“Sexual abuse, gore, racism, bullying rampant on Australian school Facebook pages”

Taken from: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sexual-abuse-gore-racism-bullying-rampant-on-australian-school-facebook-pages/story-e6frg6n6-1226514669372

November 12, 2012

STUDENTS at almost 500 schools are running Facebook sites dedicated to humiliating their peers as more and more children are forced to carry the incessant burden of cyber-bullying outside the school gates.

A News Ltd investigation of more than 4800 Australian primary and high schools has revealed more than 10 per cent have a Facebook page on which students are taunting each other and teachers with abusive language and offensive pictures.

Many of the posts are too offensive to reprint, but include graphic sexual discussion of students and teachers, shocking gore photos of suicide and accident victims, underage girls labelled “sluts”, male teachers named as pedophiles and references to Nazism. The majority of pages – many which carry the school’s full name and logo – contain homophobic, racist and misogynist jokes and drug references. Some of the most insidious pages, typically called “burn books” or “goss pages”, name and tag students in vicious rumours, which are then “liked” and shared around other students’ social networks.

One of the most shocking pages, from a school in Queensland, features gory photos of suicide and accident victims and a horrific picture of a battered child with an accompanying “joke” about domestic violence, all alongside references to the school and photos of the campus. Also on the page, which has accrued more than 760 fans since being launched in late August, is a photograph of a baby with a gun to its head with the caption “one like = one baby shot”, and a cartoon advocating methamphetamine use.

Another school page, from NSW, names a teacher as a “child molester” and calls another a “c***”, while students who have posted complaints have been abused with homophobic slurs.

A page from WA featured a photograph of a male teacher and female students overlaid with the logo of a pornography website, accompanied by snide comments joking that he was a pedophile.

The page, which accrued more than 600 fans since its launch in mid September, also featured photographs of students fighting, jokes about female Year 7s being “sluts” and arguments between students using extremely offensive language, all underneath the school’s official logo.

That page has since been deleted, but two others using the school’s name still exist.

One principal admitted his school had little control over what students did on the internet outside of school hours. ”You can block all these things on our intranet and they can’t do it at school but they have their own ways from home,” he said. But another principal added: “If students make threats over Facebook we are going to deal with them … as if it were an incident in the schoolyard.”

Cyber-bullying expert Dr Barbara Spears, from the University of South Australia, said “liking” nasty Facebook posts was the new face of schoolyard bullying. ”Clearly, `liking’ such pages contributes to the ongoing humiliation of others, and bystanders – those who contribute to bullying by not doing anything about it – are actively supporting it,” she said. Studies suggest 15 to 30 per cent of children are bullied at school, and around 10 per cent have been cyber bullied. Dr Spears said bullying was not shifting from the schoolyard to the screen, but “expanding” there. Constant access to technology meant “there is no escape”, she said.

Child psychologist and National Centre Against Bullying founder Michael Carr-Gregg said traditional playground bullies were taking their warfare online. ”What we’re finding now is that a lot of these kids are using the technology to literally make other people’s lives hell and the burn books are a really good example of this because so many people see it,” he said. Dr Carr-Gregg said vulnerable children could not brush off that kind of humiliation. ”For them, they’ve already got depression or they’ve already got anxiety so the gun is already loaded and the cyberbullying, the burn book, simply pulls the trigger,” he said.

The most serious forms of cyber bullying can attract stalking, harrassment or defamation charges. And it is illegal to use a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence under federal law, but a Federal Police spokeswoman said no minor had ever been charged. She said parents should try to deal with cyber-bullying through schools and only go to police as a last resort.Dr Carr-Gregg said too few people were charged over their heinous online behaviour. ”Some of these burn books can result in young people harming themselves so I don’t think the law is up to scratch,” he said. ”I think we need a social norm that says this type of behaviour is unacceptable and it needs to be enforced.”

WORST OF THE WORST

Examples of depravity on Australian schools’ Facebook pages

• Photo of a baby with a gun to its head, a photo of a battered child, gory pictures of suicide and accident victims, graphic pornography (QLD)
• Photo of a male teacher with female students captioned that he is a pedophile (WA)
  
• Male teachers pictured and captioned as “child molester” and “raper” (NSW)
  
• Messages telling students to kill themselves (NSW)
  
• Students threatening to rape other students (NSW)
  
• Female student named as having an affair with a teacher (NSW)
  
• Female student named as having AIDS (QLD)
  
• School classrooms pictured and captioned as “rape dungeons” (WA)
  
• Male student named as having had sex with goats (SA)
  
• Graphic sexual discussions about a female teacher (SA)
  
• Female teacher called “slut” and “hooker” (WA)
  
• Student with a speech impediment pictured and teased (SA)
  
• Black male student pictured and called a “n****r” (WA)
  
• Page with a profile picture that reads “kill yourselves” (QLD)
  
• Pictures of Hitler and references to Nazism (NSW)
  
• Praise for students who egged a teacher’s car (VIC)
  
• Message to students about a particular teacher: “spit on her shoes and s*** on her face” (VIC)

“Kids and Laughing Teachers Bullied Suicide Teen”

Taken from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/kids-and-laughing-teachers-bullied-suicide-teen/

July 6, 2012

The suicide of a 13-year-old boy in southern Japan after classmates systematically bullied him — even making him “practice” suicide — while teachers ignored the abuse or laughed has prompted soul-searching among educators across the country. One of the boy’s last acts was to text his tormentors and leave voice mails for them to say, “I’m going to die.” They texted him back to say, “You should die.”

The middle school student, whose name has not been released,  jumped from his 14^th floor apartment in the city of Otsu last October after enduring heartrending tales of abuse at the hands of his classmates.

His father filed several reports with the police, but officers never accepted them, saying that they could not prove that bullying led to his suicide, according to Japanese media reports.

Details of the harassment are coming to light eight months later, following a student survey conducted by the city’s board of education. In that anonymous survey, students write the bullying escalated to “punching and kicking” in September last year, about a month before the teen jumped to his death. The victim was pressured into shoplifting, had his legs and arms tied while bullies duck-taped his mouth. Students watched as their peers pressured the teen into eating dead bees, “pantsed” him, and made him “practice” committing suicide.

In the survey, some classmates report alerting teachers to those “practices,” but say nothing was done. Instead, teachers reportedly laughed as bullies tried to choke the victim. “He was forced to eat paper, students choked him. Teachers only gave a verbal warning, but then joined in on the bullying by laughing,” comments in the survey read.

Today, the tearful mayor of Otsu, said that she would launch a new investigation into the teen’s suicide to “seek the truth,” calling the board’s survey “inadequate.” “I feel awful I have to put students through this again,” Naomi Koshi said. “I cannot apologize to the students enough.” Local media report Otsu has been bombarded with hundreds of calls and emails from angry parents since the bullying came to light on July 4. A bomb threat was called into the board Thursday, forcing students to go home early.

