“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.”

“N.Y. Mom Fired After Donating Kidney to Help Her Boss”

Taken from: http://gma.yahoo.com/n-y-mom-fired-donating-kidney-help-her-162333834–abc-news-health.html

April 23, 2012

A New York Long Island woman said she was fired after she donated a kidney to help save the life of her boss.

Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, filed a formal complaint with the New York State Human Rights Commission last Friday, claiming her boss used her for her organ then fired her “after the woman got what she wanted.” Stevens’ boss, 61-year-old Jackie Brucia, is one of the West Islip controllers for Atlantic Automotive Group, a billion-dollar dealership operator. Brucia hired Stevens in January 2009 as an assistant.

“She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery,” Stevens told ABCNews.com. “It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney.” Although Stevens turned out to be less than a perfect kidney match for Brucia, Stevens donated her organ to an out-of-state stranger so that Brucia could move up on the organ donor list.

Stevens left the company in June 2010 to move to Florida. She returned to New York in September to visit her daughter, and decided to stop in at the dealership, according to the complaint. It was during this visit that Brucia told Stevens of her need for a kidney transplant. ”She said she had a possible donor, a friend or something,” Stevens said. “But I told her if anything happened that I’d be willing to donate my kidney. She kind of jokingly replied, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that one day.’”

A few months later, Stevens moved back to Long Island and asked Brucia if she had any job openings. Brucia hired her within weeks.

Then, in January 2011, Stevens said her boss called her into her office and asked if she was serious about donating her kidney. ”I said, ‘Yeah, sure. This isn’t a joking matter,’” Stevens said. “I did not do it for job security. I didn’t do it to get a raise. I did it because it’s who I am. ”I didn’t want her to die,” Stevens said.

When tests revealed that Stevens was not the best match, doctors agreed to let her give her kidney to someone in Missouri, which gave Brucia a higher place on the organ donor list.

Stevens underwent surgery on Aug. 10, 2011. She said doctors hit a nerve in her leg, causing her discomfort and digestive problems.

She returned to work four weeks later, and said that’s when the problems began. ”I don’t have words strong enough or large enough to describe her treatment of me,” Stevens said. “Screaming at me about things I never did, carrying on to the point where she wouldn’t even let me leave my desk. It was constant, constant screaming.” Stevens said she was demoted and moved to a car dealership 50 miles from her home. She said the mental stress got even worse, with her supervisor calling her an “actress.” ”It got so bad that I’d start to tear up at times,” Stevens said.

After consulting a psychiatrist for her mental stress, Stevens’ hired attorneys who sent a letter to Atlantic Automotive Group.

Stevens was fired within a week.

When reached by ABC News, AAG referred all calls about the case to Jackie Brucia, Stevens’ supervisor, who could not be reached for comment, at either the car dealership or her home. It is not known whether Brucia has legal representation at this time.

Stevens’ attorney, civil rights lawyer Lenard Leeds, said he planned to file a discrimination lawsuit against AAG, and would likely seek millions of dollars in compensation. ”Our ultimate goal is to bring this before federal court,” Leeds said. “We’re alleging they discriminated against her for her disability and they retaliated against her when she complained about the harassment.”

Leeds said the damages sought will be for Stevens’ lost pay, psychological and physical well being. ”I have no comment on her. I’m just going walk ahead and live my life,” Stevens said.

“Police unable to prevent rising violence against gays, Emo youths in Iraq”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/police-unable-prevent-rising-violence-against-gays-emo-201307745.html

March 11, 2012

Young people who identify themselves as so-called Emos are being brutally killed at an alarming rate in Iraq, where militias have distributed hit lists of victims and security forces say they are unable to stop crimes against the subculture that is widely perceived in Iraq as being gay.

Officials and human rights groups estimated as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or believed to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone — forecasting what experts fear is a return to the rampant hate crimes against homosexuals in 2009. This year, eyewitnesses and human rights groups say some of the victims have been bludgeoned to death by militiamen smashing in their skulls with heavy cement blocks.

A recent list distributed by militants in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City neighbourhood gives the names or nicknames of 33 people and their home addresses. At the top of the paper are a drawing of two handguns flanking a Quranic greeting that extolls God as merciful and compassionate.

Then follows a chilling warning. ”We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee,” the Shiite militia hit list says. “If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen.” All but one of the targets are men.

