying."
The girl said the school's response included a circle group for her and her abusers, in which each girl was supposed to say if they had ever gossiped about anyone.
"They had these vague, kumbaya meetings with the girls," said the girl's attorney, Yvonne Kinoshita Ward. "That kumbaya stuff isn't going to work when it's vicious bullying and assault. You need swift, clear, consistent actions."
The abuse culminated in eighth grade in 2009, in which the girl said the locker bully kicked her hard in the back and whispered, "That hurt, didn't it." The victim's mother then pulled her daughter out of school.
The mother surmised that the school - which she said charged about $15,000 in tuition when her daughter was there - tolerated the mean girls, because it didn't want to jeopardize funding from their parents.
"They're dependent on the tuition and their reputation in the community, so rich donors (are) giving them money," said the mother, who didn't want her name used, in order to protect her daughter's identity.
"Most, if not all, the girls involved - the parents were wealthy parents."
She said the pain still lingered. Her daughter, once friendly and active in ballet, is now withdrawn and distrustful. She's been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and anoxeria. Her back still hurts.
"I used to be lot more outgoing," she said. "I'm not that person any more."

Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. Contact Vanessa Ho at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com, and follow her on Twitter as @vanessaho.

Want to 'Beat' the Bully?

By Joel Waldron

Opinion, The Neighborhood Files

Following these five steps will help you descalate most bullying situations.

Many people, children and adults alike, simply have no idea of what to do when confronted by a bully. These skills simply aren’t taught in a structured manner and, worse, we have all heard many conflicting pieces of advice from parents and society about what to do. For example, “It’s not nice to hit” vs. “a bully won’t stop until you stand up to them.”

So, in an effort to address this situation, let me share with you what we teach our junior students at the Academy. It’s a simple progression of responses to bullying situations.

Level 1 Situation: Someone insults you from across the room - no immediate danger.

Response: “Walk away with confidence”

Walk away without hanging your head, looking down or taking shuffle steps. Keep your chin up, walk away briskly and make sure to let your parents and teachers know about the situation. Always - if we can get away, then we get away. It is always better to avoid a physical encounter. Even if for no other reason than to create a "history of events" so to speak.

Level 2 Situation: Someone moves toward you in a menacing way - escalating the danger.

Response: “Back off, you’re too close!”

(The Level 2 response assumes the child has tried to leave the immediate area as in Level 1 and can’t.) The child creates some space by taking a few steps back. They put up their hands, palms out in a “back off gesture” creating a physical boundary, and in a loud voice says, “Back off you’re too close” or something similar to create a verbal boundary. Sometimes all it takes is the realization that you’re not an easy target to turn a bully away from further aggression. Again, it is imperative for your child to understand that they need to report such incidents to both parents and the teacher.

Level 3 Situation: Someone tries to shove your child - escalating the danger once again.

Response: “Evade and redirect”

Child uses “evasion and re-direction” to avoid being shoved, further showing the bully that you are not an easy target, which by the way, is the true meaning of “sticking up for yourself.” Redirection means to use your hands to deflect the bully. Continue with the verbal boundaries and be louder! If you can’t back off the bully with your voice, then perhaps you can attract attention to yourself and the situation. Many times bullies will high tail it rather than get caught “in the act” by a teacher. Again, report the incident to both your parents and the teacher.
Level 4 Situation: Someone grabs your child and doesn’t let go.

Response: “Make ‘em weak and get free”

Here’s where opinions really start to vary. In my mind, once your child is touched in a violent way and can’t get away, the use of physical force is permissible. We teach a simple formula against being grabbed: Step one - a loosening strike. A hit to the chin, stomach, side of head, etc., just enough to loosen up the bully. Step Two - a ‘break release’. A break release is a way to use your body in a tight circular fashion to break free of the bully’s grasp. This doesn’t hurt the bully, and a smaller person can easily free themselves from a bigger one with this technique. Step three - get away. Once you are free and out of harms way, it’s not OK to keep hitting the attacker. That would take you into the attacker’s role. Perhaps we should add a formal fourth step to that process: notify parents and teacher.

Level 5 Situation: Someone repeatedly grabs your child and/or is repeatedly hitting your child each time they get away.

Response: “Lock ‘em down”

When it’s obvious that the bully is not going to give up after several instances of your breaking free, and you still can’t get away, then our students are taught how to take a bigger opponent down and lock them down until help arrives. They are taught to do so inflicting as little harm as possible, but here they are taught to do whatever is necessary to protect themselves. At this point the bully has shown that nothing short of physical force will make them stop, so physical force becomes acceptable.

All through these methods, the concepts of getting away if possible, not instigating or exacerbating the situation and reporting these incidents to parents and teachers are reinforced constantly. If parents and teachers do their part, it’s hard to see how a child would have to take it to Level 4 or higher. However, I fully believe that if a child has to, they should be allowed to protect themselves in anyway way necessary against an aggressor.

http://windsorlocks.patch.com

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend. - Albert Camus

Hamill' tells inspirational story of deaf fighter who continues to win

Teased and bullied by kids growing up because he was different, Hamill credits his grandfather for teaching him respect, honor and pride.



By Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press


View Trailer

The movie spotlight shines this fall on Matt (The Hammer) Hamill, his opponent in Saturday night's main event at UFC 130, when "Hamill" opens in theatres.

The film is the inspirational story of Hamill, who was born deaf. It depicts Hamill's youth but focuses mostly on 1997 when — as a sophomore walk-on at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which has a deaf school — he won the first of three NCAA Division 3 wrestling championships.

"Hamill" is a study of perseverance. Movie-goers will likely wipe away a tear and leave with a healthy respect for Matt Hamill, as well as a better grasp of deaf life.

Directed by Oren Kaplan, the film uses sound or lack thereof as well as subtitles, often with words missing, to gets its message across.

At the heart of the movie is a deft, understated performance by Russell Harvard, the deaf actor who plays Hamill. You may remember Harvard for his brief appearance as Daniel Day-Lewis' grown-up son H.W. at the end of "There Will be Blood."

"Hamill" has been entered in six film festivals to date — Newport Beach, Florida, AFI, Miami, Cleveland and Philadelphia — and won audience awards in every one.

"There's been an overwhelming response to the film, which has been amazing ... People really respond to Matt's story. I think it's universal," said co-writers Joseph McKelheer.

In real life or on the movie screen, it's hard not to root for Matt Hamill.

"I'm just trying to be who I am," he tells reporters with a broad smile. "I'm happy the way I am."

Read More



Copyright © 2011 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

'The Bully Project': A Film Takes On Harassment, From Iowa to Tribeca

By Robert Levin

http://www.theatlantic.com

Robert Levin Robert Levin - Robert Levin writes about film and other entertainment topics for amNewYork, Inside Jersey, Backstage, and elsewhere. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online guild.

An interview with documentarian Lee Hirsch about one of the most talked-about movies at this year's Tribeca Film Festival

One of the most talked-about movies at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, The Bully Project, shines light on a serious problem: More than 5.7 million U.S. schoolchildren are involved in bullying each year.

In The Bully Project, documentarian Lee Hirsch conducts a cross-country examination of bullying, looking at a Sioux City, Iowa teenager tortured for being different, a lesbian high school student in Oklahoma, families who lost their bullied children to suicide, and other case studies. Securing a distribution deal with the Weinstein Company yesterday, the film is at once a devastating portrait of individuals tormented for being different and an inspirational depiction of communities standing up to right an egregious wrong. Here, Hirsch offers his thoughts on his hopes for the project.

________________________________________________________

It seems like bullying has gotten worse in recent years. Do you agree?

I don't know if I share that perspective. It's really deeply personal, based on our own experiences. I think maybe what's happening is that we're talking about it more and this sense it's gotten worse is because it's more acceptable to talk about it. We are seeing more correlations being made between young suicides and bullying, and I think that's creating this perception.

The other thing that I think has changed, which isn't so much an element in our film, is the cyber-bullying component. It can make it worse. . . . What's interesting is as we were out filming the film, the families and the kids we were meeting and filming with, cyber-bullying wasn't the thing. It was the sort of classic brick-and-mortars bullying that you and I remember. I don't know if it's getting worse or if we're just calling it when we see it more.

Why do you think there's such a groundswell of attention around the bullying epidemic?

I think part of what's happening is people are networked very well on Facebook that are aligned around this issue—in particular, a lot of the families who've lost children. So they kind of went and ran with it. As far as the groundswell, a lot of things have happened in the last six months. There's been a bullying summit at the White House. There have been major initiatives by CNN and Cartoon Network.

There are a number of things that are going to come together that are really exciting around The Bully Project. I would like to think that we are maybe at the beginning of a tipping-point moment, and that hopefully The Bully Project will be a piece of that and give something really tangible that people can hold on to and run with and feel moved through and then translate that into action.

What do you want young viewers in particular to take away from the film?

