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Sneak peek: Bullying - Words Can Kill

September 8, 2011 10:16 AM

Bullying is everyone's problem. The stakes couldn't be higher. A "48 Hours" special on bullying in the digital age Friday, Sept. 16 at 8/7c.

Special section: Bullying: Words Can Kill
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by BullyExpert October 28, 2011 1:45 PM EDT
Here is a poem in my new book Words Hit Hard as a Fist. Balboa Press

BRIDGE

I hear your voices taunting me, as I walk down the hall.
I feel your eyes glaring at me, wishing that I would fall.

Why have you chosen to pick on me?
What have I done to you?

I can't help you don't like me.
There's nothing I can do.

BRIDGE

I was born this way,, I can't help it.
But, bullying is a choice.

It's hard enough just being me
Then having to find my own voice.

I'm sorry to say I'm not like that.
I don't want to get in a fight.

When I go home I'm still bullied.
On all of those social sites.

BRIDGE

I just can't get away from it.
No matter what I am wronged.

Nobody knows the pain I'm in.
I think I'll end it all.

BRIDGE

Sad and dark I know, but this is what kids are feeling and if I can get just one copy of, "Words Hit Hard as a Fist," into every Middle and High School Library perhaps I can save some lives? I am going to find a singer to add a bridge and some music to this poem. The bridge would talk about the great people in our lives who changed our world for the better. "If Steve Jobs would have died young, no apple computer. If Oprah Winfrey would have died young, no empowerment talk show." Something about the quality of life that we each have to offer and how we are each a part of the puzzle.
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by MicahRhumba September 18, 2011 8:32 AM EDT
jps45678: "...the abuse that she took, after sexting her boyfriend. No one is to blame for that bullying except her."

Don't blame me - she made me cast the first stone!
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by MicahRhumba September 18, 2011 7:52 AM EDT
By chance, I caught the last 20 minutes or so of this program, and wished I had seen it all. So much competes for out attention these days, that there's no way I would've seen or noticed the program being advertised or previewed in a thirty second spot somewhere, and then either put it on my calendar or set my dvr to record it. One of the things I like about PBS is that shows like Frontline air more than once, and it's also viewable online. It'd be nice if CBS gave this program similar exposure, which is probably what it deserves. Or is it just another random hour of programming slotted to bring in advertiser dollars? But I did enjoy it, so thank you. Maybe I'll find the full program on Hulu.
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by Words_Hit_Hard_as_a_Fist September 17, 2011 12:49 AM EDT
I liked the show on Bullying this evening. I wrote a book that I am praying will help change this epidemic. It is called Words Hit Hard as a Fist, With 18 Tips on How to STOP being Bullied. Balboa Press, A division of Hay House. It is my goal to get at least one copy in every Middle and High School library. The L.A. Unified School District ordered 20 copies, The ACLU is allowing me to sell my books at the 48th Annual ACLU Garden Party tomorrow. 20% will go to supporting The Seth Law a new Ca. Law that will help change the culture of Bullying. I am more than willing to team up with any organization that is working on this issue. Please go to www.theleadershiplady.tv or info@theleadershiplady.tv with questions, if I can shed light on strategies to help you or someone you love. I held a forum on the Ellen DeGeneres Community Site and was able to help many. It was called, What Can You Do to be Part of The Solution for Kid's who are Bullied. I am also a speaker on the topic. Again great TV special!
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by mandyc88 September 16, 2011 11:48 PM EDT
i want to thank you for doing a show on bullying. when i was in middle school i was bullied and no one at the school would do anything about it. my parents would go over there all the time to talk to them but they said that "kids will be kids" and that i should just deal with it. every time that my parents got involved it got worse for me because i told. i am glad that people finaly see the seriousness of it. this problem has gotten worse since i was in school and it is somthing that needs to be changed. when i went through it i was lucky enough that social net works werent that big yet. but it was still bad. i am glad that soething is finaly being done to raise awarness about bulling.
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by peacecrab2011 September 16, 2011 11:15 PM EDT
BULLYING KILLS
PEACE SAVES
www.peace-passion.org
Join the revolution!
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by Care_about_Others September 16, 2011 11:15 PM EDT
PLEASE, Don't ignore what you know is wrong! PLEASE stand up for Bullying.
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by peacecrab2011 September 16, 2011 11:13 PM EDT
My daughter was bullied for 2 hrs (3rd & 4th grade)! Without much being done by the school, we formed a non profit to help kids feel safe reporting bullying. Our program rewards those who speak up and shed light on GOOD DEEDS, PEACEFUL ACTS, and JUST PLAIN BEING KIND!!!!
It takes so much more energy to be a bully, peace is the way to go! PEACE-PASS IT ON.org

TAKE THE ROAD OF FUTURE TRAVEL- PEACE
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by CharlesBlack1 September 16, 2011 10:53 PM EDT
I walked silently, timidly through the halls and stairwells for the first time. I went through quickly and very carefully with my eyes always wide open and yes, I purposely slumped my shoulders and hid my eyes as I tried to be less threatening and obvious to the bullying kids who ruled each of the school in all the other schools I had attended each time my family moved.

The wings, the bathrooms, the playgrounds, the lunchroom, the temporarily vacant classrooms, and any place uninhabited by the bully kids were my safe havens. This I had learned many times before. It seemed the bully's felt empowered, above the rules, impervious to school rules and social protocols. The bulling kids seemed to all have teachers as good friends that knew their parents, so these bully's would shine on the teachers, get their pat on the head or shoulder and it worked.
I knew where I should be to be in order to avoid seeing or being seen by the bullies. I knew the best time, for me, to leave school to avoid a bully or the gang of bullies; often five or more. These bully's who would hide, or be throwing a football or Frisbee but in truth they were in wait giddy to extract their pains from any student(s) too foolish to realize they were an interloper and a new kid to humiliate, a new thing to draw a little a little blood, or fatten a lip, or blacken an eye.
Don't these bullies have to go straight home like me? No they never did have any urgency, no place to get home to, no mom to check in with, no one who cared that they were going to be beaten up walking home from school. Their bravery was of a more territorial thing and they roamed the perimeter of the schools like hyenas looking for a young or injured prey to taunt or kill for some satisfaction that I still have never understood. These kids are the children of the corn; they really are socially ignorant and absolutely cruel and showed no remorse or caring. If you didn't fight back, these animals soon tired of hitting me and my big new winter coat I dare not take off. The coat, you see, blocked the kicks and fists from hurting to bone. Once they were bored they would laugh and walk away, scattering my books and high fiving each other as they walked away. I was glad they walked away and as I arose I looked around and saw 10 - 15 students and several adults across the school grounds that had seen what happened. Now it was over and I did not want them to come and see who I was or my busted lips, bleeding nose, or my blackening eyes.
Tomorrow these bullies would be at the classroom door checking out their handiwork and laughing as they jeered while showing the classmates the damages inflicted upon the new kid. I often thought to myself; don't other kids have parents, don't these kids care, don't these kids understand that I am not their problem nor I am I there for their amusement. I also thought about one thing I always knew, I could win, I could beat them, I could hurt them, I was more scared for what I knew I could do to them. I was that mad, that discouraged and that enraged. It was over and God help the next bully who messed with me and my younger brothers and sister. I was the oldest in my family and they were not going through this same craziness or were they. Did they have these same problems as I did? Wow, that is too much to think about! My best weapon would be the mere fact that these bullies didn't know what I was capable of. In a reflective thought I considered, did I know what they were capable of. