Summer Safety: How kids can stay safe from cyberbullying over the holidays

Evolving social media and new technologies are changing the way the world communicates. There are no longer boundaries – one can be connected to their social circle 24 hours a day, and communicating with friends in real time.

And their bullies.

It’s a problem that affects most kids through their pre-teen and teen years.

“The last time we did a thorough examination, we found that 80 per cent of our kids had either been bullied or acted as bullies,” said Marianne Noakes, executive director of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Hamilton and Burlington.

With school out students will lose access to the network of resources and supports provided by the school board to combat bullying, and parents lose the extra sets of eyes they rely on during they year to make sure their kids are safe from the terrors of bullies.

Summer Safety:

This story is the first in a series of three stories that offers advice on staying safe over the summer. Wednesday, find out why, in the eyes of the law, you might be better off making your summer backyard bash a BYOB affair.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t resources available.

Contact Hamilton helps coordinate support services for children under the age of 18 from the city.

24 hour crisis line

The Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST) provides 24 hour crisis line access for troubled teens looking for someone to talk to, and provides a mobile outreach unit that consists of a mental health worker and a police officer for crisis situations between 8 a.m. – 1 a.m.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters doesn’t have a specific anti-bullying program, but does operate an eight-week “Summer Buddies” program that works in anti-bullying messages and content.

“Our programs have a duel message,” said Noakes. “We try to identify signs of bullying and encourage kids to talk to people they trust, but we also try to identify and prevent bullying behavior.”

“We ask the kids if they think they’ve ever been a bully and how it would make them feel if the roles were revered, demonstrating the cause and effect,” she said.

Noakes also noted the importance of parents being aware of their kids’ computer activity.

“A portion of our training is talking to parents about it – we do a lot of teaching on electronic stuff,”

A recent study out of Halifax and presented in Edmonton found that youth suicides relating to cyber bullying are on the rise.

Erasebullying.ca provides several tips for parents to help identify and address cyber-bullying in the home. Here are a few of them:

What you can do to help prevent cyberbullying:

1. Encourage your child to not respond to cyberbullies – whether your child is a bystander or victim, he/she should not respond. This also means encouraging them not to “like” negative comments or pages that are targeting other students, or forwarding content that is targeting others.
2. If your child is a victim or witnesses cyberbullying, keep evidence. Hold onto those text messages, emails, photos, etc. as they could help identify the bully.
3. If your child is being threatened, harassed or being sent illegal content, contact the police and give them the details – include usernames of the bully, and any other identifying information you can collect. They will want to see proof, so show them all the evidence you collected.
4. Try to block contact from the bully by blocking their phone number, email or username (for example, Facebook allows you to block and report a user if they are engaging in activity that violates Facebook’s Terms and Conditions).
5. Contact your child’s school and let them know what is happening. Even if cyberbullying is happening at home, they should be made aware of the situation.
6. If the bully is identifiable and known to you, print off evidence of the attacks and contact their parents. They may be responsive, but may also be defensive. Show them proof and ask them to intervene.

Public health approach to bullying and suicide prevention urged

Bullying is a public health problem that can be prevented to improve the health of young people, researchers say.

In today's online supplement to the Journal of Adolescent Health, experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed studies on the links between bullying, depression and suicide in youth.

Between 20 and 56 per cent of young people are involved in bullying annually, as either a victim or perpetrator, or both, the review estimated.

"It is not inevitable that bullying results in suicide; nor is it inevitable that bullying will occur in the first place," editor Marci Feldman Hertz of the CDC concluded.

They suggested that teachers, school administrators and health experts "consider broadening their focus beyond just providing services to those who are already involved in bullying or suicide-related behaviours, but also in implementing strategies to preventing bullying and suicidal behaviours from occurring in the first place."

Last month, mental health experts writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal about student suicide called for school-wide interventions rather than focusing on the close friends of the suicide victim.

The journal's editors said three key themes emerged from the international research:

• Bullying among youth is a significant public health problem.
• There is a strong association between bullying and suicide-related behaviours, but that other factors such as depression and delinquency are also connected.
• Public health strategies can be applied to prevent both bullying and suicide.

Strengthening social connectedness such as supportive home and school environments, boosting individual coping skills and ensuring access to caring adults may pay dividends in both bullying and suicide, they said.

They noted poor mental and physical health among victims and perpetrators of bullying and those who experience both.