The teen’s family has not commented publicly on the case since the new details surfaced, but in a letter sent to Koshi, the boy’s father called on the mayor to “seek the truth” and come up with a new anti-bullying policy. “I want bullying to disappear from every school in Japan,” he wrote. “I want schools to become a safe place again.”

“‘I Am Me’ by Willow Smith”

Loving the lyrics to this empowering ballad :) 

“I Am Me” by Willow Smith

Taken from: http://www.onlylyrics.com/willow-smith-lyrics-1092218.php

[chorus]
I’m meee, I’m mee, and that’s all I can be
I’m meee, I’m eee, it’s my one ability
I’m free
And you can’t stop meee,
I’m free, and that’s all I can be

Days pass, I’m tryna find who I really am
I’ve been looking
People don’t like the way I dress
So it won’t matter, I’ve been looking
I’ve done my hair and it’s not just that easy
I’ve been looking
Your validation it’s not just that important to me

[Chorus]
I’m meee, I’m mee, and that’s all I can be
I’m meee, I’m eee, it’s my one ability
I’m free
And you can’t stop meee,
I’m free, I’m meee, and that’s all I can be

Night falls and I find it here I am in peace
I’ve been looking
Making friends with spirits lost
And it sets me free, I’ve been looking
Express myself cause it’s my liberty
I’ve been looking
Your validation it’s not just that important to me

[Chorus]
I’m meee, I’m mee, and that’s all I can be
I’m meee, I’m eee, it’s my one ability
I’m free
And you can’t stop meee,
I’m meee, I’m free, and that’s all I can be

I am me, I am me, I am me
I am free, I am free, I am free
I am me, I am me, I am me
I am free, I am free, X 2

Ooooooooooooohhhhhhh

Create yourself, redo yourself
Renew yourself
Be you, do what you do,
Hold your head up high, everything’s gonna alright
You’re you, I’m me, let’s livei n harmony
Coexist with each other, love each other
Be yourself
You have to be yourself, be real, be honest
Cause ain’t nobody got time for that
They really don’t, so listen to me
Listen to this song, because this is real facts
That will help you move along, yeah
That’s all I wanted to say, so I love you guys so much
Hope you like the song and you know, yolo, misfits, argh haha.

“Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.”"

Kudos, Anderson Cooper. Sadly most people will see this article and focus on the fact that he is gay, and not that he “couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”

Taken from: http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/07/anderson-cooper-the-fact-is-im-gay.html

June 2, 2012

Last week, Entertainment Weekly ran a story on an emerging trend: gay people in public life who come out in a much more restrained and matter-of-fact way than in the past. In many ways, it’s a great development: we’re evolved enough not to be gob-smacked when we find out someone’s gay. But it does matter nonetheless, it seems to me, that this is on the record. We still have pastors calling for the death of gay people, bullying incidents and suicides among gay kids, and one major political party dedicated to ending the basic civil right to marry the person you love. So these “non-events” are still also events of a kind; and they matter. The visibility of gay people is one of the core means for our equality.

All of which is a prelude to my saying that I’ve known Anderson Cooper as a friend for more than two decades. I asked him for his feedback on this subject, for reasons that are probably obvious to most. Here’s his email in response which he has given me permission to post here:

Andrew, as you know, the issue you raise is one that I’ve thought about for years. Even though my job puts me in the public eye, I have tried to maintain some level of privacy in my life. Part of that has been for purely personal reasons. I think most people want some privacy for themselves and the people they are close to.

But I’ve also wanted to retain some privacy for professional reasons. Since I started as a reporter in war zones 20 years ago, I’ve often found myself in some very dangerous places. For my safety and the safety of those I work with, I try to blend in as much as possible, and prefer to stick to my job of telling other people’s stories, and not my own. I have found that sometimes the less an interview subject knows about me, the better I can safely and effectively do my job as a journalist.

I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter. I’ve stuck to those principles for my entire professional career, even when I’ve been directly asked “the gay question,” which happens occasionally. I did not address my sexual orientation in the memoir I wrote several years ago because it was a book focused on war, disasters, loss and survival. I didn’t set out to write about other aspects of my life.

Recently, however, I’ve begun to consider whether the unintended outcomes of maintaining my privacy outweigh personal and professional principle. It’s become clear to me that by remaining silent on certain aspects of my personal life for so long, I have given some the mistaken impression that I am trying to hide something – something that makes me uncomfortable, ashamed or even afraid. This is distressing because it is simply not true.

I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.

The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.

I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.

Since my early days as a reporter, I have worked hard to accurately and fairly portray gay and lesbian people in the media – and to fairly and accurately portray those who for whatever reason disapprove of them. It is not part of my job to push an agenda, but rather to be relentlessly honest in everything I see, say and do. I’ve never wanted to be any kind of reporter other than a good one, and I do not desire to promote any cause other than the truth.

Being a journalist, traveling to remote places, trying to understand people from all walks of life, telling their stories, has been the greatest joy of my professional career, and I hope to continue doing it for a long time to come. But while I feel very blessed to have had so many opportunities as a journalist, I am also blessed far beyond having a great career.

I love, and I am loved.

In my opinion, the ability to love another person is one of God’s greatest gifts, and I thank God every day for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my life. I appreciate your asking me to weigh in on this, and I would be happy for you to share my thoughts with your readers. I still consider myself a reserved person and I hope this doesn’t mean an end to a small amount of personal space. But I do think visibility is important, more important than preserving my reporter’s shield of privacy.

Me too.

“Stuart Chaifetz Secretly Tapes His Autistic Son at School, Discovers He’s Being Bullied by Teachers”

Taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/stuart-chaifetz-secretly-tapes-autistic-son-school-discovers-220500111.html

April 24, 2012

When his 10-year-old son, Akian, started getting into trouble at school, Stuart Chaifetz was stunned. The notes from Horace Mann Elementary School in Cherry Hill, N.J., said that Akian, who has autism, was having violent outbursts and hitting his teacher and his aide – behavior that the boy had never exhibited before.

“I could not understand why this was happening,” Chaifetz, a 44-year-old animal rights activist in New Jersey, wrote on his website. “I had never witnessed Akian hit anyone, nor could I dream of him lashing out as had been described to me.”

In October 2011, he met with Akian’s teachers and school therapists. A behaviorist was called in, but during several classroom visits he didn’t see Akian become violent. “He tried to create a scenario that would push Akian so far that he would lash out,” Chaifetz explained. “And Akian did not.”

“If Akian was pushed and didn’t do anything, what was setting him off?” his dad wondered. After six months of meetings yielded no answers, he decided that he needed to know what was happening in his son’s class. Like Akian, all of the other kids in his class also have autism, and complications from the disorder prevent them from being able to communicate to their parents about what goes on in the classroom.

“The morning of February 17, I put a wire on my son, and I sent him to school,” Chaifetz says in a video he created to showcase the audio clips. “What I heard on that audio was so disgusting, vile, and just an absolute disrespect and bullying of my son, that happened not by other children, but by his teacher, and the aides — the people who were supposed to protect him. They were literally making my son’s life a living hell.”