In the film, we've certainly shied away from any kind of legislative agenda. Rather, I think the focus, at least for us, especially because we're not experts, is to hopefully allow people to feel like they can make a difference. Particularly young viewers—that they can stand up, they can put a stop to it, they can step in on someone's behalf and that that's empowering, that's possible and that really will cause change.

How did you begin the process of finding your subjects?

Initially we were reading a lot of local stories. There were two high-profile suicides around the time that we started. Ellen DeGeneres had done a show with the moms. And there were so many comments on her webpage, close to a thousand, and many of them were from kids or families that were dealing with similar situations—that were, in effect, in crisis. Our first access break really came from producers of the Ellen show, who agreed to pass on e-mails to us of some of the families.

How about getting the Sioux City Community School District on board to let you film in one of its schools? That must have been a challenge.

One of our funders has been doing bullying- and violence-prevention work in the Sioux City area for 10 years. That's the Waitt Family Foundation. They have been highly supportive of bringing programming and helping out in the Sioux City Community School District. They were able to facilitate an introduction to the superintendent, the school board, and the administrators of the district. We told them what we wanted to do in a series of meetings and presentations to the school board and asked if they would consider it. And they decided to allow us to film inside their school.

What do you make of their willingness to be involved, and to take some of the heat that comes with the film's depiction of their inability to effectively combat in-house bullying?

It's a tough thing, because a lot of the emotional blame in the film gets made on the administrator that you see. It's tough. I mean the reality is that they were pretty amazing to allow us to do what we did and to stand behind the film. The administration was at the premiere—the superintendent came to New York to be with us—and one of the things they've said and stood by, even if the outcome doesn't make them look great, is, "If we do this, not only will we learn, but maybe we can help other schools, other administrators and help make a difference." I think it was a really brave and generous position that school district took. I really applaud them.

To really reach people, a film like The Bully Project obviously needs to be shown not just on the usual release platforms, but in special screenings on a community level. What's an example of how you plan to do that?

We were approached by the Philadelphia City Council, in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia. They're busy planning a Bully Project day for back to school, which is super-awesome. The components are: The film will screen at the National Constitution Center, hopefully with major guests from government, possibly celebrities, hopefully some of the families in the film. We'll have a kids representative from all the schools, and each school in the district will be screening it at the same time in their buildings. Then we'll have a video-conference Q&A across the schools, with the Constitution Center event. Then they'll break up into groups and spend the rest of the day discussing, talking, and working out their feelings that come from the film.

What's more interesting is that there are already student leaders planning that event now for back-to-school. It's got a lot of support behind it, but there's a massive student component, so they can take ownership of it. . . . That's the kind of thing that's really powerful. If we can do more of those, if that becomes the model, that would be a dream come true.

Bullying: Fighting back, from the stage

By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times

 
Students in the CAP / Plaza de la Raza Theater Program explore bullying in the play "Life is a Dream" ("La Vida es Sueño"). (Scott Groller)

Los Angeles-area teenagers are taking the crusade against bullying to the stage. Their play, an adaptation of the 17th century Spanish classic "Life is a Dream" ("La Vida es Sueño") by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, takes the action into a modern high school setting and uses students' experiences with bullying to explore how it affects kids....Guest playwright Sarah Louise Wilson led the 47 students, who range in age from 11 to 18, in a series of writing exercises about bullying. She asked whether they'd been bullied, and whether they'd bullied other people. Everyone had a story to write, Wilson said -- and she took those stories and incorporated them into the adaptation. When the curtain rises, the hero of the play is being picked on by other kids. He becomes popular and starts bullying others, and is eventually humbled himself.

Read Entire Article Here

Local non-profit sets out to build self-esteem in kids and end bullying

http://www.abc15.com

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• By: Connie Colla

PHOENX - Let's talk about the bullies our children encounter in school. According to the National Education Association Bullying Study, more than 40 percent of all kids think bullying is a major problem in their school. Sixty-two percent of kids say they've been a witness to bullying at least once and often twice just in the past month!

Carrie Severson , the founder of Severson Sisters , a non-profit in the Valley, is trying to put an end to bullying by building their confidence. We sat down with her to learn more about bullying today.

Read Interview Here

Taylor Swift battles bullies, critics, and silent movie villains in new 'Mean' video: Watch it here

by Kyle Anderson

http://music-mix.ew.com

Mean - Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift Videos

Taylor Swift‘s “Mean,” the latest single from her multiplatinum third album Speak Now, was originally written in response to a music critic who wrote not-nice things about her. But in the just-premiered video for the song, Swift spins the stripped-down country tune into an outsider anthem starring herself, her honky-tonk combo, a gay teen, and at least one old-timey bad guy tying her to a railroad track. Check it out after the jump.

