News storys about Bullying
These articles on Bullying are provided as examples of just how far Bullying can be taken by some people and how devastating the results can be.
This News story is about a young girl who is able to find Joy even after being bullied due to a severe disability.
This news story is particularly uplifting because of the courage of this little girl. Despite being bullied because of her physical appearance, Nia is full of joy and changing the way her community cares for others.
The Indonesian girl, whose full name is Karunia, was born without fingers and toes, a rare congenital condition called Apert Syndrome that makes her look different.
“There are some w ho bully Nia,” Chandra, her father, told Compassion Australia. “They mock her by saying, ‘Hey, look, it’s Nia, the deformed girl’.”
A news story about Apert Syndrome
Karunia was born with Apert Syndrome, a rare congenital condition that left her without fingers and toes. Despite her condition and bullying from her peers, she is full of joy and changing the way her community cares for others. (Daniel Robson/Compassion International)
But she finds hope in what her dad, a farmer in East Indonesia, tells her.
“’You are God’s gift’,” he firmly tells her. “When they bully you, you can say that you are God’s gift and not a creation of any man.”
When Nia was born, her parents were grateful to God but didn’t know what to do and how best to take care of her.
“I just cried and wondered why God had entrusted this to me,” says Angelina, Nia’s mother.
As pictured in the My Little Pony t-shirt with friends, Nia was born with special needs and has been a blessing to her community. (Compassion International)
A News story about Persistence
Nia endured a lot of pain, high fevers, and, sometimes, she struggled to breathe with the condition that doesn’t have a cure–not to mention the stares and fearful looks people in the small community gave the little girl.
With little education and struggling to care for Nia, who needed specialized care, the desperate couple registered their baby girl into a program with Compassion International, which helped give her regular medical checkups and get funds for surgery to give Nia fingers on her right hand.
“I started to feel strong,” says Angelina. “I told my husband that I love her even more than if I had a healthy child without disabilities. It is because of the strength of God.”
Nia with her parents, Chandra and Angelina. They received a lot of help from their church and Compassion Australia in caring for their daughter with special needs. (Compassion International)
Eventually, Nia was old enough and healthy enough to start the Child Sponsorship Program offered by Compassion. While she’s learning, she’s also teaching others about self-acceptance and how to combat bullying.
“I am beautiful like my mother,” she says. “When my friends mocked me because I don’t have normal fingers, my mom taught me to say back to them that this is what Jesus gave me.”
This story is courtesy of Fox News.
My Comments
This article on bullying was specifically chosen to point out a very important issue. It is NEVER ok to bully any child. But I find it to be even more abhorrent when I see or hear of a child that is being bullied because of a disability or perceived imperfection. As adults, we need to be particularly observant to keep a disabled child from being bullied. Their life is difficult enough as it is. We as a society need to make sure that we do not do anything to make their life even more difficult.
Marie Osmond's son was bullied before his suicide: "I never took action"
Here is a news story that points out what can happen if you are too busy to pay attention to your child’s issues. Marie Osmond revealed that her son, Michael Blosil, was bullied before his death by suicide in 2010. As much as I respect Ms. Osmond. This is a perfect example of a parent not putting their child’s best interest’s first on her list of priorities.
Speaking on “The View” the 59-year-old singer spoke publicly for the first time about her son’s torment, and how she feels about how she handled the situation at the time.
“I haven’t spoken about this before but … my son, who died, was being bullied,” she told her co-hosts. “He was bullied very heavily right up until the time that he committed suicide.”
The star explained that three kids targeted Michael, who died at age 18, due to his “sobriety.”
My Comments
Most of us like to read news stories about our favorite celebrities. This article on Bullying points out what can happen when you put your child fourth on your list of priorities. Putting them behind your professional life, your social life, and your love life can have some long-term negative consequences for both you and your child. According to FBI stats, children that are involved in bullying as either the bully or the victim have a 27% higher probability of being involved in criminal activity later in life. Children who are DIFFERENT in some way are bullied at a much higher rate.
Your child should be number one over everything else in your life. Even your spouse. Your spouse should be able to take care of themselves for the most part on their own. But your children need your help and attention at a level that your significant other does not need. If you do not feel like you can do this. Or, for whatever reason, you do not feel like this is in the cards for you. Then please do all of us a favor and do not become a parent. This happened because her son’s pain was not important enough for her to have to be worried about it.
