An advertising campaign from a New Zealand company telling customers to swap their “ginger children” for ginger beer has been criticised on social media.
A media release from Hakanoa Handmade Ginger Beer yesterday gave “unfortunate” parents with red-haired children the opportunity to exchange them for ginger beer, starting today and running until the end of August.
“Parents with ginger spawn will be able to bring them into The Little Grocer on Richmond Road, Grey Lynn, where they will be able to swap them for a six-pack of ginger beer.”
However, people on the company’s Facebook page said the campaign was offensive.
Ross Ronald said: “Awful – who’s next? Kids with glasses? You’ve totally missed the point and have maybe created the world’s most un-inclusive ad campaign. Humour is best left to those who have some.”
“This is a disgusting but of bullying – towards children – and I hope you have some human rights complaints coming your way,” said William Robertson.
Plastic surgery will never be the answer to bullying. It only sends the message that the bullies were justified in picking on a child with big ears or a hook nose. It says that unless you do something about your looks you deserve the bullying that comes your way:
Nadia Ilse is looking forward to the new school year, when she will no longer be called “Dumbo” by her peers for her “elephant ears.”
To ward off school bullies who began taunting her in the first grade for her ears, Nadia begged her mother at the age of 10 for an otoplasty — an operation to pin her ears back.
The teen, now 14, was recently granted her wish by the Little Baby Face Foundation, a charity that provides free corrective surgery to children born with facial deformities.
Nadia told CNN that the bullying turned her talkative self into a withdrawn, antisocial girl. The taunting “hurt so much,” she told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
When the Little Baby Face Foundation was contacted by Nadia’s mother, the organization brought the duo to New York City from Georgia and did more than just pin her ears back. The organization’s founder, Dr. Thomas Romo, III. also performed reduction rhinoplasty, reducing the size of the nose, and mentoplasty, altering the chin.
The foundation covered the estimated $40,000 cost of surgery.
I worry about the message sent here. Girls have such a hard time dealing with body image issues. Plastic surgery shouldn’t be the answer to bullying – teacher intervention should.
Of course I am not referring to literally kicking bullies off the bus, but the truth is I am sick and tired of reading about cases of bullying on buses.
Children deserve to feel safe on the way to and back from school. It is shameful that the school bus has become a hotbed for bullies.
The bus driver in this shocking story should have stopped the bus and called the police:
This video shows the shocking torment suffered by a 10-year-old boy on his way to school.
For 40 minutes Cequan Haskins was abused by a pair of 15-year-old bullies in May 2011.
They called him names, made sexual and racial slurs and held a scorching cigarette lighter to his skin.
‘My son, he was a special needs child and he didn’t deserve this. He was entitled to a safe transportation just like any other child in the Appomattox County Public School System.’Cequan was left with physical and emotional scars in the aftermath of his ordeal, Ms Haskins said. He continues to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and has undergone hours of therapy.
In the chilling footage Cequan can be heard screaming and pleading with the bullies to stop but they are relentless, clambering over seats to get at him.
They are visibly much larger than their victim and he is unable to get away from them as they yell at him to ‘sit down and shut your mouth’.
Cequan’s mother, Roxanne Haskins, released the video at a press conference on Friday, telling wset-tv that she wanted people to know just how bad bullying can be.
‘I wanted parents to be aware, that when I speak out, I’m speaking out for all kids. But unfortunately, this did happen to my child, and I want parents to be aware of what’s going on in the school system,’ she said.
The speculation that gunman James Holmes was bullied as a child used to try and understand his motives for firing on unsuspecting people is quite unseemly.
Firstly, there is no proof he was ever bullied.
Secondly, even if he was, it wasn’t the system that failed him – he is completely and utterly to blame for his actions. No school system, classmate or schoolyard bully caused him to act this way. As much as I abhor bullying, the victims of bullying can never use it as an excuse to justify murder.
The argument that if we knew he was bullied as a child, it would help us to understand his mind frame and motives is most irresponsible:
Many of us need to know what was going on in the mind of this man so that we can prevent this type of tragedy from repeating itself. I wondered if he was the victim of bullying since that seems to be the thread of commonality in crimes of this nature. Was James Holmes the victim of bullying and if so, how long did it go on? I’m sure that no one may care at the moment about his state of mind at that time that this horrific incident occurred. At least not until it happens again.
But still, if James Holmes was the victim of bullying, could this all have been avoided? If this were the reason for his actions, could it have been prevented if someone recognized the warning signs and took the appropriate actions? Or am I reaching too high to make sense out of the senseless? Because the simple reality is, if there were no bullying and the only signs that he exhibited is being a loner, then this makes this crime even more terrifying in its randomness. In the days to come as the citizens of Aurora pull themselves together, we will find out more about what made this man do what he did.
Fantastic story of a father who was so concerned about his son being bullied at school that he created an app to help his son and others deal with the problem:
A SYDNEY dad whose son was bullied at school has fought back by creating an iPad app in order to help other children dealing with the same problem.
The first program of its kind, The Dandelion Project has been taken on by Apple and it will be rolled out globally in August.
Galvin Scott Davis, 40, from Marrickville, came up with the concept for the story when his son Carter, now eight, was being bullied at school.
