The Sioux City Journal in Iowa attracted national attention Sunday when it published a front-page editorial decrying bullying, after a teenager in the area who had been subjected to harassment committed suicide. The editorial began, "Siouxland lost a young life to a senseless, shameful tragedy last week. By all accounts, Kenneth Weishuhn was a kind-hearted, fun-loving teenage boy, 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 began. It didn't let up until he took his own life."
The paper continued, "Sadly, 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 have played a role, but we have learned a bully needs no reason to strike. No sense can be made of these actions. Now our community and region must face this stark reality: We are all to blame. We have not done enough. Not nearly enough. This 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 society, one that has deep-seated roots. Until now, it has been too difficult, inconvenient -- maybe even painful -- to address. But we can't keep looking away."
Read full entry »Students in East Hanover, N.J., have a new way to fight back against an age-old tormentor — the school yard bully: Report him — or her — to the sheriff, says the Newark Star-Ledger. As part of a statewide crackdown spurred by the legislature, many schools began the fall session by tackling their bullying problems in new ways. In East Hanover, children can bypass the principal’s office and go straight to law enforcement — reporting school bullies to a CrimeStoppers program run by the county sheriff’s office.
At Liberty Middle School in West Orange, students can use a small mailbox in the hallway to leave a note if they think a classmate may have bullied another. In the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District, a "harassment, intimidation and bullying" form is available online for anyone — students, staff members or others — to report an incident of suspected bullying. After the high-profile suicide of a former Rutgers University freshman last year, and other well-publicized student suicides, the issue of bullying in schools has become a national concern. Anti-bullying ad campaigns have sprung up. The "It Gets Better Project," started to support gay and lesbian youth — who are frequent bullying victims — created a series of online videos. States, including New Jersey, began addressing the issue legislatively. A new state law, called the "Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights," requires school officials to combat incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying. Included are those that occur off school grounds — even online — if they "substantially disrupt or interfere with the orderly operation of the school or the rights of other students."
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Cutting is the most prevalent form of self-injurious behavior in prison, a new study found.
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By Julia Dahl
A growing movement is training police officers not to kill citizens — even when they seem to be asking for it.
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Suicide is significantly higher among people that have had contact with the criminal justice system, even if they were never convicted or served time, found a new study to be published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Researchers found that the risk of suicide was highest among persons who had served time, but even those who had come into contact with the criminal justice system had a much higher rate.
Read the report here.
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