Tag Archives: Bullying

The U. S. Department of Education Gets It.

Bullying • Tags:

There are several articles on bullying in the news today.  The one that really caught my eye and made me shout hooray is the one about the Department of Education .

They finally get what I’ve been saying all along.  We have laws already that if enforced would protect most of the people who are victims of bullying.  I sent an e-mail to Lee Hirsch last month after seeing ABC’s  “Bullied to Death,” asking him why there was no mention of prosecution in the case where the girl was assaulted in front of her home, or in the case of the You Tube video created by little girls telling ways to kill another little girl.  I also pointed out that the seventeen year old in Georgia who committed suicide after repeated bullying should have been protected under the ADA.

Finally, the U. S. Department of Education gets that at least some incidents of bullying should still fall under current laws, as according to the link below they are “reminding schools that some incidents could violate more than a local code of conduct.”  They are reported to have sent a letter from the Office of Civil Rights indicating specific cases would rise to the level of discriminatory harassment.  They noted protections against discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, sex, age, disability in programs or activities that receive federal financial aid.

They also note that if a school limits its response to specific application of its anti-bullying disciplinary policy, the school may fail to properly address discriminatory harassment.  I say it is about time that someone realized this.  Now if we could just educate parents, maybe they’ll actually teach their children that their actions can have dire consequences.  Lets hope some of them actually are reading the latest news.

As I said before, involving the law would be my last resort if either of my children are ever bullied again.  I really want children to avoid prosecution, but until parents actually get back to teaching tolerance and kindness, I’m afraid it may be the only way to get through to some of our youth.  Parents please educate your children.  I don’t want a child to die or to go to jail.  Those of us trying to make changes just want you to get it, so we can all forgive and move on with our lives.

Lessons of Forgiveness 5

Forgiveness, Uncategorized • Tags: ,

IMG_8711How do we forgive those who hurt our loved ones? It certainly isn’t easy. I am fortunate in that I had just finished reading Immaculee Ilibagiza’s book Left to Tell at the time I learned about the bullies who hurt my child otherwise I might have reacted the same way as the dad in Florida who stormed the bus. I also got to hear Immaculee in person and meet her face to face during this time. She is a truly wonderful person and she inspired me to learn to forgive the bullies.

Still for me forgiveness is a work in progress especially when I hear about other kids being hurt by bullies. For those who don’t know Immaculee’s story, she survived the slaughter in Rwanda in 1994. She and one of her brothers, who was out of the country, are the only survivors from her family. While in hiding she overheard the murders of her younger brother describing his death as they called for her so they could kill her too. Yet, she forgave them as she realized that remaining angry would hurt her. When I met her, what struck me the most is how serene she is and the fact that she is clear that forgiveness does not mean forgetting.

I hope in some small measure my book will inspire someone to learn to forgive without forgetting and maybe they’ll inspire someone else to do the same. Let’s all really work at passing this message on to others. Thanks again for listening to me as I blog.

Mahalo,

D. S. Walker