October is National Bullying Prevention Month

A group called Parents Advocacy Committee for Educational Rights (PACER) has hosted a National Bullying Prevention week for the past four years. This year they are observing this week as usual but have also expanded the event through the month of October. 

At the link above, many activities and ideas are provided for classroom teachers and youth leaders. I signed the pledge and encourage you to do so and pass the link along.

CNN is focusing on bullying this week, starting with a segment on bullying featuring and appearance with Kevin Jennings  and Kirk Smalley this morning. The page for all of their coverage is here.

The New York Times had an article yesterday on the topic of GLB suicides related to bullying.

I plan to post frequently this week on the topic and hope we can continue to work through issues which divide to get a societal consensus on how to address the problems.

8 thoughts on “October is National Bullying Prevention Month”

  1. Warren – a personal message.

    I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. In your journey, you’ve had to confront some hard truths, and unpleasant realisations. It must be dreadfully discouraging.

    But despite my words… keep hoping. Keep the faith. While there are such as you, people of goodwill.. hope can never be extinguished. Remember 1 Corinthians 13, and know that such as myself appreciate what you’re trying to do.

  3. Warren – consensus is only possible if you believe that being gay is not worse than being a murderer.

    This is disputed amongst Conservative Christian groups. Until they can come up with a consensus within themselves, it’s not going to happen.

    “For the murderer dissevers the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul with the body.” — St John Chrysostom

    The problem seems to be Gender Nonconformity:

    For I should not only say that thou hast become a woman, but that thou hast lost thy manhood, and hast neither changed into that nature nor kept that which thou haddest, but thou hast been a traitor to both of them at once, and deserving both of men and women to be driven out and stoned, as having wronged either sex.

    They’re not real big on tolerating Intersexed people either, you see.

    You assume that they don’t see the death of gay kids to be a “consummation devoutly to be wished”. While many do not, others are conflicted, to say the least. Few admit that, there is unctuousness and crocodile tears… but strip away the venir, and some will say “You know, he goes a bit far, but Fred Phelps has a point…”

    And some admit it, and are proud to do so. Hence the situation in Uganda.

    Good luck. I wouldn’t hold my breath. The question is, how will this split go? It’s one that is within all denominations. Will those who see the death toll as a regrettable necessity side with those who see the deaths as desirable – or with those like you, who see them as an abomination?

    It is a conflict within your religion. Those of us outside of it can only stand and watch.

  4. Warren – a personal message.

    I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. In your journey, you’ve had to confront some hard truths, and unpleasant realisations. It must be dreadfully discouraging.

    But despite my words… keep hoping. Keep the faith. While there are such as you, people of goodwill.. hope can never be extinguished. Remember 1 Corinthians 13, and know that such as myself appreciate what you’re trying to do.

  5. Warren – consensus is only possible if you believe that being gay is not worse than being a murderer.

    This is disputed amongst Conservative Christian groups. Until they can come up with a consensus within themselves, it’s not going to happen.

    “For the murderer dissevers the soul from the body, but this man ruins the soul with the body.” — St John Chrysostom

    The problem seems to be Gender Nonconformity:

    For I should not only say that thou hast become a woman, but that thou hast lost thy manhood, and hast neither changed into that nature nor kept that which thou haddest, but thou hast been a traitor to both of them at once, and deserving both of men and women to be driven out and stoned, as having wronged either sex.

    They’re not real big on tolerating Intersexed people either, you see.

    You assume that they don’t see the death of gay kids to be a “consummation devoutly to be wished”. While many do not, others are conflicted, to say the least. Few admit that, there is unctuousness and crocodile tears… but strip away the venir, and some will say “You know, he goes a bit far, but Fred Phelps has a point…”

    And some admit it, and are proud to do so. Hence the situation in Uganda.

    Good luck. I wouldn’t hold my breath. The question is, how will this split go? It’s one that is within all denominations. Will those who see the death toll as a regrettable necessity side with those who see the deaths as desirable – or with those like you, who see them as an abomination?

    It is a conflict within your religion. Those of us outside of it can only stand and watch.