The recordings are raw and intense. Angry adults yell at kids to “shut up,” “shut your mouth,” and “knock it off.” Adults have inappropriate personal conversations in front of the children, discussing how drunk they were the night before, complaining about their husbands, and talking in detail about adult issues. More than once, an adult goads Akian to the point of tears — and then laughs at him.

“Go ahead and scream,” one adult hisses menacingly at Akian. “Because guess what? You’re going to get nothing… until your mouth is shut.”

And later: “Oh, Akian, you are a bastard.”

“The six and a half hours of audio I had proved that my son wasn’t hitting the teacher because there was something wrong with him — he was lashing out because he was being mocked, mistreated and humiliated,” Chaifetz writes on his website, No More Teacher/Bully. “His outbursts were his way of expressing that he was being emotionally hurt at school.”

Chaifetz gave the entire six-and-a-half-hour recording to the Cherry Hill School district (you can hear more of the clips here). One aide, Jodi Sgouros, was fired. Another aide and the teacher, whom the Collingswood Patch identifies as Kelly Altenburg, were reassigned but not fired.

“I don’t know why the teacher wasn’t fired,” Chaifetz writes on his blog. “Maybe the District had no choice; perhaps tenure or HR regulations did not permit them to do so. I know that they were sincere and shocked when they found out what happened. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in this.”

On Tuesday, officials at the Horace Mann School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, directed calls from Yahoo! Shine to the Cherry Hill School District’s offices; a call to a spokesperson there was not immediately returned. Cherry Hill Public School District spokesperson Susan Bastnagel told the Collingswood Patch on Tuesday only that the incident is “an internal personnel matter that the district took seriously and handled appropriately.”

Chaifetz disagrees, and has started a Facebook page and launched a petition at Change.org calling for the teacher’s dismissal. He’s already gathered nearly 18,500 signatures. “No one who treats children like that, who calls them vicious names, who humiliates them, who batters them verbally, deserves to be a teacher,” Chaifetz says in the video. ”How is it possible that teachers and staff can do these things, and you have evidence — not just accusations, but evidence — and they’re still teaching?” he said in an interview with Babble.com. To me, that’s the bigger outrage here. How many times has this happened before? How many times will it happen again if I remain quiet?”

For his part, Chaifetz says that what he really wants from the teacher and aides involved is a public apology and a willingness to take responsibility for their actions.v”I want an apology, not for me, but so one day I can play this video back for my son and say Akian, you didn’t deserve anything that happened to you,” he says in the video. “I’m not going to sue anybody. I’m not going to file a lawsuit. It’s not about money. It’s about dignity. This is to reclaim my son’s dignity.”

“Texas hospital bans obese workers?”

Taken from: http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/04/09/texas-hospital-fat-people-bmi-need-not-apply?hpt=hp_t2

April 9, 2012

A Texas hospital that incorporates in its hiring policy an applicant’s body mass index — a formula that assesses one’s health based on their weight and height — hurts patient care, critics say.

Citizens Medical Center, located in Victoria, requires its employees “fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a healthcare professional,” including having an appearance “free from distraction” for patients, according to the Texas Tribune newspaper.

Potential employees must have a BMI of less than 35 (185 lbs for someone who is 5-1; or 265 lbs for someone who is 6-1), according to the newspaper.

But is this legal? In Texas and most states, yes. “The policy is not against Texas law,” Daniel S. Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful,” told HLN. “But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lawsuit challenging the policy under the federal Americans with Disability Act.”

Critics say the weight requirement not only discriminates against perfectly able and highly skilled workers who may be a bit on the chunky side, but it also exposes the scant legal protection afforded to obese workers.

A call to Citizens Medical Center CEO David Brown by HLN was not returned, but in an interview with the Tribune, Brown defended the hospital’s policy as one that caters to its patients. “The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance,” he said. “We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.”

Peggy Howell, spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, told HLN that the requirement raised a number of questions that expose the hospital as discriminatory. “This new policy is a clear example of weight bias and fat hatred. How will their fat patients be treated if they are requiring their employees to meet a BMI requirement?”

An awry BMI may not be obviously apparent from appearances, Hamermesh said. He cautioned that the rule, enacted about a year ago, will curtail the hospital’s ability to hire skilled workers. “The policy will exclude some workers who do not appear morbidly obese; as such, it will prevent the hospital from hiring some desirable workers and will limit its ability to attract acceptable employees.”

Howell said the policy raised some provocative questions regarding workplace atmosphere and employee retention. “Does this policy affect those that currently work there? What about promotional opportunities for those who wouldn’t have met the new BMI cut-off? How will they be perceived? What type of work environment are they creating? This type of practice will create a very unhealthy work environment with employees fearing for their jobs if they gain a little weight (eating disorders, stress, food policing, bullying, etc.) And won’t this then give those employees the opportunity to sue because of the hostile work environment?”

Brown told the newspaper that the hospital tries to work with potential employees that are overweight. “We have some people who are applicants and they know the requirements, and we try and help them get there but they’re not interested,” he said. “So that’s fine, they can go work somewhere else.”

“Disney’s Habit Heroes Accused of “fat-shaming”"

Taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/disneys-habit-heroes-accused-fat-shaming-232300194.html

March 1, 2012

Meet Snacker: Disney’s newest fairy at the center of a major controversy.

The zaftig Snacker, along with a bean-bag shaped mob figure named “Glutton” and a ball-bellied couch potato named “Lead Bottom” make of a few of the cartoon villains in Epcot Center’s educational exhibit Habit Heroes.

The theme park’s interactive experience and corresponding website were created in collaboration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to teach kids healthy eating habits. But after a soft launch three weeks ago, critics have accused the exhibit of “fat-shaming,” and Disney has responded by closing the exhibit as the company mulls a relaunch. And the website is down for maintenance.

“It’s so dumbfounding it’s unreal,” Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an assistant professor of family medicine, told the Calgary Herald. “I just can’t believe somebody out there thought it was a good idea to pick up where the school bullies left off and shame kids on their vacation.”

In question are the over-exaggerated body types of the villains and their association with being bad. Visitors entering to the three interactive rooms are first introduced to their heroes: The fit, muscular Will Power and Callie Stenics. They’re also confronted with the overweight caricatures, each one a product of unhealthy habits. Snacker loves processed foods, and visitors use arcade guns to shoot vegetables at the cream puffs and hotdogs that surround her like an aura.

The intention is to inspire kids to live healthier, but the message, says Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams, is that “fat people are bad.”

Disney princesses have come under fire before for sending negative messages to young girls about their own waistlines. A recent study found young girls who viewed several Disney movies were more likely to identify a virtuous, aspirational “princess” as someone who’s thin. Consider the Little Mermaid, a movie where the slender main character spends most of her time in a bikini, while villain Ursula fills the screen with her voluptuous tentacled body.

Much has changed since the early days of Ariel. We’re now living in a country with a 17 percent childhood obesity rate. At the same time, school bullying cases and teen suicides have called attention to the need for sensitivity.

While combating obesity through education is crucial and certainly commendable, it’s not as simple as a few cartoons and some tips on diet and exercise. Genetics, finance and family support play key roles in managing kids’ weight in a healthy way. So does self-esteem.

A recent Atlanta PSA featuring overweight kids as cautionary tales, became a prime example of how not to teach kids about weight issues. Shame and fear are harmful tactics when it comes to tackling childhood obesity, because weight isn’t the only issue on the table.

Disney’s Habit Heroes may be learning that lesson. The exhibit has already been shuttered and the website is down for maintenance.  ”The attraction is currently closed as we work to further refine the experience,” Kathleen Prihoda, Disney’s media relations manager told Shine on Wednesday. “Our goal with Habit Heroes is to make sure it conveys a positive message about healthy lifestyles in a fun way.”  Now they’re looking to fix the fail and relaunch an improved exhibit. Prihoda added that the exhibit had never officially opened. “It was in soft open period, which allows us to get guest feedback, prior to the official opening.”

Disney’s rep couldn’t offer any details on when Habit Heroes would re-launch or what it might look like when it does.

One problem with the exhibit that’s harder to fix is its location. Disneyworld has it’s share of restaurant options, but it’s still a theme park. Funnel cakes and hot dogs are just what you do while you wait on line for Space Mountain. “You want to promote good heath? Start by looking at your own sugar and animal fat-laden menus,” writes Salon’s Williams. It’s hard to practice healthy eating in the happiest place on earth.

“‘Glee’s’ Max Adler on Karofsky’s ‘Incredibly Brave’ Story (Q&A)”

There are only a handful of Glee episodes that really stand out to me, one of them being last week’s “On My Way.” Addressing not only the issue of bullying, cyber-bullying, and suicide, the episode also ends with a brief look into texting while driving. Below is an interview with Max Adler, the actor who plays Dave Karofsky in this week’s cliffhanger winter finale. 

Taken from: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/glee-karofsky-max-adler-interview-293359

February 21, 2012

Max Adler‘s Dave Karofsky came full circle on Tuesday’s Glee when his character attempted suicide after being outed and bullied by a football teammate at school.

For the character, it culminates a story line that dates back to Season 2 when the jock would harass and bully the openly gay Kurt (Chris Colfer) to the point of threatening his life, forcing him to transfer out of McKinley to escape the torment. Later, Dave forced a kiss with Kurt who realized that his tormenter is gay and struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation.

For his part, Adler has used his recurring status with the Fox musical dramedy to speak out against bullying as part of the nonprofit organization City Hearts, and has joined the Trevor Project’s It Gets Better campaign to encourage other LGBT that they’re not alone. (Tuesday’s episode also featured a PSA for Trevor.)

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Adler to discuss what went into the powerful episode, which also shines a light on the dangers of cyber bullying, as well as what he hopes viewers take away from the hour.

The Hollywood Reporter: What kind of responsibility to the LGBT community do you feel playing this role?
Max Adler: I’ve talked to many people that have said how real that character is for them and how they see themselves as a Karofsky or they know a Karofsky or they knew a Karofsky. There is a responsibility to play that role and it’s just an incredible honor. For this storyline, I’m thrilled that the writers went there.

On Glee, I think people will be a little, “How can you do this in a comedy show?” But to me, it’s the paradox that you’re showing high schoolers with their wide-open future and optimism and hope and they can do anything, but you can’t show that without showing the struggles, fears and anxieties that one has about not knowing the next step or not knowing who you are or what to do. It’s necessary to go there and to show that on TV so that you can appreciate the other side of things.

THR: How much of Karofsky’s storyline were you aware when you got the call to return?
Adler: There was never a discussion about the storyline. It’s incredibly brave on their part to push the envelope and treat this character with the integrity and the honesty that he deserves and to show the struggle and then the outcome of hope when you see his life 10 years into the future with somebody who loves him for who he is. That’s the important message to see: there will be somebody out there who will accept and love you for your true self and to not worry about society’s limitations and what people expect of you; it’s OK to be who you are and you can be happy with that.

Beyond relating to people who are bullied or are contemplating suicide, it was also important to show how teachers, peers and coaches all saw these warning signs but because of society’s limitations and the fear of talking about things openly and freely, no one really stepped up. Even in the locker room, everyone teams up against him and if just one or two of those guys would have had Dave’s back, it would have been a completely different outcome. We’re all in this world together; let’s drown out the negative voices and be positive and teach people that it is OK to be your true self.

THR: Considering your involvement with City Hearts and Trevor Project’s It Gets Better campaigns, what was your first reaction when you read the script?
Adler: It was a complete rainbow of emotions when I read it. There’s excitement of being able to send a message like this into the world when people really need it and need to be spoken to honestly. It comes with the fear of representing it honestly and accurately. There was a lot of work, prep, research and discussions with director Brad Buecker about the best and most honest way to tell this story. Before we shot the bedroom scene, it was a closed set; it was just me, the director and a few crewmembers and we sat down in the bedroom and looked at everything and talked about what this means and what this kid’s going through and his mindset.

THR: Why was it important for Glee to acknowledge cyber bullying?
Adler: He sees his worst fears are realized in that [his sexuality is] out there now. In doing my work with City Hearts and It Gets Better, I’m finding that it’s more harmful than face-to-face bullying. People behind a computer can be meaner with what they’re saying because they’re not seeing the repercussions face-to-face and they don’t have to deal with seeing someone heartbroken and crushed. It’s really scary and that’s why they wrote it into the script: cyber bullying has become an epidemic.

THR: What was filming the bedroom scene like? How did your discussions with Buecker — and the people you’ve met through your anti-bullying charitable work — influence how you played it?
Adler: You go to a very dark place. Brad set up a few cameras outside of the room and watched Karofsky in his room for six or seven minutes. I don’t want to say I was possessed, but there’s this incredible feeling that comes over you and you start thinking about everything that you’ve gone through and how Karofsky can’t express himself. For Karofsky, one door after another was slammed; he couldn’t be his bully, bravado, macho self at McKinley. He tried the gay bar thing and that door was slammed in his face — it was Sebastian in this episode. He tried the soft Valentine’s Day gorilla-grams approach with Kurt and that door got slammed in his face. Then you see the Facebook messages and it’s just you’re trapped within yourself. There are no questions to ask anymore; there’s no one to reach out to. If he wants to be sensitive, it’s portrayed as a sign of weakness from society. To me, he’s truly what Glee represents — the underdog and someone who’s very awkward with himself and he’s not your typical jock.

I’ve heard this from fans, but there’s a lot of times that gay people are portrayed on TV and movies as a very specific kind of way that you don’t really see a burly dude usually represented as being soft and sensitive. He’s very unsure of who he is, how he’s supposed to act, what he’s supposed to say and how he’s supposed to look. So when you start thinking about all that, you get to a really interesting place in your mind and the tears kind of come out of you because it’s heartbreaking. The line in the hospital scene with Kurt where he explains what led to his decision and how his mom told him he had a disease and that maybe he could be cured — I read that and I was crying. It’s your own parent not accepting you and telling you you have a disease. It’s so gut wrenching and heartbreaking that it was hard not to live with that in that bedroom.

