Bold Faced Lies 23

Fun Stuff

Memetastic-Award_thumb.png

Kathleen at AutismHerd has bestowed this rather whimsical award on me.  Thank you so much Kathleen!  In order to accept this award I have to do the following. 

(BTW, that’s pronounced meem-tastic according to its creator, Jillsmo.)

  1. You must proudly display the absolutely disgusting graphic that Jillsmo created for these purposes. She thinks it’s so bad because not only did she use COMIC SANS, but there’s even a little jumping, celebrating kitten down there at the bottom. According to her it’s horrifying! But its presence in your award celebration is crucial to the memetastic process we’re creating here.  (I think it is cute!!!!)
  2. You must list 5 things about yourself, and 4 of them must be bold-faced lies. Just make stuff up, we’ll never know; one of them has to be true, though. Of course, nobody will ever know the difference, so we’re just on the honor system here. I trust you. 
  3. You must pass this award on to 5 bloggers that you either like or don’t like or don’t really have much of an opinion about. I don’t care who you pick, and nobody needs to know why. I mean, you can give a reason if you want, but I don’t really care. 
  4. If you fail to follow any of the above rules, Jillsmo will harass you incessantly until you either block her on Twitter or ban her IP address from visiting your blog. I don’t know if you can actually do that last thing, but she will become so annoying to you that you will actually go out and hire an IT professional to train you on how to ban IP addresses just so that she’ll leave you alone.  She says she is serious and I believe her, so I’m going to do these things. ” 
  5. **NEW**This one isn’t actually a rule, but once you do the above, she asks that you please stop by her site and link up to the Memetastic Hop so that she can keep track of where this thing goes.
  You can guess which one is the truth. 

Okay, here I go!!! Are you ready? I’m excited, so here goes:

 

  1. I did an internship one summer with a group called North Carolina Midwifery where I got to ride horses into the Appalachian Mountains to help a midwife deliver babies to those who did not have access to physicians and hospitals. 
  2. I live on an island, so I spend all of my free time at the beach.  
  3. I have always wanted to go skydiving.  I can’t imagine anything more thrilling than jumping out of an airplane.  
  4. I  worked as a forensic nurse for ten years.  It wasn’t as exciting as it sounds. 
  5. I have been to thirty-eight of the 50 states including Alaska, but I have only visited one other country and that is Canada.

 Now to pick the next group for Jillsmo’s amusement.  Actually these are blogs I love and I hope they will have fun with this.  The whimsical Memetastic Award goes to: 

Ms. Roller Coaster at Riding the Roller Coaster 

Charlotte at Life’s a Charm!

Lisa at Alienhippy’s Blog

Aspergirl Maybe 

Cathy at Autism Home Rescue

Do you really want to know the truth?  

  1. And the sad truth is I am more boring than my blogging friends think although I do wish I had done some of these.  
  2. I am way too chicken and have a fear of heights, so BB’s Mum, no skydiving for me. 
  3. And Aspergirl Maybe as Kathleen said there is little time for the beach.
  4. Kathleen, that was my dream job when I was in nursing school. 
  5. Laura, I did consider taking a forensic nursing course years ago, but sadly I did not do it. 

The truth:

I have been to thirty-eight of the 50 states including Alaska, but I have only visited one other country and that is Canada although I hope one day to do more traveling. 

 

 

 

Protecting Victims of Bullying 8

Bullying, Parenting, Schools • Tags: ,
School Pencils

Created using Swift Publisher 3. All rights reserved.

I dedicate today’s post to all of the young people who have been senselessly bullied especially to those who died because they were “bullied to death.”

Asperger’s, which is a high form of autism spectrum and an “invisible” diagnosis started me on this journey, but over the last year I have become even more horrified over the way others are treating young people with any difference. I want to help put a stop to these senseless acts of cruelty. However, we also have to help those who have survived these cruel acts to heal as we try to make the world a better place.

Therefore, this is a continuation of yesterday’s topic. You can read it here.

You have done everything you can to “bully proof” your child and they are still a victim, now what?

First and foremost as their parent your job is to protect them and to help them to heal when they are hurt, so refuse to allow anyone to tell you anything differently. I know many bully prevention programs and books tell you to let your child handle things because as parents we sometimes make things worse. You can try to let your child handle things, but if this causes more problems for your child or your child cannot handle it, Don’t listen to them.