May 23-27, Maryland recognizes Second Annual Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week.

Katie O'Malley: Standing up against bullying in Maryland

Private, public partners joining forces during Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week in Maryland

By Katie O'Malley

Despite the commonly held perceptions, when it comes to bullying, everyone is a victim, from our schools to our communities. The message is simple: A child's mental health is just as important as their physical health.

Last year, we teamed up with the Maryland State Department of Education to declare Bullying Prevention and Awareness Week in May to encourage schools and communities across the state to engage students in events to stress nontolerance toward bullying.

Bullying may be physical or verbal. Teasing, harassing, spreading rumors, actively ignoring or intentionally hurting another child are all forms of bullying. Victims of bullying are more likely to experience depression, less likely to be accepted by classmates and may experience a drop in their self-esteem. And in some cases, the effects are fatal, causing our children to commit suicide or do harm to themselves — dimming the light on their once bright futures.

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde

Lady Gaga on teen bullying: 'The boys threw me in the trashcan'

By Carina Adly MacKenzie









Listen To Lady Ggga Tell Her Story Here


MTV has just announced their upcoming Lady Gaga documentary, "Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside," which -- according to the press release -- "will provide fans an intimate look at the evolution of Stefani Germanotta into one of pop's most influential and successful artists of our time." As always, Gaga is raw and open with her fans, exposing even the more painful parts of her childhood in the hopes that her fans will relate to her story and feel empowered.

MTV Shows

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. -George Van Valkenburg

Justin Bieber will take a stand against bullying

Justin Bieber flew his hero -- bully beater Casey Heynes -- to Melbourne to check out the concert ... but the biggest surprise for Casey was yet to come.

Bieber -- who's supported the anti-bullying movement ever since being on the receiving end of it last year -- ended up bringing Casey on stage in front of THOUSANDS of screaming fans ... calling him "very inspirational" for showing people "how to stand up for what they believe in."

Whatever you are, be a good one. Abraham Lincoln

The Bully Project: A Year in the Life of America's Bullying Crisis

This year, over 18 million American kids will be bullied, making it the most common form of violence young people in the U.S. experience. Directed by Sundance- and Emmy-award winning filmmaker, Lee Hirsch, The Bully Project is a beautifully cinematic, character-driven documentary—at its heart are those with the most at stake and whose stories each represent a different facet of this bullying crisis.

Following five kids and families over the course of a school year, the film confronts bullying's most tragic outcomes, including the stories of two families who've lost children to suicide and a mother who waits to learn the fate of her 14 --year-old daughter, incarcerated after bringing a gun on her school bus. With rare access to the Sioux City Community School District, the film also gives an intimate glimpse into school busses, classrooms, cafeterias and even principles offices, offering insight into the often-cruel world of children, as teachers, administrators and parents struggle to find answers.

While the stories examine the dire consequences of bullying, they also give testimony to the courage and strength of the victims of bullying and seek to inspire real changes in the way we deal with bullying as parents, teachers, children, and in society as a whole. Through the power of these stories, The Bully Project aims to be a catalyst for change and to turn the tide on an epidemic of violence that has touched every community in the United States—and far beyond.

No one is perfect – that’s why pencils have erasers - Unknown

Puppy Love and Bullies and a Bow-Tied Teacher

http://movies.nytimes.com

Movie Review | 'That’s What I Am'

By STEPHEN HOLDEN














Ed Harris, center, plays a middle-school teacher in 1965 in “That's What I Am,” written and directed by Mike Pavone.

You can trust Ed Harris to locate the essence of every character he portrays. And in “That’s What I Am,” Mike Pavone’s righteous reflection on bullying and tolerance, Mr. Harris’s depiction of a saintly, soft-spoken, bow-tie-wearing middle-school teacher lends the movie a moral weight it probably couldn’t have summoned had another actor played the role.

Set in 1965 in a small Southern California town, “That’s What I Am” is a sentimental Hallmark-style movie (part after-school special, part “Wonder Years” offshoot) whose narrator, Andy Nichol (voiced by an uncredited actor who sounds like Greg Kinnear), looks back on his middle-school experience. His beloved teacher, Mr. Simon (Mr. Harris), is first seen reading to a class from Mark Twain’s “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.” This choice of literature sets him up as a martyrlike figure.