THR: Which gives Karofsky and Santana (Naya Rivera) that much more in common. Will Karofsky return after the hiatus?
Adler: There’s been nothing said yet. This episode does leave you with a nice optimistic view and a hope for Karofsky’s future that he sees there’s happiness ahead. It will be a long and arduous journey, but at least he’s on that journey now to realize that he can be happy and there are people that are there for him. So it could go either way.

THR: Karofsky inspires the Warblers and New Directions to put their differences aside and move forward. How will Karofsky’s suicide attempt fundamentally change some of the other characters on the show?
Adler: This will open everyone’s minds up and realize that we need to talk to each other. There’s been a lack of communication that’s happened over the last few years and everyone’s kind of afraid to speak up and talk about things without getting fired or getting reamed by the principal or the school district. If one of those kids in the locker room had stood up for Karofsky and said, “Leave this kid alone. What does it matter?” but they can’t because then they’re afraid of being picked on. There are warning signs all along and if someone had just reached out to this kid and talked to him, there could have been a completely different outcome. That’s the message of how everyone will be affected: seeing how serious this can be and how people do cry out for help. If we all stand up for one another and speak out against the negativity, it’s a much stronger bond that we’ll all find ourselves in in the world.

THR: The show as a whole has now told three coming out stories, all in varying degrees and all slightly involving bullying. What do you hope people take away from this storyline?
Adler: The message is that people will start talking about it now and seeing and watching someone experience what it really means to be brutally picked on and have society tell you that who you are is wrong. It shows that there is no wrong. That’s the message of Glee:acceptance and equality. It’s a dual message where victims of bullying can see that society is wrong, not them. They are completely OK with being who they are; there will be people who love them for who they are is the message. On the flipside, to everyone who antagonizes anyone they perceive as minorities that it’s completely uncalled for. I feel like if they see what they’re doing to people, it might make them think twice. If we can save lives with this hour of television or change people’s ways of thinking, which I think we can, then mission accomplished.

“Ching Chong, Chinaman”: The De-Americanization of Asian Americans”

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ong-hing/ching-chong-chinaman-the-_b_1176564.html

Eight U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan have been arrested in connection with the apparent suicide of Pvt. Danny Chen, a 19-year-old infantryman who was Chinese American. The arrests came after family members pressured the Pentagon to investigate allegations that Chen had been repeatedly taunted with racial slurs. The alleged anti-Asian bullying and taunting started during basic training when fellow soldiers used a mocking accent while calling him Jackie Chen; others allegedly told him to “go back to China.” The eight soldiers have been charged with dereliction of duty and manslaughter.

Asian American history is replete with examples of the de-Americanization of its members by vigilante racism. For some, the ostracism started immediately. Consider the poignant autobiography of Mary Paik Lee, a Korean immigrant who described her family’s arrival in San Francisco harbor in 1906:

As we walked down the gangplank … young White men were standing around, waiting to see what kind of creatures were disembarking. We must have been a very queer-looking group. They laughed at us and spit in our faces; one man kicked up Mother’s skirt and called us names we couldn’t understand. Of course, their actions and attitudes left no doubt about their feelings toward us.

Throughout their early life in the United States, Lee and her family were greeted with “For Whites Only” signs everywhere. Public restrooms, theaters, swimming pools, and barber shops were off limits. On Lee’s first day of school, girls circled and hit her, chanting: “Ching Chong, Chinaman, Sitting on a wall. Along came a White man, And chopped his head off.”

One of the more notorious, de-Americanizing, vigilante hate crimes of our time involved the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, a young Chinese American man who lived near Detroit, Mich. Chin, who was out with friends celebrating his upcoming wedding, was confronted by Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, two unemployed auto workers. Ebens made racial and obscene remarks toward Chin, calling him a “Chink” and a “Nip” and making comments about foreign car imports: “it’s because of you little m – f – that we’re out of work.” The Court of Appeals noted that Ebens “seemed to believe that Chin was Japanese” and may not have distinguished Asians of “Japanese and Chinese decent since there is testimony to show he made references to both.” A fight ensued and in the end, Chin was beaten to death by a baseball bat-wielding Ebens, while Nitz restrained Chin. Chin, who was a native of China, was adopted at the age of six by a Chinese American couple and became a U.S. citizen in 1965. Yet he was targeted because he represented Japan and its automobile manufacturers in the eyes of the culprits.

Even more recently, de-Americanizing antics have been directed at Chinese Americans. In the midst of an international crisis in April 2001, when a U.S. spy plane had to land on Chinese soil and China would not immediately release the plane, many Americans took their frustration out on Chinese Americans. A radio station disc jockey in Springfield, Ill. suggested boycotting Chinese restaurants. Another commentator called people with Chinese last names from his local telephone book to harass them. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Pat Oliphant ran a cartoon portraying a buck-toothed Chinese waiter yelling at a customer (depicted as Uncle Sam), “Apologize Lotten Amellican!” The American Society of Newspaper Editors was entertained by the renowned satirical group Capitol Steps, featuring a white man dressed in a black wig and thick glasses impersonating a Chinese official who gestured wildly as he said (in a manner reminiscent of the chant that greeted Mary Paik Lee on her first day in school): “ching, ching, chong, chong.”

The profiling examples of Asian Americans are unending: Wen Ho Lee, Japanese internment, hate crimes directed at Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians.

A few years ago when U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was still in Congress (where he served for over 20 years), he was invited to attend a celebration of the reopening of a General Motors plant in his home district Santa Clara County, Calif. As an honored guest, he was greeted by a senior GM executive who thanked the Congressman for attending, and then complimented Mineta on his English. The executive then asked Mineta, “And how long have you lived in our country?” Mineta knew that when the GM executive looked at Mineta’s Japanese American features, the executive saw a “foreign face.” Yet Mineta was born in San Jose, Calif., in 1931 and attended the University of California, Berkeley. Unfortunately this certainly was not the first time he had been de-Americanized. During World War II, he was interned along with the rest of the Mineta family in Heart Mountain, Wyo.

Somehow the soldiers who allegedly harassed Pvt. Danny Chen felt licensed to engage in taunting and bullying of a young Chinese American who was trying to serve his country. Perhaps that’s the problem; those soldiers didn’t think that the United States was Chen’s country to serve. Somewhere the soldiers got the message that their private vigilante actions were condoned. That message has done much to solidify the image of people of color with immigrant roots as perpetual foreigners. This encourages private individuals to engage in discriminatory acts and reinforces their hostility. As such, Asian Americans become prime targets for de-Americanization by vigilante racists. And that can lead to death.

“Calif. teen sentenced for killing gay student”

Taken from: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iI_bdidmw3uDZCQJ-8DbV0gUsu-A?docId=981ee26bde044f508471de19e4a0479b

December 19, 2011

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — A teen who fatally shot a gay junior high classmate in the back of the head during a computer lab nearly four years ago was sentenced Monday to 21 years in state prison, capping an emotional case that focused attention on how schools deal with sexual identity.

