Facebook Application Targets Cyberbullying

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A new “Find Help” application on Facebook may make it easier for teens to not only report cyberbullying but also to find support organizations. Mashable.com reports that a company called SafetyWeb.com,has introduced the new app to address growing concerns about teen safety on the social networking site. According to CBC news, the “Find Help” application is similar to an online list of emergency phone numbers. When a child clicks on the application, he or she is directed to phone numbers and links for reporting incidents. This also sends kids to organizations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and Facebook’s abuse reporting process. Since 2003 there have been at least 12 teenagers who commited suicide because they had been bullied online.

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Georgia Seclusion Room Suicide Case

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The Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a Georgia boy who committed suicide while in seclusion at a special education center in Gainesville. The high court rejected an appeal from Donald and Tina King who sued the Pioneer Regional Educational Service Agency. Their 13-year-old son Jonathan was part of the Alpine Program, an educational service for kids with autism and kids with severe emotional and behavioral problems.  He was placed in seclusion at the school for hours and killed himself in the seclusion room. The King family accused the school of violating his civil rights by failing to protect him from taking his own life. Georgia courts denied the Kings’ case because couldn’t prove that school staff deliberately neglected their son, according to a LexisNexis case briefing.

School District Rejects Federal Grant Money, Claiming Race to the Top Doesn’t Work

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Times are hard for school systems across the country, so why is the Jones County school district, refusing $1.3 million in Race to the Top federal funds? The school system, located southeast of Atlanta, claims the funding comes with stipulations, requiring that over half the money ($900,000) be spent on paying teachers based on merit, according to WMAZ-TV. The school board voted unanimously to reject the funds. The money was too targeted and restrictive to help the district, Superintendant William Mathews told the TV station. Mathews also explained that research does not show that paying teachers based on merit works.

Three Mill Creek High School Students Face Armed Robbery Charges

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Three 16-year-old Mill Creek High School students have been arrested and charged with armed robbery. Police say two of the students who attend the Gwinnett County school robbed a Little Caesar's Pizza shop in Buford on Oct. 11, and that all three robbed a Shell convenience store in Braselton later the same night. Two masked suspects reportedly entered the Little Caesar's on Buford Highway, near the Hall County line, with pistols and took cash from the safe. A short time later, Braselton Police received a call about a similar robbery at a Shell convenience store.

Ga. Appleseed's Rob Rhodes and Sharon Hill present at the truancy conference.

Ga. School Discipline Report Findings Shared At Statewide Truancy Prevention Conference

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The clock is ticking for the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. Administrators for the Atlanta-based public interest law non-profit are hoping to wrap up the second phase of its Effective School Discipline: Keeping Kids in Class report by Dec. 15. 

Despite the looming deadline pressure, the report’s primary author, Rob Rhodes, took time out Thursday to share  phase one of the study results with community stakeholders attending the 2010 Georgia Truancy and Delinquency Prevention Conference. The three-day event hosted by the Truancy Intervention Project (TIP) wrapping up today in Marietta, is the non-profit truancy prevention agency’s first-ever statewide conference. Presenters at the Governor’s Office for Children and Families funded conference have included TIP co-founder and former Fulton County Juvenile Court Chief Judge Glenda Hatchett and Judge Michael Key, president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Feds Warn Schools to Get Tougher on Bullying and Civil Rights Violations

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In a rare move, the Department of Education is sending out a 10-page letter today to thousands of school districts, colleges and universities, to make sure they are complying with federal rules to prevent bullying and harassment. They warn that some types of bullying may actually be discriminatory  harassment under the Civil Rights Act. The letter clarifies when student bullying may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws. It explains educator’s legal obligations to protect students from the following kinds of harassment and bullying. Racial and national orientation
Sexual and gender-based
Disability

The letter provides examples of harassment and explains how schools should respond to each case.

Juveniles Arrested for Vandalizing Cobb School and Setting Fire

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Two children were arrested Monday for setting fire to a trailer at Lost Mountain Middle School in Kennesaw.  They are also accused of breaking 14 windows on the sixth-grade wing of the school, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Both kids face felony charges of arson and criminal damage.

President Obama: Anti-Bullying Message

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President Obama has joined nationally syndicated columnist Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” Project to fight against gay bullying. In a video released last week, Obama said he was "shocked and saddened" by the recent suicides of several young people who were bullied and taunted for being gay. Click here for the full video, in case you missed it.

Gwinnett Schools Win $1 Million Prize

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The Broad Prize for Urban Education goes to the Gwinnett County public school system this year. It’s the largest education prize in the country, honoring large urban school districts with top performing students that also narrow the achievement gap for poor and minority students.  The $1 million in prize money will go directly to high school seniors for college scholarships. Gwinnett Schools won this award for good reason.  More than half its students are minorities and half are eligible for the subsidized lunch program. The school system is overcoming the odds for kids in several ways:

Outperforms other schools in Georgia with a similar student profile in reading and math
Cuts  the gaps in reading and math scores between African-American and white students at all grade levels
Gets more minority teens to take the SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement exams

The school district is the largest in Georgia with close to 161,000 students this year, according to the school system website.

Guns at School: Collateral Consequences

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If your child gets caught bringing a gun to school, he or she may have trouble getting into a college and the military may not be an option. Possession of a weapon on school grounds is a felony and kids don’t realize the consequences of their actions, according to the Macon Telegraph. The newspaper looked at a sampling of colleges in Georgia and found that most applications ask if students have ever had a felony conviction or been suspended from school. Those who answer yes have their transcripts and disciplinary records reviewed by a special panel. This doesn’t mean an automatic denial for a student with a record, but it can severely hamper his or her chances of getting in.