I take special umbrage against bullying, even cyberbullying, when aimed at kids. Read Karen's blog "Bullying Experience from Parent's Point of View" about her deaf son who was bullied at a Deaf school. The irony here is that you'd expect some acceptance and support at a Deaf school but instead the young man gets bullied. And this is without another irony, too, if you include the fact that he wasn't bullied while in a mainstreamed school when he begged to be put back into mainstreamed school fulltime the second time around.
Karen's son wrote down words or acts that were said or done while he was bullied at a Deaf school. If you read the PDF letter "Bully" he wrote you can see the exact same cyberbullying and threats experienced by deaf/hh adults in today's blog/vlog world. It's the same words and actions used today against adults. It's not just one time, as the Karen's son said, but the numerous times the bullying takes place over a space of days, weeks, months, or even years. Some are able to handle it. Some cannot and must resort to other self-preservation actions. Some are able to deal with it straight on by confronting it, especially if it's a serious one where restraining orders or arrest warrants are justified.
Thank you Karen for bringing that one up. Whether it's bullying or cyberbullying, it's simply not acceptable.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
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11 comments:
bullying at a deaf school is common, especially if you're "different", "not deaf enough", etc.
Hello, I see you blogged about my blog.
The point is the bullying happens EVERYWHERE... even in Deaf schools. Right now my son feels more accepted at his current Deaf school, so that helps a lot. Yes, it was a disappointment to me that my son was not accepted at one particular Deaf school in the midwest which led to more conflicted times for him, questioning his existence as a Deaf kid.
I am glad it's behind us now, but I learned a lot about bullying. My main concern is the emotional scars he will carry with himself into the adulthood. He still likes the Deaf community though.
Certainly, Karen. It happens everywhere. Sometimes you run into the right kind of people, other times you get the short end of the stick and get bullied.
I've done many sports, such as wrestling, baseball, and soccer where I was quite aggressive playing sports since I found them fun and challenging. Doing sports have given me the confidence in what I do today. Including standing up to bullies, which were very few to begin with.
I agree with Karen that bullying happens EVERYWHERE in all kinds of schools, and like Candy said, if you are "different". It doesn't necessarily have to do with whether a child is "deaf enough" or not. There are a multitude of reasons that bullying occurs. It is up to the school staff, administrators, parents, and yes, fellow students to work together to reduce bullying with the objective of eliminating it altogether.
You guys might want to read about Megan's Law and the story behind it. It's a heartbreaking one.
Another thing, I just learned something... will check to see if I can find that website (cannot remember off the top of my head right now) that explains cyberbullying.
That website says cyberbullying only applies to teens (or children who use the Internet), but when it comes to adults, the word is NOT cyberbullying, but cyberstalking and cyberharassing.
Ok. I'm getting off topic here, but thought we guys could look further into that.
Now back to the topic of bullying at school. I am certain most of us (myself included) have experienced bullying at school as children and we carry that with us. For me it had to do with being a bookworm-ish geek... boy was I one! One girl who bullied me later admitted that she had issues and took those out on me.
For others it could be for different reasons. I get the impression that Candy is speaking from experience judging from her "not deaf enough" comment.
Shel
Sometime I think bullying at school is good because I was bullied from someone I knew then 26 years later, I am fond of remembering someone who bullied in past. If there are no bullying then how can I remember about my childhood at the school.
Part of bullied from school lead me to be part of dominance-and-submission or -Sadists and Massacists role in adult life.
Bullying has a negative effect. The outcome could be be negative one(ie. thoughts of suicide, depression, lack of confidence, lower self-esteem, fear, etc) that can last a lifetime until something snaps. Or it can be positive when a person decides not to allow him/herself be a victim and turn a negative into a positive.
@Mike, I agree with your above statement. Bullying can have a negative or positive effect... the individual decides.
@ Shel... Megan's law... Megan Kanka, a 7 year old child, was raped and murdered by a sex offender, her neighbor, hence Megan's Law... an extremely different topic that "bullying"
Right, Shel.
I brought it up some time ago in my blog or maybe it was elsewhere.
Cyber bullying applies to kids.
For adults its cyber harassment or cyber stalking. That is, if one want to get technical.
Shel, no I wasn't speaking from personal experience.
If you go over to Karen's blog, you'll see what I said there.
However, from my conversations with other deaf/hh from mainstream and deaf schools, the ones from deaf schools tend to report bullying because they're not deaf enough more so that the ones from mainstream. Deaf vs deaf at deaf school whereas in mainstream bullying tend to be for other reasons that had nothing to do with "deaf enough" and probably is more due to them being "different"
It does happen everywhere and can happen to anyone, sure.
@Margarita Shel is correct. It is called "Megan's Law" out in state of Missouri with a certain statue being modified to include a wider spectrum of harassment. She's referring to Megan Meier via MySpace.
@ finlake, I did not know that there were 2 different Megan's law. Thanks for your Feedback!
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