Later in the movie, when a bully retaliates against Mr. Simon’s discipline by spreading unfounded rumors about his sexuality, the teacher, a widower, refuses out of principle to deny the rumors. At this point you wonder if “That’s What I Am” will turn into a movie about a vicious, small-town witch hunt, but it is too timid to go there. It is more interested in the buildup to Andy’s first kiss with Mary Clear (Mia Rose Frampton), a kindhearted, more experienced classmate.

The movie’s depiction of the savage pecking order of school is mild; the children, obsessed with “cooties,” seem naïve even by 1965 standards. The principal outcast, Stanley (Alexander Walters), a k a Big G (for the ginger hue of his hair), is a tall, gawky boy with big ears who comports himself with unshakable dignity when faced with peer-group persecution. The 12-year-old Andy (Chase Ellison) learns to respect Big G after Mr. Simon assigns them to collaborate on a project.

Because “That’s What I Am” is a production of WWE Studios, it slips in a wrestling star, Randy Orton, as the lying bully’s rabidly homophobic father.

At heart “That’s What I Am” is really a gentle, earnest illustration of a slogan that Mr. Simon submits in a contest to come up with a solution to world peace in 25 words or less. His entry, which he scrawls on the blackboard, reads “Human dignity + compassion = peace.” It wins him a flashy car.

“That’s What I Am” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). Its cursory discussion of homosexuality may offend certain viewers.

THAT’S WHAT I AM

Written and directed by Mike Pavone; director of photography, Kenneth Zunder; edited by Marc Pollon; music by James Raymond; production design by Raymond Pumilia; costumes by Claire Breaux; produced by Denise Chamian; released by Samuel Goldwyn Films and WWE Studios. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

WITH: Ed Harris (Mr. Simon), Chase Ellison (Andy Nichol), Molly Parker (Sherri), Daniel Roebuck (Jim), Randy Orton (Ed Freel), Daniel Yelsky (Norman), Alexander Walters (Big G), Mia Rose Frampton (Mary Clear) and Amy Madigan (Principal Kelner).

Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do. - John Wooden

... the first person ever enshrined as the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (1961) and as a coach (1973).

Troye Sivan’s FOR THEM Project

Troye is talented singer and actor who you may have seen in the movie X-MEN Origins Wolverine that hit theaters in May 2009, he played the young Hue Jackman’s character Wolverine. He also recently starred in Spud with John Cleese which is due to hit theaters this winter.

The purpose of creating this project is to raise awareness that there are over 100 million homeless children living on the streets around the world.

You can make a difference right now to help these kids who can't help themselves anymore, then share this video with your friends and family.

http://www.troyesivan.com

http://www.kidzhelpingkids.org/projects.html

Teachers worried as girls go top of the class for cyber-bullying

http://www.independent.co.uk

By Richard Garner, Education Editor

Teachers will today call for an investigation into rising levels of poor behaviour among girls in the classroom.

The girls, they argue, are more likely to resort to cyber-bullying – the form of bullying utilising the internet and mobile phones that is worrying school leaders.

A survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) reveals that half the teachers believed girls' behaviour had got worse during the past two years. One in five thought it was now more challenging than boys.

Teachers interviewed for the survey accused girls of being "sneakier" than boys in the way they misbehaved.

They were also more adept at using modern social media such as Facebook to bully their fellow pupils.

The survey of 859 teachers in both primary and secondary schools and further education colleges said girls' misbehaviour centred around isolating fellow pupils from a friendship group, spreading rumours and making snide comments.

"Girls spread rumours and fallouts last a long time," a 34-year-old teacher from Reading told researchers. "Boys tend to sort it out fairly quickly."

Another teacher drew attention to a rise in the use of social media to bully pupils. "There is a lot of cyber bullying particularly via MSN and Facebook – this is mainly girls," said the teacher, who is a member of the senior management team of an English secondary school.

The finding follows a one-day strike by teachers at a high school in Lancashire – Darwen High School – earlier this month over pupil behaviour.

Teachers complained that pupils were making videos and taking photographs in class with their smartphones and then posting them on websites such as YouTube.

The teachers were particularly unhappy that senior management did not back them up when they confiscated pupils' phones.

Today's motion at the ATL conference calls for more support for teachers in instilling discipline.

One teacher from Weston-super-Mare told researchers that girls were also becoming more violent. "Girls are definitely getting more violent with gangs of girls in school who are getting worse than gangs of boys,"she said.

However, a primary school teacher from Bedfordshire added: "Boys are generally more physical and their behaviour is more noticeable.