Studies suggest that bullying can have long-lasting, harmful effects, such as depression, anxiety, abdominal pain and tension months or even years later.

Lesbian and gay youth are more commonly victims, with 60 per cent reporting victimization during the past 30 days in one survey compared with 28.8 per cent of heterosexual youth.

In one study, people who witnessed bullying but were not directly involved were more likely to report systems such as hurt feelings, inferiority and helplessness.

As for the question of whether youth who are bullied become depressed or if depressed youth are more likely to be bullied, a Dutch study suggested the answer may be both.

Victims of bullying were much more likely to develop new psychosomatic and psychosocial problems over a school year compared with children who were not bullied, but those with pre-existing depressive symptoms or anxiety were also more likely to be victimized for the first time.

Anti-bullying rally remembers Amanda Todd

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. – Dozens of people gathered in Port Coquitlam on Sunday for the first annual Bikes Against Bullies rally in honour of Amanda Todd.

Organizer Tneesa Tyerman says about 50 bikers took part in the event to raise awareness and funds for the Amanda Todd Legacy Fund, which pays for educational initiatives to stop bullying.

Tyerman says she hopes the event helps people realize that no one is ever alone, and there are resources out there to help.

She says many in the community still feel the sting of the 15-year-old’s suicide last year.

The young girl that rally organizers refer to as “Princess Snowflake” committed suicide after she was the victim of online sexual exploitation and bullying.

Todd became the tragic face of cyberbullying for a haunting video she posted online that described her ordeal. (News1130-The Canadian Press)

Wisconsin City Allows Police To Ticket Parents When Their Kids Bully Read

Parents in Menona, Wisconsin can now be ticketed and fined in municipal court if their kids are found to be bullying other children.

The Menona City Council passed the ordinance on May 20, and their decision is now entering the national dialogue. The decision has become of interest as an increasing number of children report acts of physical and mental abuse.

The new bullying ordinance took effect on Thursday, and, according to the municipality, it is the first of its kind.

The decision to pass the blame for bullying onto parents was not made because of a recent event in the area. Instead, lawmakers for the city simply wanted to avoid future problems.

The hope is that parent-liability will make parents keep a closer eye on their children and start an open dialogue about bullying with their kids.

The council notes that parents who are making a good faith effort to deal with their child’s acts of bullying will not be ticketed or fined.

Parents will not be blindsided by a ticket or fine. Instead, a parent or guardian will be informed of their child’s bullying in a written letter from an officer. Parents must then deal with the child’s actions within 90 days. If further actions are taken because of the child, a ticket will be issued and a fine levied against the child’s parents or guardians.

The ticket is a municipal code violation and not a criminal offense. The first offense carries a fine of $114 and each offense after that point carries a $177 penalty.

The Menona bullying ordinance focuses on any person age 12 or older who engages in bullying. The ordinance defines bullying as  “an intentional course of conduct which is reasonably likely to intimidate, emotionally abuse, slander, threaten or intimidate another person and which serves no legitimate purpose.”

With various discussions regarding the state of bullying popping up on a daily basis, this ordinance could soon spread to other cities and states.

Do you think parents should ultimately be held responsible for their child’s bullying?

Boy gets 'bully' court order

The family of a nine-year-old Kalgoorlie boy have taken out a violence restraining order to protect him from a fellow student.

They claim the other student has been verbally and physically bullying their son on school grounds.

The Weekend West understands the boy was told to kill himself and suffered other abuse in separate incidents over a long time.

The boy has missed school because of his fear of contact with the alleged bully, whom the family say is a considerably bigger student.

A letter to The Kalgoorlie Miner newspaper from the boy's grandmother says the verbal abuse concerned her most.

"When another student tells a class member he should kill himself, who's got the problem," she wrote.

"This young student took to spending recess and lunchtime in places where there was a teacher on duty because he felt unsafe to venture into the playground."

The order prohibits the alleged bully from coming within 3m of the boy and behaving in an intimidatory, offensive or emotionally abusive manner towards him.

It is believed the alleged bully's family has appealed against the interim order, with a hearing set for June 18.

The smaller child's family claim the school was told of incidents many times. His mother said she even spoke to the Goldfields Education Office before going to police.

"Almost every term I hear of families who are removing their children from the school because they are not confident they are in a safe environment," she said.

"Bullying is clearly rife and the administration is clearly not doing anything about the problem."

Education office regional executive director Ken Perris said the school was aware of the order.

