Pediatricians Tackle Bullying

Nearly 6 Million Kids Are Bullied Or Are Bullies

(CBS)  One group of doctors is taking on bullying. They're coming out with some ideas on ways to halt the violence that 8 percent of kids say happens to them every day; another 7 percent say it happens every week.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace reports that YouTube generation did not invent bullying, but has made it more visible.

Thousands of no holds barred videos are posted online. It appears the violence in them is getting worse.

Thirteen-year-old eighth grader Daniel Warburton can relate. He's been relentlessly bullied since the fourth grade. At first, it was name-calling.

He was called, "names like faggot, gay," Daniel said, "they would use very vile words."

Then last year, on the football field, it got physical. Daniel was repeatedly tackled to the point of unconsciousness by seven of his own teammates.

Daniel's mother, Jennifer Warburton says, "They just left him there. He was so afraid to say anything, that by the time the coaches got down to the field for practice, he just got up and went through the whole practice."

He told Kelly Wallace that when it comes to bullying, people don't really get it.

"They think it's just something that happens, oh it just happens, and brush it off."

Like Daniel, almost 6 million kids, nearly 30% of all children, are either bullied or are doing the bullying.

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Reporter's Notebook: High Rate Of Bullying Alarming

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Now - for the first time - the American Academy of Pediatrics is including a section on bullying in its new recommendations for pediatricians.

Those recommendations include: encouraging counseling for children and their families, treating violence related problems and, increasing parents, administrators and teachers' awareness of bullying.

"The biggest misconception in this country is that bullying is normative behavior. That this is just kids being kids and that it really is no big deal," says Dr. Joseph Wright, the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement.

Dr. Wright cites a study which found that in two-thirds of school shootings - from Columbine to West Paducah, Kentucky - the shooters had been repeatedly bullied.

Another study found 60 percent of bullies in grades 6 through 9 had at least one criminal conviction by age 24.

At the same time, the American Academy of Pediatrics says doctors, parents and teachers shouldn't just focus on the bully and the bullied. They should target the bystanders who witness the bullying.

Teachers are doing that at Walter S. Boardman Elementary School in Long Island, New York. Students are learning how to stand up to bullies.

Sixth-grader Gabriella Gaitan says, "I saw somebody being bullied on the playground. I told the bully how she felt and how I felt and the bully stopped bullying her."

Daniel Warburton made a video about his bullying experience which is now on YouTube.

He says that he "wanted to change something, tell people that's not right, you shouldn't do that."

Daniel's therapy is music. He plays the tuba. It's helped him realize what the pediatrics academy hopes others will get - that he's not the troubled one - the bully is.

[tribbyman]

You want to halt it? Make every kid read "I Choose to be Happy" at missyjenkins.com. Missy was an innocent victim, put in a wheel chair by a boy who was relentlessly bullied. The Kentucky Department of Ed has endorsed her book and it's being used in schools nationwide. Until school cultures change, nothing will change.

[mnbrant]

I was less interested in resisting the bully than seeing how bully's tic. Maybe thats my maochist side.

[ToolMangler1]

Returning to school might not be such a bad idea.
Posted by IrishWench01 at 5:49 AM : Jun 13, 2009



Hit him again, harder

[fabrat1]

There is a school in my city that has what they call a very strict no bullying policy. That's a JOKE!!!! My son just completed 6th grade there and was bullied the entire year. Over the course of the year I sent 28 e-mails, had 14 face to face talks, sent 18 notes to school and made 19 phone calls. Guess what.....it didn't help. They would always tell me what I wanted to hear and then do nothing about it. Dillingham is the worst school in the district!!! None of the kids got more than a day of detention. The same kids would be back at it the next day so detention clearly didn't help. The school won't do a thing about it!! I'm just glad my son is out of that school now. He'll be going to Piner and they don't tolerate this sort of thing at all. If the schools would do more to punish these bullies then we wouldn't have such a world wide problem.

[Brandywine33]

One of the sad things about bullying is is that it doesn't stop with childhood. It goes right on in to adulthood, and I've experienced it from elementary school right on up into jobs that I've held where people were supposed to be responsible adults. I came to the conclusion that although adults were a certain age chronologically, some if not many of them are far, far below their age emotionally. Therefore they are very insecure and feel like they have to bully someone else. I developed a saying for these people that "they are prisoners of their own ignorance". I believe in God and feel that everyone will be held accountable for their actions someday.