Brandon McInerney, 17, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue pants, didn’t speak at the hearing, but his lawyer said his client was sorry for killing 15-year-old Larry King. ”He feels deeply remorseful and stated repeatedly if he could go back and take back what he did, he would do it in a heartbeat,” Scott Wippert said. McInerney will report to prison next month, after he turns 18. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and unlawful use of a firearm after jurors deadlocked during his trial as an adult on a first-degree murder charge. Several jurors said afterward that they didn’t think McInerney should have been tried as an adult.

McInerney had just turned 14 when he shot King in front of shocked classmates at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard on Feb. 12, 2008. Prosecutors alleged it was a hate crime driven by homophobic rage because King wore girl’s clothing and flirted with McInerney. The killing became a flashpoint for gay rights groups that said it was further evidence that children often pay a horrible price when they come out. Comic Ellen DeGeneres, a lesbian, weighed in on her talk show and said gays shouldn’t be treated as second-class citizens.

Because of pretrial publicity, the trial was moved from Ventura County to Los Angeles County.

King’s father, Greg King, read a four-page letter lambasting everyone from jurors, who he called incompetent, to the media for not focusing enough on school leaders “bungled” handling of his son’s situation. He said the shooting had scarred students who testified, calling it their “9/11.”

School administrators were criticized for not doing enough in the weeks leading up to the killing at the Oxnard school to quell a simmering feud between the two boys and for allowing King to wear heels and makeup. School district officials said they were upholding federal law by protecting Larry King’s right to express his sexual orientation. Greg King blamed the school district for not heeding requests by his wife to help tone down their son’s flamboyant behavior, despite having a plan that called for preventing the boy from drawing attention to himself. ”The school could have and should have prevented Larry from engaging in the provocative behavior he was involved in,” he said.

He saved his strongest statements for McInerney, who he said his family couldn’t forgive. ”You took upon yourself to be a bully and to hate a smaller kid, wanting to be the big man on campus,’” Greg King said to McInerney on behalf of his wife. “‘You have left a big hole in my heart where Larry was and it can never be filled.’”

King’s family and Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox wore buttons with the teen’s face on it, while some of McInerney’s supporters wore powder blue wristbands that read “Save Brandon.” Some teachers and jurors also attended the hearing.

Outside court, Dawn Boldrin, a teacher who gave King her daughter’s homecoming dress, had kind words for both of the teens. ”I probably would just hug him,” Boldrin said when asked what she would do if she could meet McInerney. “I know he’s a good kid.”

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed McInerney as a teen who couldn’t control his anger and was influenced by white supremacist ideology. Jurors rejected the claim that the killing was a hate crime.

Prosecutors said the plotted killing was first-degree murder and that McInerney should be punished as an adult.

Defense attorneys, who unsuccessfully argued to keep the case in juvenile court, said McInerney reached an emotional breaking point after King’s advances. They said he snapped when he heard King wanted to change his first name to Latisha.

Under teams of the plea bargain, McInerney’s murder conviction was stayed and he received the harshest possible sentence under California law for voluntary manslaughter — 11 years — and use of a firearm — 10 years. McInerney is ineligible for time served for good behavior because he pleaded guilty to murder.

Following the hearing, defense attorney Robyn Bramson said McInerney is close to getting his high school diploma and plans to take advantage of any opportunity afforded him in prison. ”I really think this is a story that if you follow up in 21 years you’ll find a kid who has rehabilitated himself,” she said.

“Don’t Laugh At Me” by Peter, Paul & Mary/Mark Wills

Taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVjbo8dW9c8

“Don’t Laugh at Me” Cover by Mark Wills

Original lyrics by Peter, Paul & Mary

I’m a little boy with glasses
The one they call a geek
A little girl who never smiles
‘Cause I have braces on my teeth
And I know how it feels to cry myself to sleep
I’m that kid on every playground
Who’s always chosen last
A single teenage mother
Tryin’ to overcome my past
You don’t have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask

Don’t laugh at me
Don’t call me names
Don’t get your pleasure from my pain
In God’s eyes we’re all the same
Someday we’ll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me

I’m the beggar on the corner
You’ve passed me on the street
And I wouldn’t be out here beggin’
If I had enough to eat
And don’t think I don’t notice
That our eyes never meet

Don’t laugh at me
Don’t call me names
Don’t get your pleasure from my pain
In God’s eyes we’re all the same
Someday we’ll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me

I’m fat, I’m thin, I’m short, I’m tall
I’m deaf, I’m blind, hey, aren’t we all

Don’t laugh at me
Don’t call me names
Don’t get your pleasure from my pain
In God’s eyes we’re all the same
Someday we’ll all have perfect wings
Don’t laugh at me

“Teacher Caught on Tape Bullying Student. Is a Camera a Kid’s Only Advocate?”

Taken from: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/teacher-caught-tape-bullying-student-camera-kids-only-224600400.html

November 16, 2011

Nobody believed Julio Artuz, a 15 year old New Jersey special education student, when he complained of being bullied by his teacher. So he caught the whole thing on tape. In footage captured in secret on his cellphone, Artuz is subjected to curses and berating from a man who’s supposed to be a mentor.

Artuz’s teacher says: “I will kick your [expletive] from here to kingdom come until I’m 80 years old.”

“Don’t threaten me,” responds Artuz.

“What are you going to do? You gonna get a chopper and chop me?” asks his teacher as the rest of the class sits rubbernecking the heated argument.

What Jules did do was show his taped account to his parents and a local advocate of bullied students. After an NBC news affiliate in Philadelphia got hold of the footage, the school immediately took action, placing the teacher on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.  ”The actions depicted on the video do not reflect the mission or culture of our school,” said Gloucester Counter Special Services Superintendent Michael Dicken in a statement. “Our school district takes all bullying, harassment, and intimidation allegations seriously…we do not tolerate it.”

While schools may not tolerate that kind of abuse of power, it takes a lot to make it stop. In a separate incident earlier this week, an Ohio special needs student came forward with an account of long-term bullying from her two teachers. She actually had to attend school wired with a recording device to capture proof of her teachers calling her “dumb”, “lazy” and overweight. Another shocking incident this month involved a high school basketball coach who was captured on cell phone video making deeply offensive, racist remarks about students while in school.

“Statistically about 1 to 2 percent of teachers are actually involved in bullying students,” says Dr. Joel Haber, a clinical psychologist who runs the anti-bullying website RespectU. “There needs to be a clear policy in schools not just for students bullying other students but for teachers as well. Teachers are humans too and this kind of thing does happen, so it needs to be managed early.”