But he said its investigations found no evidence of behaviour that would warrant a violence restraining order. He said the school was surprised an interim order was granted because it was not approached for evidence.

Mr Perris said that despite this, the school sought to abide by the order and put the student in a class away from the alleged bully.

He said this was an appropriate response given the outcome of the school's investigations.

The principal was also concerned the child was missing important schooling and reiterated to the parents that he would do everything possible to provide a safe environment for the boy.

Mr Perris was confident the school was a safe environment and that it managed bullying and inappropriate behaviour effectively.

National anti-bully scheme to launch at late teen's school

The suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley in the fall of 2011 was a tragedy that hit the local community hard, but personal connections sent the heartache reverberating through the halls of Parliament Hill and the Ontario legislature too.

Hubley, a openly gay student who had been bullied throughout his school years, was the son of Ottawa city councillor Allan Hubley — a politician with friends on the federal and provincial political circles.

'Why do people have to be cruel to our children when all they want to do is be loved?'—Allan Hubley, Jamie's father

Hubley, the prime minister's wife Laureen Harper and Heritage Minister James Moore are set to announce a new national anti-bullying and anti-discrimination program on Monday at the late teen's former school.

The program, according to government sources, will be set up through the Canadian Red Cross. The idea is to have thousands of young people trained to deliver anti-bullying workshops in their communities, and promise to reach at least 20 other kids.

"Our government wants to ensure that our young people have the resources they need to prevent bullying, cyberbullying and discrimination," an official said on condition of anonymity.

'Just wanted someone to love him'

Jamie Hubley had been a figure skater, and the only openly gay student at A.Y. Jackson High School in Kanata, Ont., a suburb of Ottawa.

• Jamie Hubley's family continues fight against suicide

His father said Jamie suffered from depression, and was bullied throughout his life. He has advocated for more front-line services for bullied children since his son's death.

"He just wanted someone to love him. That's all," Allan Hubley told CBC News in 2011. "And what's wrong with that? Why do people have to be cruel to our children when all they want to do is be loved?"

Hubley's death was part of the impetus for a provincial bill that was passed that introduced tougher sanctions for bullies, and protection for teens that want to set up gay-straight alliances in their schools.

At the time, some groups denounced the bill as infringing on religious freedoms.

Jamie Hubley had tried to start an anti-discrimination Rainbow Club at his school, but his father said the posters were torn down and he was called vicious names in the hallways and online.

Schools need adult bully policy

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education should develop a policy against adult bullying of children, the San Diego County Grand Jury recommended in a report released Thursday.

The policy, which also should cover harassment and intimidation, either physical or emotional, should be included in the district’s administrative procedures and school site safety plans, according to the grand jury.

The grand jury said the SDUSD also should revise procedures so that area superintendents don’t review their own decisions on appeal, and provide timely feedback to those who lodge complaints.

The investigation arose from allegations of bullying by an unidentified district employee. The state Department of Education found in 2011 that complaints by parents were not fully addressed by the SDUSD, and that child abuse had been omitted from district’s safety plans, the report said.

The jurors found that district policies cover student-to-student bullying, but not that sort of behavior directed by adults toward children.

SDUSD spokeswoman Linda Zintz told City News Service the report is being reviewed by legal staff. The district is required to respond to the grand jury by Aug. 14.

Frantic 911 Call Leads to 3 Missing Women in Ohio

(CLEVELAND) — The woman’s voice was frantic and breathless, and she was choking back tears. “Help me. I’m Amanda Berry,” she told a 911 dispatcher. “I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m, I’m here, I’m free now.”

Those words led police to a house near downtown Cleveland where Berry and two other women who vanished about a decade ago were found Monday, exhilarating law enforcement authorities, family members and friends who had longed to see them again.

Police Chief Michael McGrath said Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had apparently been held captive in the house since their teens or early 20s.

Authorities later arrested three brothers, ages 50 to 54. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, owned the home, situated in a neighborhood dotted with boarded-up homes. No immediate charges were brought against them.

A 6-year-old girl also was found in the home, and Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said Tuesday that the child is believed to be Berry’s daughter. He declined to say who the father was or where the child was born.

Authorities would not say whether the women were restrained inside the house or if any of them had been sexually assaulted. Police said they were trying to be delicate in their questioning of the women, given the trauma they endured.