School suspends girls, says rape-awareness note was bullying
PORTLAND, Maine – Some news stories pont out just how out of whack our educational system has become. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine is calling on federal court to stop the suspension of a high school student who was punished for bullying after she charged the school failed to address concerns about sexual assault.
The organization filed a motion Sunday in Maine asking for a temporary restraining order against the Cape Elizabeth district.
Sophomore Aela Mansmann is appealing a suspension for posting a note that said: “There’s a rapist in our school and you know who it is.” The district says her actions broke an anti-bullying policy.
The school principal has said a male student believed he was the target of the note and that he felt unsafe at school.
Superintendent Donna Wolfrom declined to comment Tuesday.
My Comments
These news stories on bullying point out that feeding and housing your child is just not enough. This article on bullying shows just how important it is that you, as the parent take an active role. You need to make sure that your child’s school has a formal anti-bullying program. It needs to be led by someone who will take the issue seriously. They could be a teacher, a parent, or an administrator.
It also points out just how bad the wussification of our young males has become. Any child not feeling safe is just not acceptable. I am not saying that he does not have the right to feel the way he says he feels. But his parents do need to have a serious chat with him about developing thicker skin. This young woman is also in need of some great improvement in her self-confidence. This should have started at home when she was only two or three.
California boy, 13, complained of bullying at school days before fatal sucker punch, attorney says
It seems like the news stories out of Ca continue to become more and more tragic as time goes by. A 13-year-old boy who died last month after he was sucker-punched by classmates had complained of bullying to an administrator at his Southern California middle school days before the alleged assault, a lawyer representing his family said on Tuesday.
Dave Ring said he had filed a wrongful death claim against the Moreno Valley Unified School District on behalf of the family of Diego Stolz. The claim serves as a precursor to a wrongful death lawsuit. This lawsuit most likely would not even be an issue if his parents had taken steps to help him improve his self confidence. There are many different ways this could have been accomplished.
The filing alleges that Stolz died as a result of being bullied and asserts that the district “failed to take bullying complaints by Diego’s family seriously and failed to enforce anti-bullying policies to protect its students.” It also claims that the school district “has a long history of student altercations on its campuses.”
My Comments
News stories that describe a child that has taken their own life due to bullying are particularly said to me. on bullying shows just how sad a reminder it can be when a child is lacking in true self-confidence. This article on bullying points out very clearly what I am talking about. I discuss the important traits that a child needs to help them to avoid becoming the target of a bully. I am speaking of True Self-Confidence. Do not confuse this with False self Confidence. There IS a significant difference between the two. One will help to keep your child from becoming a target. The other will almost assuredly guarantee that they will become a target. I would love to read some news stories about how some children fought off the effects of bullying by using their “True” self-confidence.
I stress this issue in a number of places throughout the book about Bully Proofing your child. I discuss how to help your child develop True self-confidence. In the book I talk about what you as the parent “Should Do” and what you “Should Not do” to accomplish this.
My Comments
These types of news stories are a perfect example of parents who started out doing the right thing. They tried to notify the school about the bullying before tragedy struck. The problem is, they did not go far enough. They let an obstacle like being told “NO” or being ignored stop them.
If you give the school two chances to take action and they do nothing. Then your next step should be the school district admin. Office. If you do not get any action there. Then take your case to the state board of education. If you still cannot get anyone to notice. Then take it to the media. Be absolutely sure to document everything you said from the first date of contact, to whom you spoke with, and what was said. You will need this for the media to take you seriously. Do not leave anything to chance.
Also, be prepared to get a lot of static and push back. You are not doing this to be popular. You are doing it because your child’s life could depend on it. Just remember who you are doing this for, and why.
Finally, if all this fails. Then put your child into a different school. But the worst thing you can do is “NOTHING.”
School’s failure to stop racist, sexist bullying led to 9-year-old girl’s suicide, lawsuit states
DEMOPOLIS, Ala. — McKenzie Adams was 9 years old when she took her own life on Dec. 3, 2018, in her Linden, Alabama, home.
A federal lawsuit filed Thursday by her family alleges that administrators and teachers at her elementary school, U.S. Jones Elementary in Demopolis, failed to protect her from incessant bullying. Demopolis is located in west Alabama, about 60 miles southwest of Tuscaloosa.
“(The defendants) exhibited deliberate and blatant indifference to the wrongful persistent bullying and harassment, rife with racial and gender-based slurs, imparted upon McKenzie by a boy who was her classmate,” the lawsuit states.