  6. I signed their pledge also. And yet in Minnesota:

    The Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is pushing back against efforts to improve the climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where community members are mourning suicides by four LGBT students in the last year. The real issue is “homosexual indoctrination,” not anti-gay bullying, says MFC’s Tom Prichard, who says the students are dead because they adopted an “unhealthy lifestyle.” MFC’s campaign against anti-bullying education comes as national religious right groups mount a similar campaign in the aftermath of nearly half a dozen suicides by LGBT students around the country in the last month.

    .

    Prichard asserts that the suicide death of 15-year-old Justin Aaberg was not due to anti-LGBT bullying. Aaberg took his life in July, and his mother and friends say anti-LGBT bullying played a factor Prichard claims that “homosexual activists” are “manipulating” his death to get homosexual indoctrination programs into the school district.

    .

    “Whatever the exact reason for Justin’s suicide it’s an enormous tragedy that shouldn’t be manipulated for ideological purposes which is what’s being done now,” he wrote on Thursday. “I’ll of course be accused of being unloving, hateful, etc. But is the loving thing to encourage and promote unhealthy and harmful behaviors and practices?”

    ….

    “I don’t think parents want their kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” he said, adding that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), often the only safe space for LGBT students on campus, should be removed from schools. “It’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

    ….

    These [4] instances, plus the four suicides by LGBT students that advocates say have occurred in the Anoka-Hennepin area, have prompted calls for school reform around bullying.

    .

    Like the Parents Action League’s efforts in Minnesota, the national Focus on the Family has launched TrueTolerance.org, a website that teaches that LGBT bullying prevention efforts “become a gateway for homosexuality promotion in school.”

    .

    “Once schools are forced to include special categories for things like sexual orientation or gender identity in their policies, that has been used as leverage to get in homosexual-themed curriculum for kids as young as kindergarten [and to introduce] so-called ‘diversity training’ for high school students and teachers,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst with Focus on the Family. “So this just becomes a gateway for homosexuality promotion in the school.”

    Evidently Prichard believes that in identifying as homosexual a teenager is doomed anyway whether sexual activity ever happens or not.

  7. I signed their pledge also. And yet in Minnesota:

    The Minnesota Family Council (MFC) is pushing back against efforts to improve the climate for LGBT students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where community members are mourning suicides by four LGBT students in the last year. The real issue is “homosexual indoctrination,” not anti-gay bullying, says MFC’s Tom Prichard, who says the students are dead because they adopted an “unhealthy lifestyle.” MFC’s campaign against anti-bullying education comes as national religious right groups mount a similar campaign in the aftermath of nearly half a dozen suicides by LGBT students around the country in the last month.

    .

    Prichard asserts that the suicide death of 15-year-old Justin Aaberg was not due to anti-LGBT bullying. Aaberg took his life in July, and his mother and friends say anti-LGBT bullying played a factor Prichard claims that “homosexual activists” are “manipulating” his death to get homosexual indoctrination programs into the school district.

    .

    “Whatever the exact reason for Justin’s suicide it’s an enormous tragedy that shouldn’t be manipulated for ideological purposes which is what’s being done now,” he wrote on Thursday. “I’ll of course be accused of being unloving, hateful, etc. But is the loving thing to encourage and promote unhealthy and harmful behaviors and practices?”

    ….

    “I don’t think parents want their kids indoctrinated in homosexuality,” he said, adding that Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), often the only safe space for LGBT students on campus, should be removed from schools. “It’s sad and harmful for kids to celebrate homosexuality when in fact it’s not a healthy lifestyle,” he said.

    ….

    These [4] instances, plus the four suicides by LGBT students that advocates say have occurred in the Anoka-Hennepin area, have prompted calls for school reform around bullying.

    .

    Like the Parents Action League’s efforts in Minnesota, the national Focus on the Family has launched TrueTolerance.org, a website that teaches that LGBT bullying prevention efforts “become a gateway for homosexuality promotion in school.”

    .

    “Once schools are forced to include special categories for things like sexual orientation or gender identity in their policies, that has been used as leverage to get in homosexual-themed curriculum for kids as young as kindergarten [and to introduce] so-called ‘diversity training’ for high school students and teachers,” said Candi Cushman, education analyst with Focus on the Family. “So this just becomes a gateway for homosexuality promotion in the school.”

    Evidently Prichard believes that in identifying as homosexual a teenager is doomed anyway whether sexual activity ever happens or not.

Comments are closed.