Created as a book series as well as an app, he used a dandelion because it grows in most countries and is associated with the idea if you blow on it you can make a wish.
He said: “Some kids aren’t really in a position to counteract bullying. The story was created to make something which would get him to talk to me about it.”
The child in the story, Benjamin Brewster, can’t physically counteract the bullies so he uses his imagination.”
On the app, children can blow on the dandelion and see it scatter, while making a wish.
The project will also include the topics of cyber bullying, female bullying, and look at the story of the bullies themselves.
Luke Enrose, who worked on the Harry Potter films and Charlotte’s Web, also took part in the project.
Click here to read my post, ‘The Meteoric Rise of the Educational App’.
Click here to read my post, ‘The Benefits of Educational Apps’.
Firstly, those concerned should call for disciplinary measures for all those involved (including students, staff and administrators).
Next, they should be encouraging their children and close friends to speak out against bullying whenever they find themselves to be bystanders.
Finally, they should take an interest in how their local schools deal with bullying situations.
One thing they should not do is threaten the school. This course of action is tantamount to dealing with bullying by becoming the bully:
THE suicide of a 13-year-old boy in central Japan has sparked a series of bomb threats against his school.
Threats have also been made against the local government over claims of negligence in the case, police said.
The boy’s death has snowballed into a national scandal amid reports that bullies routinely forced him to “practice” killing himself before he took his own life, and that his teacher brushed off the abuse as a joke.
A letter sent to the boy’s school in Shiga prefecture threatened that the building would be bombed unless the pupils and teachers involved apologise, local authorities said.
Click here to read my post ‘Child Commits Suicide Due to Alleged Systematic Bullying and Inept Teachers’.
In light of the terrible story involving a Japanese child who committed suicide due to being victim of systematic bullying, I think it is worth focusing on the role of teacher in a bullying situation.
There were reports in that story that the teachers laughed as bullies tried to choke the victim. That reaction is certainly not an accurate reflection of how most teachers would react in a similar circumstance. But it does hone in on an underrated skill – the role of teacher as supervisor.
I have argued before that teachers have got to improve their supervision skills. At recess and in the classroom, they must be alert to any bullying that may exist. There have been too many incidents of bullying that have occurred in the playground at a time when teachers should have been supervising.
Readers have defended these teachers by claiming that they are so overburdened with responsibilities that one can not expect teachers to be as alert as if they were given a lighter workload.
It may be true that teachers are overworked – but this responsibility is crucial.
When my child goes to school I entrust her teachers with something I have no control over. Sure I want them to teach her well, but if they failed to do so I could always address the shortfall myself. The one thing I have no control over is her health and safety during the day (both physical and emotional).
Teachers must improve their alertness during recess supervision. They must be aware of the social dynamics of their students and any problems that may exist. I would much rather my daughter’s teacher be a brilliant supervisor than a brilliant planner or classroom decorator.
To make matters worse, the instructions to bus driver to greet students and learn their names is belittling and highly disrespectful. The role of a bus driver is to drive the bus safely. The role of the passengers is to behave with respect.
A video of students taunting, threatening, and degrading school bus monitor Karen Klein gave millions of people a 10-minute glimpse into a growing bullying epidemic.
Roughly 30 percent of middle school and high school students are bullied, and nearly 10 percent of the abuse happens on the school bus, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
But the problem is likely much worse, since nearly two thirds of the incidents are never reported, the department estimates.
Limited supervision and a confined environment make school buses a hotbed for bullying, a recent Slate article notes.
Insufficient training and bullying policies that don’t address a bus driver’s role only compound the problem, Mike Martin, executive director of the NAPT, said in a presentation last year. To address this issue, the NAPT and Department of Education developed a two-part training program specifically for school bus drivers.
Building a rapport with students by greeting them and addressing them by name can help drivers prevent bullying, according to the training materials. When bullying does occur, the training champions the “See something, do something” mantra, instructing drivers to warn the students and inform school administrators.
I’m sorry but ‘soul searching’ isn’t going to be sufficient in this case:
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 14th 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.
Any teacher found to be laughing needs to be sacked immediately. Those who texted back to the boy on the night of his suicide should be expelled.
There is a place for “soul-searching”. This however, is a time for action.
Click here to find out what happened next in this tragic saga.
I am a supporter of school uniform but not because of this crazy theory that a uniform will markedly reduce bullying. Tackling bullying can only be successful if you tackle the cause, not the superficial aspects such as this.
Any child prepared to bully another over what they wear will more than gladly move on to other areas of bullying such as weight, appearance etc.
Still, with bullying, schools are often content with giving the impression of dealing with the problem, rather than actually doing something constructive:
Some Abbotsford parents are hoping school uniforms will eliminate the battle of brand-name clothing and the bullying that goes along with it.
Eugene Reimer Middle School and Dave Kandal Elementary School are introducing school “dress codes” in September – they’ll be the seventh and eighth to implement uniforms out of 48 schools in the Abbotsford School District.
“Some families can’t afford to buy expensive stuff, like when kids are coming to school wearing Nike out-fits and expensive brands and other kids feel left out and other kids feel teased, so it’s good – now kids will feel equal,” Manpreet Badwal, whose seven-and eight-year-old daughters attend Dave Kandal, said Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of bullying going on in schools, so this will maybe help.
Topical Teaching 