Bullying & Videos

All eyes are tuned into the number of bullying cases that are being reported by elementary and high school children throughout Boston. The telephone number to to call to report any incidents of bullying is 617-534-5050. (I wonder if there's a similar telephone number for Worcester?)

When the news of Phoebe Prince's suicide hit the news in January 2010, the details regarding her being verbally harassed and threatened by her school-mates caused the 15-year-old to hang herself.

In this day and age with the power of the Internet, it's disheartening to hear and read the news of the number of children that are bullied and made to feel like "outsiders".

I have to put this out there, while growing up there were kids that were "picked on" but it was never done to the point or level of what is being done today. I can recall on more than one occasion, a classmate being the aggressor and them being called out and told to "knock it off" because they, too, had faults and no one is perfect.

Fast forward to 2010, and we have kids who are purposefully fighting with each other and videotaping the fights and posting them on websites such as YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo and 12seconds, to name a few.

For example, take the case in Worcester where two were arrested for beating another kid and the beatings were videotaped and thus two assailants were arrested.

If you bypass the idiotic comments that some have decided to post, it's cases such as these that cause our court system to get backlogged and wastes money.

The "it takes a village to raise a child" mentality is a thing of the past, but it does take human beings to remember to be human and encourage children to respect themselves and, ultimately, respect others.

Praying!

Meet me in JENA

Word is quickly spreading throughout the US that Mychal Bell is going before a judge in Louisiana on September 20th, and a number of activist are asking people to make their way to LA.

As posted in an earlier post in August, the Jena Six are 6 black teenagers that are being prosecuted for beating-up a white student over a so called "white tree". Read the August 14th post here.

Rappers David Banner and Mos Def are among the few that are asking for concerned people to join them in Jena, Louisiana for various rallies and events.

Be a part of the change!

The Jena Six timeline

- click to Read!

The Jena Six

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the “white tree” on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a “prank,” more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town’s police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy… I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It's amazing that in 2007, this type of "justice" is being carried out when Jim Crow Laws were abolished, supposedly, in 1965. We have an opportunity to encourage the Governor of Louisiana to intervene and provide justice for the Jena 6.

Sign the petition HERE!!