Loser

Click to edit Master subtitle style Why bullying is everyones problem. 4/29/12

uxland lost a young life to a senseless, shameful tragedy last week. By all accounts, Kenneth Weishuhn was a kind-hearted, fun-loving teenage , always looking to make others smile. But when the South O'Brien High School 14-year-old told friends he was gay, the harassment and bullying gan. It didn't let up until he took his own life.

dly, Kenneth's story is far from unique. Boys and girls across Iowa and beyond are targeted every day. In this case sexual orientation appears to e played a role, but we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike. No sense can be made of these actions.

w our community and region must face this stark reality: We are all to blame. We have not done enough. Not nearly enough.

s is not a failure of one group of kids, one school, one town, one county or one geographic area. Rather, it exposes a fundamental flaw in our iety, one that has deep-seated roots. Until now, it has been too difficult, inconvenient -- maybe even painful -- to address. But we can't keep king away.

Kenneth's case, the warnings were everywhere. We saw it happen in other communities, now it has hit home. Undoubtedly, it wasn't the first life to bullying here, but we can strive to make it the last.

documentary "Bully," which depicts the bullying of an East Middle School student, opened in Sioux City on Friday. We urge everyone to see it. At core, it is a heart-breaking tale of how far we have yet to go. Despite its award-winning, proactive policies, we see there is still much work to be e in Sioux City schools.

perintendent Paul Gausman is absolutely correct when he says "it takes all of us to solve the problem." But schools must be at the forefront of our tle against bullying.

ux City must continue to strengthen its resolve and its policies. Clearly, South O'Brien High School needs to alter its approach. We urge perintendent Dan Moore to rethink his stance that "we have all the things in place to deal with it." It should be evident that is simply not the case.

uth O'Brien isn't the only school that needs help. A Journal Des Moines bureau report last year demonstrated that too many schools don't take ying seriously. According to that report, Iowa school districts, on average, reported less than 2 percent of their students had been bullied in any en year since the state passed its anti-bullying law in 2007. That statistic belies the actual depth of this problem, and in response the Iowa partment of Education will implement a more comprehensive anti-bullying and harassment policy in the 2012-13 school year.

as Gausman and Nate Monson, director of Iowa Safe Schools, are quick to remind us, this is more than a school problem. If we want to eradicate ying in our community, we can't rely on schools alone.

need to support local agencies like the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention and national efforts like the one described at stopbullying.gov. lying takes many forms, some of them - Internet, Facebook, cell phone - more subtle than others. Parents should monitor the cell phone and ernet usage of their children. All public and private institutions need to do more to demonstrate that bullying is simply unacceptable in our kplaces and in our homes. We need to educate ourselves and others.

me in our community will say bullying is simply a part of life. If no one is physically hurt, they will say, what's the big deal? It's just boys being s and girls being girls.

se people are wrong, and they must be shouted down.

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IN THE UNITED STATES:

Someone commits suicide every 16 minutes. More than 4,400 minors end their own lives each year, according to the CDC For each of those 4,400, at least 100 more attempt to at least once. Thats more than 440,000 in a year. Its estimated that about half of the 4,400 young people who commit suicide annually do so because of bullying. Fourteen percent of high school students have considered suicide while seven percent have 4/29/12 attempted it at least once

According to a British study, at least half of all teen suicides are a result of bullying. Thirty percent of students are either bullied or bully others or both, according to statistics reported by ABC. One-hundred sixty thousand kids stay home from school each day because they are afraid of the bullying they face there. Bullying leads to suicide, depression, 4/29/12

Steven Shepherd Brian Franklish Debbie Shaw Roger Hillyard Samantha Kendal Michaela Kendal Darren Steele Stephen Woodhall Kenneth Woodhall Kelly Yeomans Stephen Sandon Katherine Jane Morrison Marianne Bisenieks Kurt Cobain Vijay Singh Shahiri Marie McGovern

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Lucy Forrester

Types of bullying

Physical Verbal Indirect Social Alienation Cyber bullying

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20 Leading Causes of Death in the USA 2006 (CDC)is The suicide rate

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consistently higher than

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Who are you willing to hurt to have a bit of fun?

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What can bullying do?

You think that nothing youve ever said couldve ever effected someone to the point that theyd take their own life. And perhaps youre right. It isnt just one thing that any one person said. Its years of different things many different people have said. The little things add up. Sometimes you might not even think that something youve done is bullying, because it seems
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Calling someone fat, ugly, dumb, or otherwise insulting them, even as a joke is bullying. Even if youre their friend. Spreading, repeating, or treating someone differently because of a rumor is bullying, whether or not the rumor is supposedly true or completely false is bullying. Excluding someone from a conversation, group, clique, etc. is bullying. Physically hurting someone is bullying. Insulting, harassing, tormenting, or using the internet to hurt someone in any other way is bullying, too. If its bullying offline, its bullying online. Whether or not you know them. Even anonymously on Tumblr or Formspring.

like nothing.

The good news:

It doesnt have to be this way! Through...
1. 2.

Recognition of all types of bullying Reporting what you see (Bystanders can make a big difference!) Schools implementing and enforcing anti-bullying policies. Treating others with respect. Schools, teachers, students, and

3.

4.

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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Ian MacLaren
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