Investigators also said Tuesday that they had no record of any tips or calls about criminal activity at the house in the years after the victims vanished, but that they were still checking their records.

However, two neighbors said they were alarmed enough by what they saw at the house to call police on two occasions.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. “But they didn’t take it seriously,” she said.

Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro’s house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. “They walked to side of the house and then left,” he said.

Neighbors also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighborhood playground. And Cintron said she once saw a little girl looking out of the attic window of the house.

The three women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and reunited with relatives. A photo released by Berry’s family showed her smiling with an arm around her sister. All three were released from Metro Health Medical Center on Tuesday morning. Police said they were taken to an undisclosed location in the suburbs.

A sign outside the home of DeJesus’ parents read “Welcome Home Gina.”

Her aunt Sandra Ruiz told reporters that she was able to see all three. She asked that the family be given space.

“Those girls, those women are so strong,” she said. “What we’ve done in 10 years is nothing compared to what those women have done in 10 years to survive.”

Investigators celebrated the news almost as much as the families.

“For Amanda’s family, for Gina’s family, for Michelle’s family, prayers have finally been answered. The nightmare is over,” said Stephen Anthony, head of the FBI office in Cleveland. “These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin.”

He added: “Words can’t describe the emotions being felt by all. Yes, law enforcement professionals do cry.”

The disappearances of Berry and DeJesus never left the minds of police. Investigators twice dug up backyards looking for Berry and continued to receive tips about the two every few months, even in recent years. But few leads ever came in about Knight, who was the first of the three to disappear, in August 2002.

The women’s escape and rescue began with a frenzied cry for help.

A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn’t recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.

(MORE: Woman’s Body Found Under House Clutter After Four Months)

“I heard screaming,” he said. “I’m eating my McDonald’s. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts trying to get out of a house.”

Neighbor Anna Tejeda was sitting on her porch with friends when they heard someone across the street kicking a door and yelling. Tejeda said one of her friends went over and told Berry how to kick the screen out of the bottom of the door, which allowed her to crawl out.

Tejeda said Berry, dressed in pajamas and old sandals, was nervous and crying.

At first Tejeda said she didn’t want to believe who the young woman was. “You’re not Amanda Berry,” she insisted. “Amanda Berry is dead.”

But when Berry told her she had been kidnapped and held captive, Tejeda said, she gave the young woman a telephone to call police, who arrived within minutes and then took the other women from the house.

In her 911 call Monday, Berry declared: “I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been on the news for the last 10 years.”

Police said Knight disappeared in 2002 at age 20 and is 32 now. Berry, now 27, disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. About a year later, DeJesus vanished at age 14 on her way home from school.

They were found just a few miles from where they disappeared.

Police identified the three suspects as Ariel Castro, 52; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50.

Attempts to reach Ariel Castro in jail were unsuccessful. There was no public phone listing for the home, which was being searched by dozens of police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

Police did go to the house twice in the past 15 years, officials said.

In 2000, before the women vanished, Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street, but no arrests were made, Public Safety Director Martin Flask said.

In 2004, officers went to the home after child welfare officials alerted them that Ariel Castro, a school bus driver, had apparently left a child unattended on a bus, Flask said. No one answered the door, according to Flask. At some point in the investigation, police talked to Castro and determined there was no criminal intent, he said.

The women’s loved ones said they hadn’t given up hope of seeing them again.

Berry’s cousin Tasheena Mitchell told The Plain Dealer newspaper: “I’m going to hold her, and I’m going to squeeze her and I probably won’t let her go.”

Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

___

Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report.

'Make online bullying illegal': Ricky Gervais and Katie Price back autistic man's campaign

Ricky Gervais and Katie Price are just two of the celebrities who have openly backed Kevin's campaign to make bullying those suffering with learning disabilities illegal

She said: 'I support Kevin’s campaign for anti-autism bullying. So many people with autism get bullied.

'I do not want my son Harvey to grow up and be bullied and will not stand for it. Kevin is 38 and it’s disgraceful that ignorant and narrow minded people are bullying him and others.

'Kevin wants children and adults with learning difficulties to be better protected from bullying.'

Current law means that if a mentally disabled person reports bullying or harassment, police log it as a 'hate crime' but are not obliged to follow-up the complaint - unless violence is threatened. 

They are also powerless to act against people who troll from outside the UK.

Kevin wants police to be able to prosecute the perpetrators for these hate crimes, even if they do not physically hurt the person.