I am telling you this because most authors of the books and programs are talking about children who develop typically, otherwise known as “neurotypical” children. Once our children are emotionally wounded they cannot be expected to handle things themselves or if they do try to handle it, they may give up and internalize negative emotions when the teacher, counselor, or principal listens to the other side and decides our child needs to change to fit in better.

Created using Swift Publisher 3. All rights reserved.

Created using Swift Publisher 3. All rights reserved.

Think about this for a moment.  You have a vulnerable child who has been repeatedly abused emotionally and even sometimes physically by his or her classmates.  The school reacts by giving the abuser detention or at the most expels the abuser for a short duration. Now the abuser comes back and tells everyone the victim is mean and got him or her in trouble. He or she does not touch the child physically and seems to no longer be bullying that child, but is that true? In the meanwhile the victim is having to meet with the counselor to learn skills to “fit-in” better. The rest of the school sees this child is different. They are fearful of being abused by the bully too and they decide to avoid the child who is different to avoid becoming the victim themselves.  No amount of role-playing or counseling is going to help the victim in this case. 

What do you do?

You can pull your child out of the school and either home school them or find another school, or you can decide to stay and work to change an ineffective system. If you decide to stay and fight, read on. If you are not staying, that is okay and you can still read further to see other options. We all have to do what is best for us and for our child.

Okay you are staying! First ask to see the school’s bully prevention policy. Next, research your local laws to see if your state has an anti-bullying law. If they don’t, check the laws that pertain to harassment, defamation of character, privacy, and to disabilities. Now contact an organization like Bully Police or a similar organization. You can find them by clicking on the link above, and they have a state-by-state contact list. They can offer suggestions and support about what your next options are. Once you arm yourself with this information go back to the school and try to get them to help.

So how do you help those who experience bullying and the ones who do the bullying?

  1. First, I know this is going to sound wrong to some people, but do not expel the bully if this is their first known episode of bullying. Instead of detention, educate them about why their behavior is wrong. Make them do presentations to others who bully to teach them about how wrong it is.
  2. Talk to the victim to make sure the bully is really changing. Enlist at least two model citizens to act as a mentor for the victim and make sure at least one of them is with the victim at all times.
  3. Reward those who report bullying including the victim. Start a rewards program where random acts of kindness are given points and a certain number of points equates to a tangible reward. The size of the reward does not matter as much as the need to reward good behavior. Simple rewards like a homework pass or ice cream are easy to do.

Bullying might not go completely away overnight, but if we all work together and encourage kindness and support the victims, it will get better while they are in school.  Let’s not make them wait until graduation for it to get better.  That is too late! 

 

Today I am Grateful 8

Gratitude • Tags: , , ,

It is time for my 2011 weekly Project Gratitude post.  Information about Project Gratitude can be found at:

Riding the Roller Coaster: Project Gratitude.

I am grateful there are still parents who instill kindness in their children.  I hope and pray there will be even more who do this soon.  I am especially grateful for the bystanders who stand up to bullies and tell them that yes, he or she is my friend.  The more bystanders stand up to bullies, the less power bullies have.  I am glad some people are getting this message.  I am grateful to all of the people including parents, teachers, counselors, principals, and children who are working to make this the standard instead of the exception.  I am posting links to some of the ones I found today.       

Kind Campaign highlights problem of female bullying.

Goddard School asks Could We All Be Bullies?

The following post is an example of a total failure on the part of a school, the children who go there, and the parents of these children, but I am grateful that the girl is speaking out instead of taking her own life.

Payton Spinney: Friend of Phoebe Prince, Who Was Bullied to Suicide, Is Being Taunted for Asperger’s Syndrome – ABC News.

I wrote a blog about accountability back in October and finally some people are being held accountable for their actions just as I have said they should be.

Accountability for Protecting Our Children | dswalkerauthor.

One more good and bad together.  This one is about adult bullies, and I am grateful this story is being reported, and the man who posted threats was arrested.  

Opinion | The trolls and bullies must not stifle community engagement | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Let me know what you think about the recent developments.

Blog Gems 2

Bullying

Blog Gems – Air your Archives #7

Diamond1WMK

We linked to our something about us post last time.  Jen would like us to continue the theme of getting to know each other a little better. This week we are linking a post that tells about an event (any event) in our life. 

I added my link yesterday, but I wanted to post the Blog Gem information today since others may have a Blog Gem they want to add.  Jen’s Blog Hop is one of the best because she only asks that you comment on the two blogs on the list above yours.  Of course, you can check out other blogs on the list too.  Just click on either the link or the image above to get to Jen’s site with more information.  I’m number thirty-nine on the list.