"Girls are often sneakier about misbehaving, they often say nasty things which end up disrupting the lesson just as much as the boys as other children get upset and can't focus on their work."

The teacher added. "They [the girls] are usually the ones who refuse to comply with instructions."

The feeling was, though – despite rising levels of aggressive behaviour among girls – that boys were still more likely to show physical aggression. "Staff get ground down daily by the chatting and messing around, which disrupts lessons for other pupils and takes the pleasure out of teaching," said Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL.

"Even more worrying is the physical aggression – most often among boys but also among some girls – which puts other pupils and staff at risk."

The union's annual conference in Liverpool will today hear calls to carry out an investigation into the number of girls being excluded from school. Delegates will be told it is an increasing problem.

Support Candle Light Books

Accepting children's books for elementary schools in the philippines, where colored books are scarce.

Please email ettonim@yahoo.com for your queries and book donations.







































Aklatan Pambata is a reading center in the heart of Quezon City. Operated by volunteers, it opens its doors to the neighborhood children every Saturday mornings.

Here are the pictures of the books donated by Gigi Bermejo-Lacson and Susan Sy-Cua.

Visit: http://candlelightbooks.blogspot.com

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on the Treasure Island. - Walt Disney

Roc On: Gussie Roc, Renaissance Woman, 16

By Laura Adibe

She is a published writer, an accomplished musician, the recipient of a Golden Gavel Award from the Princeton Model Congress, and she's only 16 years old.

Gussie Roc is not only quickly establishing herself as a young writer to watch, but she is also a model ambassador of goodwill who devotes her time to important social causes.

BlackVoices.com recently caught up with Roc, who spoke about what motivates her and why other teens should never give up on their dreams.

BlackVoices.com: You have a pretty amazing resume, Gussie. You started your own ezine, The Gussie Gazette, when you were only 8 years old.

Gussie Roc: A lot of it was my mom, because she publishes her own ezine -- just being inspired by her and her dedication to it, as well as the fact that I always liked talking to people and wanted people to listen to me, too.

BV: You were named one of the Best Teen Writers in 2010 by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. If you had to name your top three favorite writers, who would they be?

GR: Harper Lee. I would say E. E. Cummings, and the name that keeps coming back in my head is Truman Capote.

BV: Favorite books?

GR: I really like 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. It encapsulates childhood in this really beautiful way, while also being friendly for children. I'm really just inspired by (the author's) technique. I also really love 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,' because it paints a portrait of Brooklyn over time in a really beautiful and poetic way. I love writing poetry, so when I read prose that sounds like poetry and evokes that kind of emotion, that's really enjoyable for me.

BV: You write, publish, play the viola and you participate in humanitarian work. When you're not doing all this, what other things do you like to do for fun?

GR: I really like film and filmmaking -- whether with my friends or for actual projects. The editing process is really fun, just being able to tell stories in a different medium besides writing. Also, I like photography.

BV: The work that you do around AIDS is extremely important. How did you get involved with Ubuntu?

GR: My mom was friends with a woman that works for Ubuntu Education Fund, which is an education fund that supports orphans who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and in a lot of cases, these children have HIV/AIDS themselves. This organization builds community centers and educates people about safe sex and HIV/AIDS.

They support these children who are often times really alone in the world. I was really inspired by this cause and just started volunteering at the office. Me and one of my friends started raising money for AIDS Walk at school, and we raised thousands of dollars.

We realized it was successful and so we went back and we did it again. It was just really rewarding. We met one of the kids who was helped by this organization, and toured her through our school. Just the feeling of being able to give back and see your work being successful is quite amazing.

BV: You're 16 years old and have done so much already. What advice do you have for other teens who might feel limited in what they can do because of their age?

GR: A lot of times I am fearful to do certain things -- to make a speech or play a recital or dance or sing or whatever. Even though I can't sing very well (laughs). I really think a big component is getting over fear. Just keep pursuing your goals, even if there is an obstacle and even if you're too afraid to move forward, because that is the only way that you'll accomplish anything, by just pursuing your goals.

BV: Do you have any (s)heroes?

GR: One of my heroes would be Eleanor Roosevelt, who said something along the lines of, do what your heart sets. Your people will criticize you anyway, so just go for what you think is right. That really inspires me every day.

BV: Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
GR: Hopefully, writing for a magazine or newspaper. Journalism is a good sum of everything that I like to do.