Melanie Sykes and ex-TOWIE star Lydia Bright are also supporting Kevin's plight. Lydia said: 'A law needs to be put in place to stop these criminals'
 

‘People who are autistic like me take things far more literally and become anxious much more easily than most,’ he said. 

‘Bullying behaviour such as taunting people in the street or sending offensive emails are distressing for everyone but it can affect those with learning disabilities far more.’

Kevin, a radio presenter from Stoke-on-Trent, is autistic and wants people with special needs to be better protected from bullies

He has received backing for his campaign from numerous celebrities including Melanie Sykes, Luke Goss, Michael Barrymore and former TOWIE star Lydia Bright.

Alongside the celebrity support, Simon Sugar, Sir Alan Sugar's son, is helping Kevin organise the campaign.

Kevin, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been the victim of bullying since he was a child and continues to be cyber-bullied. Just 14 months ago he received a death threat via email.

Because the troll emailed him from abroad, police were unable to follow up the case, saying they would only be able to take action if Kevin was actually hurt.

Kevin was so frightened he did not leave his house for three months.

After Kevin has managed to tighten laws in the UK, he wants to drive change in international law, making death threats from abroad a punishable offence.

He has set up an online petition and if he gets 100,000 signatures, MPs will debate the possibility of amending existing British law in parliament.

MP James Brokenshire is the Minister for Security at the Home office. Kevin has been in touch with him to call an urgent meeting about his campaign.

Melanie Sykes has added her weight to the campaign and said: 'I support Kevin’s anti-bullying autism campaign. 

'The UK laws must change to protect autistic people. It’s more than a hate crime and people who bully need to be prosecuted. 

POWERLESS AGAINST THE BULLIES

Last month mother Liz Crowther, from Coventry, made headlines after she contacted the police when Facebook trolls circulated pictures of her daughter Heidi. 

The images had been stolen from the Coventry and Rugby Down’s Syndrome Support group website, which Mrs Crowther ran for five years until 2009.

Heidi has Down's Syndrome and she found the offensive tweets deeply distressing.

Despite repeatedly reporting the trolls, the couple said Facebook made no direct contact with them.

Mrs Crowther contacted the police but she was told that it was not a matter for officers.

'We need to protect people on the spectrum.  My eight year old son Valentino is on the spectrum, so this campaign holds a very poignant place in my heart. Please join the fight to create laws against bullying.'

TOWIE's Lydia bright also said: 'I have never got my head around bullying. Why one individual would want  to create insecurities, suffering and pain to another person. 

'Bullying somebody who suffers from autism is even more a mystery to me. Autistic people already face many hurdles in life without the added stress of bullying. A law needs to be put in place to stop these criminals.’

In 2007, Fiona Pilkington killed herself and her 18-year-old daughter Francecca Hardwick after years of bullying.

The pair, who were repeatedly targeted by gangs of youths, were found in a layby a couple of miles from their home in Barwell, Leicestershire.

An inquest into their deaths two years later heard police were contacted 33 times in 10 years about anti-social behaviour - but the family only received eight visits from officers.

A jury returned verdicts of suicide and unlawful killing, and said the response of Leicestershire Police and two local councils had contributed to what happened.

The papers stated: 'Fiona Pilkington was driven to take this tragic action by the stress and anxiety she was suffering as a result of on-going anti-social behaviour, harassment, victimisation and bullying.'

Kevin says legal changes concerning the treatment of goths and punks in Manchester fill him with hope.

Fiona Pilkington (left) was driven to kill herself and her 18-year-old daughter Francecca Hardwick (right) after police did not take her complaints about bullying seriously

Earlier this year Manchester police recognized the bullying of goths and punks as hate crimes.

The move came after goth student Sophie Lancaster, 20, was killed after she and her boyfriend were brutally attacked in a park in 2007.

Kevin Healey has been campaigning for better services and support for people with an Autistic spectrum Condition for over a decade.

His campaign has received high accolades leading to Kevin receiving various awards including Charity Champion of the year 2007 and Stoke on Trent Citizen of the year 2006. 

He has also won the Queens award for his charity Staffordshire Adult Autistic Society and has been appointed Ambassador for the national Autistic Society.

The Bully Chronicles

My son, Jacob, came running into the house crying. He was saying something about the neighbor boy hitting him. I shouldn’t have, but I instinctively asked “Did you hit him back?”—just like my old man. Saying that instantly reminded me of how much pain and terror my bullies caused me. I felt an old, horrible dread.