While more schools have introduced anti-bullying codes of conduct for students, teachers aren’t always considered a threat.
It’s a murky issue for many school administrators. Where’s the bullying line when you’re managing an unruly classroom? “Its blurry sure but you know when someone wants to make a kid feel bad, or when they’re abusing their power as an authority figure,” says Dr. Haber. “That’s not the way a role model should be managing a student. “

A bullying teacher doesn’t just threaten to knock a student’s self-confidence, he can destroy a kid’s confidence in his school. “Teachers are supposed to make students feel safe,” Dr. Haber says. When school becomes a fearful environment because of a teacher, students suddenly think ‘well who can I trust then?’”

In Artuz’ case, his phone was best bet. It’s possible nobody would have listened if they didn’t see it firsthand. “When you watch a video like that live, it really creates a different image than if you were to just hear about,” says Dr. Haber.  It’s a powerful defense, especially for students who don’t feel their complaints would be recognized otherwise. It also sends a message to teachers: watch how you speak to your students, someone might be taping you.

Watch video here:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/133858078.html

“Mom faults authorities in suicide of daughter who tweeted about abuse”

Taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/us/texas-teen-suicide/index.html?hpt=ju_c1

November 16, 2011

The mother of a Texas teen who killed herself after reportedly sending more than 140 tweets detailing years of sexual abuse spoke out on Tuesday, faulting law enforcement for failing her daughter.

Before 18-year-old Ashley Billasano took her life last week, she poured her heart out on Twitter. She reportedly sent 144 messages in six hours, touching on allegations of sexual abuse, the pain it caused and her long struggle for justice. According to one tweet, the final straw for Billasano was a phone call telling her it was unlikely her alleged abuser would ever be prosecuted, according to the Houston Chronicle.

By Tuesday, Billasano’s Twitter messages had been removed. ”She gave up. She felt like nothing was ever going to happen, nobody was ever going to believe her,” Billasano’s mother, Tiffany Ruiz Leskinen, told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. ”It was almost as if they were treating her like she was the one under investigation instead of her being the victim. She felt like they were really insensitive to what had gone on,” she said, referring to officials working the case. “They say that they did what they could to protect her, but they let her back into the home where she was abused.” Billasano was not living with her mother at the time of her death.

However, Dayna Blazey, assistant district attorney at the Travis County district attorney’s office, defended authorities’ handling of the investigation. She told CNN’s Baldwin that she was not aware of anyone in her jurisdiction telling Billasano a criminal case was not being pursued. ”The status of the case is that it’s still open; it’s still pending. At this point, what we have to do is we have to go back and we have to look at the evidence that we have in this case, in light of knowing that Ashley is not going to be available to testify,” Blazey said. “Our hearts go out to Ashley and her family.”

Similarly, Texas Child and Protective Services said that it was looking into Billasano’s case. ”Earlier this year, Child Protective Services (CPS) conducted a thorough, five-month investigation, interviewing 11 individuals who we believed might have had relevant information to share with us. As a result of that investigation, we were unable to confirm that abuse had occurred,” spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in a statement. ”However, because of Ashley’s death, we are taking a second look at the case and our focus will be to ensure that any remaining children in the household are free from abuse,” he said, confirming that her death was a suicide.

On Tuesday, Billasano’s mother described her daughter as beautiful, outgoing and loving. ”She was really accepting and driven. She knew what she wanted out of life,” said Ruiz Leskinen. She said her daughter had dealt with bullying and bulimia and was sexually abused for years by a man who “was supposed to be the very one to protect her.” Before her torrent of tweets, Billasano had struggled to talk about the abuse, her mother said, in part because she feared no one would believe her.

Shortly before killing herself, Billasano addressed a message to anyone paying attention to her Twitter account, according to the Houston Chronicle. ”That’s the story of how I came to be who I am,” she wrote, the paper reported. “Well, the condensed version. I’d love to hear what you have to say. But I won’t be around.”

“Court blocks Alabama from checking student status”

Taken from: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QC8DBG0.htm

October 14, 2011

A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a key part of Alabama’s law that requires schools to check the immigration status of students, temporarily weakening what was considered the toughest immigration law in the nation.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also blocked a part of the law that allows authorities to charge immigrants who do not carry documents proving their legal status. The three-judge panel let stand a provision that allows police to detain immigrants that are suspected of being in the country illegally.

The decision doled out partial victories to both sides of the law. It also let stand other provisions that barred state courts from enforcing contracts involving illegal immigrants and make it a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state for basic things like obtaining drivers licenses.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who championed the law, said the “most effectual parts” of the law will remain in place. ”We’ve said from the beginning that Alabama will have a strict immigration law and we will enforce it. Alabama will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, and this ruling reinforces that.”

The advocacy groups who challenged the law said they were hopeful the panel would block the remainder of the law within months after they review more arguments from both sides. ”I think that certainly it’s a better situation today for the people of Alabama today than it was yesterday,” said Omar Jadwat, an attorney for the ACLU, which challenged the law along with the Obama administration. “Obviously we remain concerned about the remainder of the provisions, and we remain confident that we will eventually get the whole scheme blocked.”

Alabama Republicans have long sought to clamp down on illegal immigration and passed the law earlier this year after gaining control of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed the measure, saying it was crucial to protect the jobs of legal residents amid the tough economy and high unemployment.

The law has already had a deep impact in Alabama since a federal judge upheld much of it in late September. Many frightened Hispanics have been driven away from Alabama, fearing they could be arrested or targeted by police. Construction workers, landscapers and field hands have stopped showing up for work, and large numbers of Hispanic students have been absent from public schools. To cope with the labor shortage, Alabama agriculture commissioner John McMillan at one point suggested farmers should consider hiring inmates in the state’s work-release program. It’s not clear exactly how many Hispanics have fled the state. Earlier this week, many skipped work to protest the law, shuttering or scaling back operations at chicken plants, Mexican restaurants and other businesses.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Alabama over the past decade as the Hispanic population has grown by 145 percent to about 185,600 people, most of them of Mexican origin. The Hispanic population represents about 4 percent of the state’s 4.7 million people, but some counties in north Alabama have large Spanish-speaking communities and schools where most of the students are Hispanic.

Requiring school officials to check the immigration status of students in public schools helped make the Alabama law stricter than similar measures enacted in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. Federal judges in those states have blocked all or parts of those laws.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this year asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the legal fight over her state’s tough immigration law. The Justice Department called the Alabama law a “sweeping new state regime” in court filings last week and urged the appeals court to forbid states from creating a patchwork of immigration policies. The agency also said the law could strain diplomatic relations with Latin American countries, who have warned the law could impact millions of workers, tourists and students in the U.S. ”Other states and their citizens are poorly served by the Alabama policy, which seeks to drive aliens from Alabama rather than achieve cooperation with the federal government to resolve a national problem,” the attorneys have said in court documents.

Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said Friday before the ruling that a team of attorneys is in Alabama trying to determine whether the law was leading to civil rights violations. The school requirement was an area of particular worry, and the federal government is trying to determine how many absentees and withdrawals might be linked to the law, Perez said. ”We’re hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we’re studying,” he said after a meeting with leaders and advocates for the Hispanic community.