BV: Anything you haven't tackled yet that you feel you want to tackle?
GR: My ultimate goal is to win an Academy Award for a documentary.


http://www.bvblackspin.com

Demi Lovato: "I Was Bullied Because I Was Fat"

http://www.usmagazine.com

Demi Lovato continues to open up about the "emotional issues" that landed her in rehab last November.

VIDEO: Demi opens up about the "darkest time" of her life

In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, the 18-year-old singer-actress said childhood bullying contributed to her eating disorder.

"I literally didn't know why they were being so mean to me," she said of her childhood tormentors. "And when I would ask them why, they would just say, 'Well, you're fat.' I was bullied because I was fat. And then a few months later I developed an eating disorder, and that's kind of what I've been dealing with every since."

Lovato was "compulsively overeating when [she] was 8 years old," and said for the past 10 years, she's "had a really unhealthy relationship with food."

The star addressed one of her lowest points: when she physically struck Alex Welch, one of her backup dancers, in November 2010. (After the incident, Lovato pulled out of the Camp Rock 2 Tour with the Jonas Brothers and checked into rehab.)

"I take 100 percent full responsibility for that. I feel horrible. [She] was my friend," she said. Lovato's behavior caused her family and management team to hold an intervention. "They sat me down and said, 'You can't live like this.' And the only way that you're going to get the help that you need is to go in-patient to a treatment center. And that's exactly what I did."

Photo credit: Jordan Strauss Wireimage.com

Foster kids tell their stories in their own words.

Change a Child's Life: Michael

Posted by: Scott Coppersmith

http://www.myfoxla.com/

Change a Child's Life: Michael: MyFoxLA.com

(myFOXla.com) - This video of Michael, created by Children's Action Network, is part of a series called "This is Me" which is devoted to telling the stories of foster youth waiting for adoptive homes in their own words.

There are more than 129,000 foster children in the United States who need a place to call home. It is our hope that by raising awareness about the youth and sharing their hopes and dreams, we can help them find permanent loving families.

Children's Action Network

Children's Action Network used the power of the entertainment community to increase awareness about children's issues and to make them a top priority in everyday life. CAN is currently dedicated to finding homes for the children in the United States who are waiting for an adoptive family and improving outcomes for children in foster care.

We invite you to watch the videos and find out more about foster care adoption by calling Children's Action Network at 800-525-6789.

Visit Children's Action Network on the Web at www.childrensactionnetwork.org.

Teens rally against bullying

http://www.wcsh6.com




PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- A group of teenagers, educators, advocates and lawmakers took a stand against bullying Saturday.

Friday was the National Day of Silence, when teens across the country took an oath of silence to honor their fellow students who are bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The next day, they broke that silence with an anti-bullying rally in Monument Square.

Girl Talk

Patrik Jonsson for The Christian Science Monitor

Once a week, the middle-schoolers at the private Atlanta Girls School go to a unique homeroom session where chatter trumps study.

The get-together is Girl Talk, part of a nonprofit movement where teens besieged daily by the trappings of consumer culture, high-tech gossip gizmos, and "mean girl" mentalities talk to older girls about how to get beyond what seems to them to be a life-and-death drama buzzing around them.

"We mainly talk about cliques and how to deal with mean people," says Jessica Johnson, who joined the Girl Talk program as a middle-schooler and is now one of the leaders at the school. "It's so much better that we talk to them because we're people they can relate to, and they say, 'Oh, you're not centuries older than me; you understand cyberbullying and Facebook.' "

The chat session at the school is one incarnation of a national peer-to-peer mentoring program led by a 23-year-old from Atlanta, Haley Kilpatrick. She has turned a high school revelation and $13,000 of her own cash into a groundbreaking nonprofit group that now reaches 34,000 girls in 43 states and four countries.

The program aims to foster leadership qualities among high school girls at the same time they wield a positive influence on younger, middle school girls.

News reports of the sometimes tragic outcomes of cyberbullying have reinforced the need for answers. Some girls (and boys) live a lonely and unhappy existence in middle school, between the safety of childhood and the freedom of adulthood.

That dynamic became all too clear to Ms. Kilpatrick at age 15, when she was teased and bullied after moving from a public school to the tony Deerfield-Windsor School in Albany, Ga. She started Girl Talk at Deerfield-Windsor in 2002 after watching her younger sister go through many of the same vexations she had faced.

"For middle school girls, everything is an immediate crisis," Kilpatrick says. "So my thought was, if we could help these girls find a meaning and a purpose in middle school, then maybe they wouldn't make bad choices later on."

Since then, Girl Talk has become one of the fastest-growing nonprofits in the country. Girl Talk has received coverage in CosmoGIRL!, Glamour, and Self magazines, and Kilpatrick has appeared on national morning TV shows.