It’s not clear why the killings have stepped up in recent months. Many Iraqis are religiously conservative and have struggled against the western influence that has infiltrated their once-closed society in the wake of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Like many places in the Muslim world, homosexuality is extremely taboo in Iraq. Anyone perceived to be gay is considered a fair target, and the perpetrators of the violence often go free. The militants likely behind the violence intimidate the local police and residents so there is even less incentive to investigate the crimes.

Emo is short for “emotional” and in the West generally identifies teens or young adults who listen to alternative music, dress in black, and have radical hairstyles. Emos are not necessarily gay, but they are sometimes stereotyped as such.

To Iraqis, “Emo” is widely synonymous with “gay.” John Drake, an Iraq specialist for the British-based AKE security consulting firm, said Iraqi Emos are getting their hair cut so they aren’t immediately identified, and therefore targeted, in the wake of the new threats.

In the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora, a mostly-Sunni area, 35-year-old Hassan is afraid to leave his home. He plans on cutting his shoulder-length hair soon, but fears that his hormone-injected breast enhancements will be detected if he is stopped and patted down at one of the ubiquitous security checkpoints across the city. ”Today I went out of my house with a friend but we were severely harassed — some people told us that we need the double blocks,” said Hassan, referring to the cement blocks that attackers use to beat people. “I was scared so we returned home to hide.”

Hassan’s friend, a man who identified himself as 26-year-old Mustafa, called the recent hate crimes “the strongest and deadliest campaign against us.”

Hassan said he is gay but does not consider himself an Emo. He and Mustafa agreed to talk on condition that only their first names be used for fear they would be attacked if identified. One of Hassan’s friends, Saif Raad Asmar Abboudi, was beaten to death with concrete blocks in mid-February in a case that terrified gay Iraqis and panicked human rights watchdogs. “I feel very sorry for him,” Hassan said.

A Feb. 18 police report all but closes the case on Saif’s killing. It shows an initial investigation was completed and “the reason for the incident is unknown at the moment because the criminal is unknown.”

An Interior Ministry official said 58 young people have been killed across Iraq in recent weeks by unidentified gangs who accused them of being, as he described it, Emo. Sixteen were killed in Sadr City alone, security and political officials there said. Nine of the men were killed by bludgeoning, and seven were shot. No arrests have been made.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity, as did many of the people interviewed for this article, in fear of violent reprisals.

The Qur’an specifically forbids homosexuality, and Islamic militias in Iraq long have targeted gays in what they term “honour killings” to preserve the religious idea that families should be led by a husband and a wife. Those who do not abide by this belief are issued death sentences by the militias, according to the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, a human rights watchdog group. The same militias target women who have extramarital affairs.

“There is a strong wave of campaigns by clerics against homosexuals now,” said Ali al-Hilli, chairman of Iraqi LGBT, a human rights group based in London that provides two safe houses in Iraq for gays. “The police do not provide protection for them.” He said an estimated 750 gay Iraqis have been killed because of their sexual orientation since 2006.

Iraqi lawmaker Khalid Shwani, a Kurd, said targeting Emos because of their alternative lifestyles reflects an a growing intolerance of Iraqis’ civil rights. ”Those people are free to choose what they wear, or to believe in, or how they choose their clothes or the way they think,” Shwani said. He called on parliament to address the issue. ”The Emo of today could be any person tomorrow who tries to follow a specific way of living,” he said.

The killings have drawn so much attention that even hardline Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr weighed in Saturday, calling Emos “crazy fools” and a “lesion on the Muslim community” in a statement on his website. However, al-Sadr did not condone the violence, telling his followers “to end the scourge of Emo within the law.”

Iraq’s government has been wary about the Emo allure among its youth for months.

An August 2011 letter from the Education Ministry urges schools to crack down on what it considered abhorrent behaviour, including allowing camera phones in school “because students would use it for dirty movies,” says the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. Similarly, it prohibited students from leaving their classes during school hours “for any reason, because they might gather in the nearby cafes or coffee shops to practice dirty activities.” The letter attributed the social atrocities to “Emo, which is an infiltrated phenomenon in our society began to appear in some of our schools.”

Iraqi police squads who are specifically assigned to protect social minorities say they are almost powerless to stop the threats against gays and Emos. One officer assigned to the so-called social abuse squads said police are meeting with clerics to ask for help in urging the public against killing what he described as “the Emo or the vampires or Satan worshippers.”

The police official said he had no statistics to show how prevalent the violence is. ”It is true that there have been killings in Sadr City targeting these young men,” he said. “It is not right to end their lives in this manner.”

“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