Bullying Horror Stories: Civil Rights Workers Get Personal

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A new anti bullying video is out from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. It focuses on fighting the harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids and those who don’t conform to gender stereotypes about male or female behavior or appearance. The video features several Division employees sharing their childhood struggles with being bullied and harassed. In this short video, the staff was surprisingly candid about not only being attacked by other kids, but by parents and teachers as well. Staffers go on to encourage young people who are bullied and harassed, by letting them know their futures are still bright.

Survey Finds Physical Bullying Far More Common Than Online Bullying

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Kids are more likely to face a bully in person than online.   The 2009 OJJDP National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence surveyed almost 4,450 kids nationwide, between the ages of 10 and 17.  Here are some highlights:

21.6% said they had been physically bullied. 19.7% reported being teased or emotionally bullied. Kids between the 14 and 17 were more likely to be harassed online.  7.9% of this group admitted being bullied online. Boys were more likely to be bullied or threatened physically, where girls were more likely to be victims of internet harassment.

School Boards Dispute Federal Bullying Policies

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School boards across the country are protesting federal bullying policy. The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is challenging the U.S. Department of Education on the federal interpretation of bullying as a civil rights violation. As JJIE reported in October, the Department sent a 10-page letter warning schools to comply with federal rules to prevent bullying and harassment. It also said student bullying may violate anti-discrimination laws. The letter sent to schools nationwide said: “When…harassment is based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability, it violates the civil rights laws that [the Office for Civil Rights] enforces.”

NSBA sent a letter Tuesday to Charlie Rose, General Counsel for the Department of Education, urging the Department to clarify it’s definition of bullying and harassment as a civil rights violation.

Free Online Course Teaches Ways to Stop Alcohol Sales to Teens

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There’s a new, online training course on how to reduce underage alcohol sales by conducting compliance investigations of alcohol retailers. The course is free and offered by Fox Valley Technical College's Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. The course, Conducting Compliance Check Operations, is four hours long and provides rationales for investigating establishments that sell alcohol. If you take the course, you’ll be able to:

Understand issues related to underage drinking and how retailers make alcohol available to teens. Implement step-by-step guidelines for carrying out compliance investigations.

Athens Group Has Plan to Help At-Risk Kids Graduate High School and College

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An Athens-based nonprofit is working on a 10-year plan that focuses on getting low-income students to finish high school and graduate from college, according to Athens Online. After winning a $500,00 federal planning grant, a group called Whatever It Takes has put together an extensive team, which includes former juvenile court consultants, school administrators and professional writers. The nonprofit is also working with the University of Georgia. So far, the plan outlines how various community organizations will provide kids with things like academic support, mentoring, counseling, after-school programs, career development, intervention and health care. If approved by the U.S. Department of Education next fall, Whatever It Takes could win $10 million each over the next 10 years to put the plan into action.

New Curriculum Focuses on Helping Black Teenage Boys Succeed

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A new school curriculum has been created to work on the academic and social achievement gap between black and white kids. Youth Communication Inc. publishes essays, stories, pictures and other projects created by teenagers and has developed the Real Men Resource Kit. The kit contains a full curriculum, called Real Men: Urban Teens Write About How to Be A Man, as well as an activity guide and a film based on one teen’s success story. The curriculum, which schools must purchase ($375), provides stories and lessons written by young black men who talk about breaking out of stereotypes and achieving their goals. Here’s a sample:
“Now that I’m about to graduate from University Heights, I realize that many things about it have helped to make me a better person.

5th Grader Arrested with Gun at School

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Police seized an unloaded handgun and a box of ammunition from a 10 year old boy this morning in Augusta. The child was arrested before classes at his elementary school, according to the Augusta Chronicle, which  details the incident further.

Teen Offender says Missouri Model has Humbled Him

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He’s serving time for burglary and manslaughter in the Missouri Division of Youth Services. But instead of prison, he’s living in a small group home, and getting treatment.  Seventeen year old Carlos Dickson talks about how he got into trouble, and how he believes he can turn his life around with the help of counselors and his family - who are all part of his treatment program. Dickson is interviewed by the Campaign for Youth Justice on blogtalkradio.com, an online radio program.  The Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services also explains why he believes his system works.  Tim Decker describes it as a developmental approach that does not typecast kids. Decker urges professionals to understand teens, their mental health needs, learning disabilities and home situations.

Feds Target $37M to Fight Bullying and Other Childhood Violence

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About 1 out of 10 kids in 6th – 10th grades are getting bullied, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and they believe that 13 percent of kids in that age group are doing the bullying. “Bullying can have long-term consequences for the safety of youth, as evidenced by the fact that two-thirds of school shooters reported having been bullied or having bullied others,” Jeff Slowikowski, OJJDP’s acting administrator, points out in his Department of Justice blog. The Department of Justice has launched the Defending Childhood Initiative, which is a nationwide campaign focusing on children exposed to different forms of violence including bullying. DOJ spent $5.5 million last year and hopes to increase the budget to $37 million in FY 2011.

Taser Used on 11-Year-Old in School

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An 11-year-old boy was tasered in school while trying to get away from a police officer in South Carolina. According to an account in Colleton Today, two school officials radioed a resource officer to help contain a 6th grade boy at Colleton Middle School in Walterboro. When the officer arrived, the boy began to run. She asked him to stop and when he didn’t, she fired her taser. The boy was taken into custody and moved to an office where the taser prongs were removed.