CyberBully

[capnhowdy]

I hope this, along with bringing back memories for lots of us, makes us ALL smile.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I must admit, I got a similar impression to Dar's from your original comment on victims, Lj. I'm glad that wasn't what you meant, and clearly it's something that could be taken to mean a number of different things.

Have you considered that rather than reminding anybody of bullies they may or may not have encountered, your comments instead appeared to belittle the problem of bullying and place responsibility for that bullying onto the victim instead of the bully. That you did not necessarily mean that doesn't change the fact that a number of people read it that way. Mainly people who'd experienced bullying. Not because they're super sensitive to being bullied, or that they considered you to be like the bullies, just because it's a kick in the teeth to have something so fundamental belittled and your experience of it disparaged. Intentionally or not.

Thanks, Dana. You said it better than I could have.

[dar512]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

I guess maybe I remind dar of the guy or guys that bullied him?

No. Not so much.

It's more that I am sensitive to the subject and anything that sounds like a justification of bullying makes me see red.

[skysidhe]

There were alot of different opinions and so I'll ask that you excuse the fact I don't use one to base my opinion on. I guess because I just don't get who makes a victim but I think I have a good idea at whose feet the blame of bullying should be laid.


I have never been bullied in school and not because I am a strong person. It just never was something I thought about. I was thought of as shy,reserved and by highschool I could set in with the crowd smoking at the gate but mingled with what we called the socialites.

I actually never knew there were people who could actually not like my flavor of ice cream until I was 28.

Ignorance is bliss I guess.

I do know that some kids in special needs classes get bullied. These days to retaliate with violence causes an incarceration for the victim.
I wish sometimes the boys would be allowed to duke it out since it's what they have been doing since the beginning of time and in preventing a fair retaliation breeds an enviroment more ripe for the bully to do his thing.

I am still ignorant of this bully/victim thing as far as school goes.

I have though come to the conclusion that cyber bullying might be a thing ones draws to oneself out of the inability of some to moderate their thoughts. * points to self*

That said the tragic death of the girl who was targeted was a different kind of cyber -bullying.

[edit- I've been up all night so I am not really sure what I even said makes sense(lol)so if it doesn't make sense, oh well and sorry for that ]

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by dar512

It's more that I am sensitive to the subject and anything that sounds like a justification of bullying makes me see red.

Thanks, Dar. You said it better than I could have.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by glatt

Columbine happened because of bullies. They picked on two kids, those two kids got guns and fought back. Fought back against the bullies and the crowd associated with them.

There's a new book on the subject, Columbine
Debunking the myths of Columbine - CNN. link

"I don't believe bullying caused Columbine," Jeff Kass, who covered the story for the Rocky Mountain News, told CNN. "My key reason for that is they never mentioned it in their diaries."
...
The two killers were far from normal teens. Harris was a psychopath and Klebold battled depression, according to psychologists cited in the book. Even so, they also weren't the extreme social outcasts and loners depicted in the early days of media coverage.
... Klebold took a date to the prom, riding with a dozen friends in a limo, just days before the shooting...


Today, after carefully combing through the boy's diaries, school assignments and police documents, journalists and investigators agree there is no evidence the killers singled out the jocks in a hit list. In fact, their victims varied in race, popularity, religion and age.

[classicman]

I heard they were simply going for the maximum number of kills possible, regardless of who they were. They had a propane "bomb" set to go off during the "A Lunch" and they also rigged their car to kill more. Nothing anywhere confirmed they were going after the jocks. In fact everything proved otherwise.

[Aliantha]

The only thing I have to add to this thread is that I also think Pie is beautiful and can't imagine why she can't or couldn't see that for herself.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by jinx

There's a new book on the subject, Columbine
Debunking the myths of Columbine - CNN. link

very interesting. Completely at odds with the news reports I remember from the time, but that doesn't mean this new twist on the story is wrong.

[binky]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I'm with lj. Teach your children to be strong, assertive, and eloquent. If a bully persists, teach them to punch their lights out.

No one has to be a victim if they know the best way out.

As someone who worked in schools for five years, the problem with that approach is that then they get in trouble too. It might solve the bully issue, but would certainly land them in the principal's office.

[Shawnee123]

OH NOES. The principal's office? The horrors!


edit: meaning...so? Kid goes into the principal's office and says "well you know what, I decided I'm not going to take their crap, do with that what you will."

[lumberjim]

I was thinking about this thread the other day.

I didn't say it while it was on point, but I was bullied for a while when i was like...11-13 yrs old. not real bad, just teased about being a virgin by kids a couple years older than me...(who, in retrospect, i'm sure, were also virgins) It bugged me then, and I guess that's why they kept on me about it. As bruce said, though....you empower the bully by reacting to it the way they want you to. If you cop to what they are teasing you about and maybe even laugh with them, .....they have no more power over you.....

[classicman]

Phoebe Prince, a recent Irish immigrant, hanged herself Jan. 14 after nearly three months of routine torment by students at South Hadley High School, via text message, and through the social networking site, Facebook.

Prince, a freshman, was reportedly harassed by older girls who resented her dating an older football player. Her death shook the town of South Hadley and prompted the Massachusetts legislature to pass a law introducing an anti-bullying curriculum in the state's public schools.

"The investigation revealed relentless activity directed toward Phoebe, designed to humiliate her and to make it impossible for her to remain at school," Scheibel said. "The bullying, for her, became intolerable."

"Nevertheless, the actions — or inactions — of some adults at the school are troublesome," she said.

The district attorney said school administrators knew of the bullying but none would be charged.

Prince hanged herself in her home, days after accepting an invitation to a winter school dance and only months after emigrating to the small western Massachusetts town from Ireland. Her younger sister found Prince's body in the stairwell leading to the family's second-story apartment.

Six of the teens will be indicted on charges connected to Prince's suicide. Three of the indicted students are girls, charged with violating Prince's civil rights, criminal harassment and disturbing a school assembly.

Two of the indicted students, a 17-year-old male and an 18-year-old male, will also be charged with statutory rape. Criminal complaints were filed against three other students.

Of the six indicted students, three are still students at the school and three were expelled in February.

Link