[Dgunner]

ALL IT TAKES TO BE A BULLY IS 50 MORE POUNDS. i BELIEVE I GOT YOU COVERED.

[Dgunner]

I was small as a child and was raised not to tolerate bullies. If I were being picked on ? I would lay and wait . When the bully came by I would step out with a large club and beat thier a--es to a pulp. This only had to happen once maybe twice a year and the bullies found another hobby. As I grew older I grew BIGGER as a sophmore I was 6-4 225 lbs. I didnt play football or basketball For fear of hurting the other kids. I did how ever let the other kids know . If youare being bullied you come find me and ill have a talk with the bully. I kept bullying ata minimum at my school and kept the parents and pta busy fighting among them selves. The principal would tell the parents . Control your children and -------- wont be thumping them and sending them home plain and simple. Times have changed but bullying still goes on . Not in my house or on my land or where I can see it happning.

[IrishWench01]

the kids will learn what its like to be an upstanding republican nowadays, having meaningless attacks constanstly from the libs, i wish i could go back to school and change a few things. i'd apologize for not speaking up more about it all.
Posted by libsmacker44 at 10:54 PM ......

Do you ever respond reasonably and responsibly to any article topic? This is a serious situation and the best you can do is make some ridiculous politically motivated quip with no substance. Returning to school might not be such a bad idea.

[mejordelahistoria]

I was bullied as a kid....till one day I smashed the bully's head with a desk and busted him open. After that, never again.

[mnbrant]

I know one of my bullies was sexually abused as a child. Its all very sad actually.

[SteelersWinAgain]

Not sure what it is with kids and bullying. I was bullied as a young child because I was shy. The bullying only intensified it. However, now, the bullies are or have been in and out of jail and I'm earning 6 figures and a comfortable lifestyle.

Not a bully myself, I can only surmise that bully kids are allowed to be bullies at home, where either the parents don't care, or if there IS an underlying emotional deficiency with the children and the parents cannot handle it or afford access to care to correct it.

[mnbrant]

yeah I think things have changed a bit. Preschool to 6th grade was a very violent place for me. Bullying was either ignored or actually encouraged by some of the teachers. The tendency was to blame the victim for the abuse. I do think being picked on makes one smarter because you have to learn how to survive. I don't have kids but I am thinking it is no longer this way. Real bullying has gone the way of totally unsupervised outings. extinct. I still laugh at the outing where the kids were climbing a granite cliff face without protective gear and no ropes and one kid fell 30 feet landing on all fours with no injury.

[ToolMangler1]

I have a "but for the Grace of God, there go I" for you.
As an adolescent I was small and had thick glasses and a weird last name. I was also a stranger in a strange land. During my ninth-grade I was involved in at least one fight a week. This came to a climax with a fortunately happy (For me) ending when the local Football jock (8 inches, 100 lbs) bigger and stronger than I tried to show off for his girl-friend and started picking on me. I endured about two minutes of this when something snapped and I 'swarmed' him. I jumped forward ,punching and hitting in every way I could. he knocked me down repeatedly but each time I came back for more. I do not remember any feeling at the time except for anger and rage. I truly was not sane at that point. Finally He got me under control by straddling me with his knees on my arms and started talking to me. "If you will stop, I will stop!" over and over until it sank into my thick skull and I stopped. He then said something that was like music from heaven. "if you will except my apology, I will make sure that 'No one else will pick on you in this school".
He is dead now (Korean War) but I will never forget his affect on me that 'one' day I decided to die rather than endure anymore. I am not a 'little boy' anymore. my skills serve me well and I have and will provide for my great-grandchildren the same valuable lesson I learned at a huge turning point in my life. I am so glad I didn't have to lose it all to learn.

Children today are not being taught the core values that we were, Religion has been banned from school, corporal punishment (no matter how light) will get you arrested and defiance of authority is preached in most of the songs and music of todays youth. Today, without the upbringing I had as a child, I might well have been a 'school shooter or bomber'. Remember, "what goes around, comes around"...

[Void_Master]

Bullying is the reason for things like Columbine. Yes, it needs to be addressed aggressively.

I would suggest that once a kid is identified as a habitual bully, you offer his parents a one-time shot at counseling, paid for by the community -- with the fiat that they must act upon the counselor's recommendation or pay the bill themselves.

Second time around, kid goes into the system and parents get prosecuted for raising a bully.