I had three bullies in three different cities. The first one was Blake in the little town of Monahans, Texas. Blake was inches taller than all of us other boys. He was that kid who was the center of attention during recess. I don’t remember a lot of the bullying I got from Blake. Concussions tend to do that to your memory.

It was during recess one day, and I was climbing the ladder to lean out and grab the first rung of the monkey bars. Suddenly, I felt like I was floating and everything was in slow motion. I bounced on the ground, and everything faded to black. I woke up with a teacher slapping me in the face, and I immediately began puking. They got me to the principal’s office, where I puked. They called my mother who got me into her car, where I puked.

My parents drove me 40 miles to Odessa, where I was diagnosed with a major concussion. Several years later, an old school mate confirmed that right as I leaned out to grab that first monkey bar, Blake did indeed push my legs out from underneath me, causing my head to go back and slam into the metal ladder of the playground equipment.

As soon as that terror ended, the next one began when my dad announced in the middle of the school year that he had been transferred with Frito-Lay. We would be moving from our little oil boom town of 6,000 people to Houston, where I was to ride a bus to school and back.

That very first day, as the new kid on the bus headed to Stovall Middle School, I met “Butch.” I can’t remember his real name, but all these years later he reminds me of Butch the bully of the Our Gang short films. Butch introduced himself by jamming a giant wad of his pink bubble gum into my hair. He then took to extorting my lunch money from me every single day. No matter where I hid, he seemed to find me, with his hand out wanting my 60 cents.

After several weeks of this, I went to my dad, who became furious that his hard-earned money was ending up in some other kid’s pocket. He told me I had better not give up another dime or I would get a whipping. When I asked him what I should do, he offered, “Well, pick ya up a two-by-four, and next time he comes near ya hit him over the goddamned head!” Dad must have grown up around an abundance of discarded lumber, as he suggested this on more than one occasion.

           

Like clockwork, Butch was there the next day with his hand out. Trembling, I told him he wasn’t getting my money ever again. Butch was in my art class that afternoon. While everyone was working on their projects, he glared at me and pounded his fist over and over into his hand. Suddenly, the sound of kids quietly cutting paper was interrupted by a loud wailing as I burst into tears. My small town hayseed brain could no longer process the fear, and I spontaneously erupted. Every single eye was on me.

Whatever the teacher did to allay my fears didn’t work, so I came to the conclusion that I could no longer ride the bus. I decided to walk home 5 miles via the Interstate 45 access road, which was equally terrifying. I was so scared that somewhere along the route I wet my pants, and my jeans began to chafe my legs. This time, my mother had had enough, and she intervened with both the school and my dad. Butch just ignored me, and my dad never said another word about it.

We moved to Tyler a year later. Being skinny as a rail, I was teased and called names, but it seemed the days of being seriously bullied were behind me. I started using my sense of humor as a weapon. The popular kids accepted me as the “wild and crazy guy” and voted me class clown my senior year.

One afternoon as I was leaving government class, I heard someone shout out my last name. I turned to see a bulky sophomore named Stafford leaning against a tree. “Hey man, I hear you’ve been making my girlfriend laugh. Why are you doing that?” he asked. “Because you can’t?” was my instant reply. Stafford had weird eyes, and my comeback made them roll.

“I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t stop making my girlfriend laugh,” he replied. Even at 17 years old I was astonished at the stupidity of that statement. But thanks to Blake and Butch, I was scared to death. I assured Stafford that I would try and not be humorous when interacting with his girlfriend. But he just kept showing up two or three times a week. I had a friend who was an offensive lineman on the football team and even though it was humiliating being a senior with a sophomore bully, I asked him for a favor. I never saw Stafford again.

My son was fine. The neighborhood boy who hit him was actually his friend across the street, who is a year younger, two inches shorter and harmless. But this was the first time I had felt that fear in years and it was for my boy, because I protect him all the time. I told him that if anyone ever picks on him that he should come to me and talk about it. I’m not sure what I’ll tell him to do when the time comes, but I can assure you it won’t involve searching for a handy two-by-four.

Founder says he hopes Nova Scotians take lead on changing bully culture

Travis Price stands in front of a projection of a new website he developed with the Canadian Red Cross for Pink Day— an anti-bullying campaign— Tuesday morning at the Atlantic Canadian Red Cross headquarters in Burnside.