Legal experts are closely watching the Alabama case, which they say has the potential to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m not convinced that the Supreme Court is going to take it up. But it depends on how 11th Circuit will rule in this case,” said Charles Kuck, a Georgia attorney who is the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “They are holding the key hand here. But you just never know.”

“Dealing with gay students, bullying in very different ways”

Taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/12/us/minneapolis-bullying-schools/index.html

October 12, 2011

Minneapolis (CNN) – Jared Pettingill’s parents wanted a safe place for their son to attend school where he wouldn’t be harassed for being gay. They found that place in the Minneapolis Public School district. ”It’s just been really accepting in my experience,” says Jared, a high school junior. He says he’s “never really dealt with bullying issues” in middle school or high school. ”The amount of positive reaction to LGBT issues is really amazing.”

Minneapolis Public School administrators admit that by no means has bullying been eradicated from their schools. However, they firmly believe that they are leading the way in creating a safe environment for all students. In January, the school board unanimously passed a unique resolution instructing administrators to track bullying incidents related to the harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. The measure also requires all staff to be trained on LGBT issues. It injects LGBT topics into the curriculum, which includes adding an LGBT component to sex ed. They will eventually add an elective high school course on LGBT history.

Just a few miles away, another Minneapolis-area school district has attracted national attention for its policy that deals with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students much differently.

Neutral or not?

The Anoka-Hennepin School District, just outside the Twin Cities, made headlines in recent years after seven students committed suicide in 2009 and 2010. Parents and friends say four of those students were either gay, perceived to be gay or questioning their sexuality. They say, at least two of them were bullied because of their sexuality. The school district says there is no evidence that the suicides were linked to bullying.

Nevertheless, it stirred public debate over the school’s sexual orientation curriculum policy. The district’s curriculum policy, adopted in 2009, bars teachers from taking a position on homosexuality in the classroom and says such matters are best addressed outside of school. It’s become known as the neutrality policy. Anoka-Hennepin, which encompasses the Twin Cities’ northwestern suburbs and is the state’s largest school district, is the only Minnesota school district known to have such a policy.

In July, gay rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a group of students challenging the neutrality policy. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights told CNN that the lawsuit is currently in mediation. While the school district refrained from commenting on specifics in the lawsuit, it issued a statement in July noting that “Anoka-Hennepin has been recognized as a pro-active leader in the state of Minneosta on bullying prevention.” The school district is also in the middle of a federal investigation into “allegations of harassment and discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District based on sex, including peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes,” according to a district memo.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson says the neutrality policy — which has attracted just as many local supporters as it has critics to heated school board meetings — is a reasonable response to a divided community. ”It’s a diverse community,” Carlson told CNN earlier this year, “and what we’re trying to do, what I’m trying to do as a superintendent, is walk down the middle of the road.” The school district has a separate, comprehensive bullying prohibition policy, and Carlson said there is no link between the suicides and bullying. ”We have no evidence that bullying or harassment took place in any of those cases,” the superintendent said. Carlson emphasized students need to report bullying, and he acknowledged “gay students in our district struggle with bullying and harassment on a daily basis.”

Damon Fietek, 16, knows that all too well. He says he was a target for bullies because his father, a middle school teacher in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, is gay.

Damon’s story

Jefferson Fietek had adopted Damon just before he started high school. The bullying began immediately. Damon Fietek, pictured with his father Jefferson, says he’s been a target for bullies because his dad is gay. ”It upsets me a great deal,” says Fietek, a middle school theater teacher. “For him, being a kid from the foster system … I was just really upset that he wasn’t being allowed to celebrate the fact that he had a family now.”

Damon said the harassment went on for a full year before he even told his dad. ”Students would say stuff to me…like ‘Hey, did your dad rape you last night?’ You know, just make those kinds of jokes at me,” Damon said. The bullying wasn’t just directed at him. He says it was a general hostility toward people who are — or are perceived to be — LGBT or who come from homes where a family member may be LGBT. ”I pulled him out of [that school],” Fietek said.

Damon now attends another school in the Anoka-Hennepin district with smaller class sizes. He says he hasn’t had any problems. Fietek, an adviser to his school’s Gay Straight Alliance, says when he first started working at the school, several teachers suggested he keep his sexuality to himself for his own job security. He decided it didn’t make sense to keep quiet. Risking his job is a gamble he says he has to take because the issue is too important. ”I just compare it to what these kids’ personal stories are, and they’ve got stories far worse than anything that’s happening to me,” Fietek said.

In his adviser role, Fietek says he receives phone calls, texts and Facebook messages several times a week from students who feel like they are at a dead end because of bullying or uncertainty regarding their sexuality. Fietek believes the school district’s neutrality policy has indirectly taken the side of the bullies by not supporting these kids. ”Some of the things we’ve put in place [have] just created a scary environment,” Fietek said.

Making it better

James C. Burroughs II used to bully kids when he was in school, calling other boys “gay” for no particular reason. Jared Pettingill says he hasn’t experienced any bullying at his Minneapolis high school ”If you did something on the athletic field that wasn’t masculine or manly, you’d use the term ‘that’s gay’ or the ‘f’ word — the other ‘f’ word,” Burroughs recalled.

Today, Burroughs is the director of Minneapolis School District’s Office of Equity and Diversity, which seeks to “integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion into all aspects” of the school district. Burroughs says his past is why he believes so passionately in putting an end to bullying, particularly of students who are perceived to be gay. ”What’s important for me is acknowledging that that happened and making it better for another generation of students,” Burroughs said.

The Minneapolis School District has taken many steps to address the issue of bullying LGBT students, including training its staff on tracking bullying of these students, injecting LGBT topics into the curriculum, hosting an “Out4Good” LGBT support program, and implementing a bullying prevention curriculum called Second Step. ”It’s very special,” Burroughs said. “I think we’re a national leader when it comes to making sure that students and families in the school system K-12 are being treated and valued equally amongst all students.” Anti-bullying curriculum is woven into subjects like math, history and literature throughout each day, and staff from the teachers to the bus drivers are trained on how to create role play scenarios, says coordinator Julie Young-Burns. Ultimately it comes down to how each teacher feels they’re best able to infuse the lessons into their already planned lessons on other topics, she says.

High school junior Jared Pettingill says he notices bits and pieces of an LGBT inclusive curriculum on a regular basis. ”In my English class right now, at the end of the year we’re gonna be reading a book called ‘Giovanni’s Room,’ which is all about a bisexual character living in Paris, and it hinges on a lot of his relationships,” he said. ” And there are a couple of other books like that that deal with lesbianism.”

His parents support the school’s proactive stance in teaching tolerance and offering support of LGBT students like their son. However, they say any policy is ultimately “a piece of paper” that won’t work unless the message is embraced by everyone.”It is our public officials, it’s our media, it is each of us individually saying it’s not OK to be hurtful to somebody else,” said Marie Pettingill.”Whether its LGBT or other issues kids experience, they should be able to be safe, and we shouldn’t have to even think that we have to talk about that. Kids should be safe.”