In 2007, Kilpatrick channeled her sense of mission – and, her friends say, her prodigious multitasking skills – into making Girl Talk a full-time nonprofit effort.

Along the way, she turned down corporate sponsorships from clothing and cosmetic firms. If Girl Talk had accepted the sponsorships, she says, "I realized that we'd be sending a mixed message, as we're talking about body image to these girls."

Her stick-to-your-guns strategy paid off. Shortly after that, Atlanta investment fund manager Ron Bell met with Kilpatrick and put an envelope on the table: It had a donation check for $50,000, enough to kick-start a major expansion of Girl Talk.

Named in 2010 as one of Atlanta's "Power 30 Under 30," Kilpatrick – with her straight blond hair and high boots – looks every bit a prep school alumna.

But that image is deceiving, her friends say. She still spends enough time with girls to throw around teen phrases like "I love your guts" that befuddle fellow adults.

"Haley was born to help others, and she devotes her entire life to helping others, not for the credit, not for money, clearly, but because it is all that is acceptable to her," says Kara Friedman, a middle school adviser at Holy Innocents Episcopal School in north Atlanta.

Girl Talk succeeds, Kilpatrick says, by giving younger girls a chance to hang out with their idols a few grades ahead of them. And because it's free. Curriculum, promotion, and salary costs come to about $4 per girl, money raised by Kilpatrick and a small team of co-workers.

Girl Talk provides a curriculum of 100 lesson plans, but it is its approach – talking about a relevant topic each week while imposing a strict no-names, no-mean-talk policy – that tripled the size of the program at Holy Innocents, where about a third of the girls participate, Ms. Friedman says.

Research shows that mentors, even those who are just a few years older, can have a powerful impact on girls. Teenagers who have active mentors in their lives, for example, are 46 percent less likely to use drugs and 52 percent less likely to skip school, according to one recent study.

"[A]t this age peers become so much more important than parents, and I think that's probably why [Girl Talk] is successful," says Pat Wolfe, an expert on adolescent brain development in Napa, Calif.

"When you're moving from middle school to high school, you're going into a situation where you're not sure what the rules are: You're not sure whether you'll have friends, or if you look OK, or if you'll fit in," Ms. Wolfe says. "Anything you can do to help the girls feel less threatened" benefits them, she says.

That includes talking face to face, not just phone texting.

It's all about "shaping these young women into being the leaders of tomorrow, and being the women who will ultimately change the world," Kilpatrick says.

Copyright © 2010 The Christian Science Monitor (www.CSMonitor.com). All rights reserved.

http://www.responsibilityproject.com

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it. - Eleanor Roosevelt

CNN Heroes: Yohannes Gebregeorgis

Ethiopia native brings free public libraries and literacy programs to thousands of children in his homeland.

CNN link, HERE, and the for the video, click here

Take The Pledge!

This anti-bullying pledge was created collaboratively between Bullying.org and Family Channel.

bullying.org

Its kind of fun to do the impossible -- Walt Disney

Facts About Bullying

-bullying occurs in school playgrounds every 7 minutes and once every 25 minutes in class (Pepler et al., 1997).

-only one in four children report that teachers intervene in bullying situations, while seven in ten teachers believe they always intervene most bullying occurs close to adults.

-bullying is reduced in a school if the principal is committed to reducing bullying. -(Charach et al., 1995)

-85% of bullying episodes occur in the context of a peer group -(Atlas and Pepler, 1997, Craig and Pepler, 1997)

-83% of students indicate that watching bullying makes them feel uncomfortable. -(Pepler et al., 1997)

-bullying stops in less than 10 seconds, most of the time when peers intervene on behalf of the victim. -(Pepler et al., 1997)

-by age 24, 60 percent of identified bullies have a criminal conviction. Young children who were labeled by their peers as bullies required more support form adults from government agencies, had more court convictions, more alcoholism, more anti-social personality disorders and used more mental health services.



bullying.org

Students stand against bullying on April Friends' Day

More than 400 Providence students take part in an anti-bullying event






http://www2.turnto10.com/news

Inspirational Kids

http://www.responsibilityproject.com

It isn't how big
And strong you are,
Or that you can slide
on ice very far.

Or that you are witty,
Or that you are wise.
But if you try hard
To the top you will rise.

It's not if you have
the most beautiful hair,
Or if you have nothing
Fancy to wear.

But caring for others
And helping them out
By doing good deeds
Is what life's about.