NSW students share their experiences of bullying in schools

THEY are the harrowing first-hand accounts of the violence and shattering aftermath of schoolyard bullying.

Students are producing poignant stories, poems, songs and posters as part of the NSW Department of Education's "Bullying. No way" campaign to stop playground violence.

One student, from year 7 at Deniliquin High School, in the state's south west, wrote:

"The bully is like a tiger circling me like prey

The bully throws a punch, 'smack'.

My eye blows up like a balloon,

The bully throws another punch, 'crunch',

My nose is running like a river.

The bully yells at me,

I scream for help."

An account by a year 8 student at the same school recalls: "I stumbled on a loose shoelace, smashed into the ground. I scrambled to my knees, things went really blurry. It was like I was blind, I put my hand to my forehead, red, and that's all I remember before Ben walked up to me and started kicking and punching me. The pain was brutal, my ribs were on fire, I choked on my words, spluttering blood, teeth missing, and bruises covering me from head to toe."

The education department hopes the campaign will not only give a safe learning environment where every student feels supported, respected, valued, but will also encourage other students not to tolerate bullies picking on fellow pupils.

"The Bullying. No Way website provides information and resources for teachers, parents and all school age children," a department spokesman said. "Many schools use the website when they are developing their strategies to prevent and respond to bullying in schools."

He said students writing reflective pieces allows them to understand the effects of bullying and develop positive bystander behaviour.

"Activities such as these may help students to connect with and reflect on the experiences and feelings of others," the spokesman said.

"And help them to understand both the effects of bullying behaviour and the need for positive bystander behaviour."

But psychologists warn that while the practice could be therapeutic, teachers must be careful that the poems and stories don't lead to more students being victimised.

"I don't know how useful that concept is," child and educational psychologist Andrew Greenfield said.

"Children telling their story is not a bad thing. But naming the kid who wrote it is not a great idea.

"I think it is fine if it is anonymous as it is an outlet for that child to let their feelings out, but putting a name to it isn't clever because that kid could be subjected to more bullying.

"They may be victimised and that can have a whole lot of other implications."

Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg also believes the exercise could be beneficial but he says schools must be careful the accounts are not too graphic to avoid traumatising other students.

"I do think it can be quite cathartic for students," Dr Carr-Gregg said.

"I also believe it is important that we have a consciousness raising generally in society around bullying because there are too many people with their head in the sand about the damage it does and the extent of the problem.

"However, if it is too graphic, then I would hope that the school exercises a degree of censorship because if it is too graphic, it could have the potential to traumatise some of the readers which would be counterproductive."

Associate Professor Caroline Hunt, clinical training director at the University of Sydney's School of Psychology, said while this could be a positive way to combat bullying, it could also lead to students being labelled as victims of bullying.

"The evidence is if there are exercises kids can do to feel like they are being supported by others, then that is helpful.

"The question is whether this fits into that category," Dr Hunt said.

"What would spring to mind with me is this could lead to them getting a reputation as a victim of bullying from other peers who didn't know.

"I guess if everybody is reading them and identifying there are other kids being victimised, they might feel like they are not the only one. But they need to have people to talk to, rather than just vent by writing things down."

A bully pulpit: Humiliation in cyberspace deadly to teens

Anna Combrink feels a haunting connection to Audrie Pott and Rehtaeh Parsons - the tragic teens who took their own lives in recently revealed cases of alleged rape and sexual cyberbullying.

Like the two girls from opposite coasts, Combrink was raped at age 15 by a fellow high school student, she told the Daily News Thursday.

Unlike Pott and Parsons, she had only one attacker and no compromising photos to deflect - but she too was publicly humiliated and contemplated suicide, she said.

"It was horrible," Combrink, of Burleson, Texas, said. "First it was the loss of innocence, the loss of feeling safe in your own body. Then it was the loss of my social group."

The Christian choir singer from a sleepy Dallas suburb said she was shocked when the first friend she confided in sent out gossipy text messages suggesting the sex was consensual.

Cruel comments and taunting poems soon followed on social media, she said.

"My entire social circle was in the choir, and I was told I wasn't welcome anymore," she recalled. "I remember they had cookies one day and announced, 'Girls who cry rape don't get cookies, and those who talk to them don't get cookies either.'"

She said her family and key officials believed and supported her, but the doubt from her peers caused her to wonder, "Did I really say no enough? Did I fight enough?"