Gresham students stand up to bullying
GRESHAM, Ore. – Students at North Gresham Grade School started their Wednesday with the school’s weekly assembly.
But when a group of students took off their coats to reveal pink anti-bullying T-shirts, everyone knew the message for the day.
Fourth grade student Hannah Anderson spoke to her fellow students at the assembly to tell them she’d been bullied in the past. She said that was a lot harder than confronting a bully.
“A lot of my friends get bullied and I try to help them, and so I’m not really afraid of that,” she said.
Fifth grader Khemren Pruganan also has experience with bullies.
“I’ve seen somebody calling somebody names,” Purganan said. “So I told them to stop and they didn’t stop, so I told a teacher.
“Hurting someone or hurting their feelings and making them, like, sad is just not good good.”
The idea of a day-long educational event was the brainchild of parent and volunteer Denise McCloud. She’s lived in Canada, where schools everywhere spend the final Wednesday in February focusing on the issue.
School leaders felt students need to learn how to stand up to bullying now because they’ll need those skills before getting into social media and Internet use.
“It’s so important early on to learn how to build a tool kit to deal with bullying and to deal with understanding how to be a really positive, connected person with other people,” said McCloud.
I was bullied, and when it happened my parents always told me "People see their own short comings and make others feel bad just so they can feel good about themselves. It's called transference of guilt." If I wouldn't have been told that, I would have done something stupid. It was relentless and it came from all directions. Teachers saw it and did nothing. That was back in 1990. I'm so glad times have changed the perception of bullying. Still, growing up gay in Se Oklahoma was a daily fight for my sanity because of what others did, not because of how I was born. It was actually their problem, not mine.
I just scanned through all of the comments - I must say that I'm astonished to see such a high amount of cynicism (I did appreciate the positive insights however...)
Maybe this is an unconventional opinion, but I think the intended purpose of this event is to educate and heighten awareness around the implications of bullying which would hopefully have indirect influence to lessen or eliminate it.
While I understand the desire to want to identify and resolve the "root cause" (i.e. ineffective parenting, degradation of family units, etc.) the reality is that kids make their own decisions every day (when to cross the road, homework vs. playtime, being mean or nice) and the best thing we can do is provide them with knowledge, context and perspective to make their own "good" decisions.
Doing so provides them a foundation to become adults who make their own good decisions.
I commend the school for making the effort.
A new team is in town. . Now who gets in a real confrontation with the bullies? Â
I find it very IRONIC that I have a child who goes to this school and has been being BULLED since the start of the year! It has been brought to there attention many times and nothing is being done!Very Laughable!
@Mommy of one T- shirts cure the problem. Ask the union
@Mommy of one I am so sorry that this is your experience. Don't give up - keep pushing until you get to the right person. There are people in this school who care about your child and what's happening to him or her. It can change and it should. Don't give up! Keep talking and use this as your catalyst for making it change. You have the right to be upset if you aren't getting action, but DO NOT GIVE UP! I wish you and your child the best.
We have a lot of lovely and politically correct stuff like this in our schools. Brought to you by new age fern sniffers.
I don't know that it's harmful, but I don't believe it's terribly effective, either. (I work in an elementary school).
I think the most effective way to deal with a bully, especially the physical type, is to punch them in the nose. That IS standing up to them, and about the third time someone does it, they're gonna catch on. For some bullies, it doesn't even take three times!
As for the intimidation and putting people down, well, it's going to continue forever, regardless of who's wearing pink shirts and learning/parroting the talking points.
Children hear/see the adults around them being bullies all the time. Politics, religion, the local news, the national news, the people filling seats as our representatives... as long as those are the predominant examples, the nice little feel-good microcosm that is public school will be exactly that. One place in the whole world where (sometimes) someone might notice bullying. Otherwise, forget it. You're on your own.
How did the rest of us 200+ million ever grow up and make it through school before this? If it's that much more of a problem now, then I must have be right in my opinion that the family unit has been, and is in decay for the last generation of kids. Missing or derelict or just plain unknown fathers that aren't around to properly help raise their kids cause ..(some).. of them to turn their anger against other children. Sure, we had bullies too, but it wasn't an epidemic. Where are the parents of the bullies?
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@feral @last boyscout Yeah, Okay, wow. Maybe you're a wealthy person in general, maybe you haven't had to work for anything, maybe nothing bad has ever happened to you... BUT... NOT EVERYONE HAS THE CHOICE TO STAY HOME WITH THEIR KIDS! It (generally) does not have to do with the "feminist movement" get over it. What is wrong with you?
Breastfeeding IS important and is regarded as such, but GUESS WHAT?! No one wants to let a mom take time to do that, especially in a work atmosphere. Our maternity leave laws are pitiful, esp compared to most countries. We set ourselves up for this, so you CANNOT blame the mothers or parents on this.Â
They're not going to be retarded just because they're formula fed. Good freaking grief.Â
New gang color
Waste of time and effort to think running around with pink shirts will make any bullies go away or leave you alone.
@podunk.2 I think the idea is to make bullying "uncool". As soon as the popular kids don't think it's cool anymore, it will stop, or at least improve.
I think it's pretty darned negative to presume they can't make an impact, I think they can. Can they make it go away completely? Likely not. But maybe together they can put a big dent in it.
@podunk.2 Story time. I went to a party on Alberta after Burning Man (yeah..) and my wife and I were sitting out on the porch when some gangsta-wannabe homies came up with their cornrolls tight and their britches on sag, looking like they were ready to crash the party or fight.
Some big, balding round dude I've never seen before came out the house in whitey-tighties and a hot pink shirt that said "I SHAVED MY P-SSY FOR THIS?!"
MAN, you should have seen those kids move right along!Â
One way to ensure the future of bullying is to run around wearing pink. Pink to a bully is like red to a bull.
Good luck, though, kids. I honor you for having the courage to stand up.Â
Am bored of this fad.
Bored with. Not "bored of."
@Mechanic no I am bored of it.
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@TheUglyTruth You obviously watch to much news and are never actually in gresham. I grew up in Southeast and am in gresham daily. Ive never been messed with one time, People crack me up when they think your going to get harmed by going to gresham lol. Crime happens everywhere, news has and always will depict places as they please
For evil to triumph, all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing. And crap like you telling someone there is nothing that can be done. You were the one kidding the fat kid and jostling him in the hall, right?
@Mechanic were you the fat kid?
@TheUglyTruth Statistically improbable, although one of the guys on the Reynolds football line with me was killed by some Korean gang-bangers (do they still have those in Portland?) over a parking place. He took "their" public parking space so they shot him. Of course, he was a black dude so, public support wasn't as forthcoming as it might have been if he were white or asian. Sad but true.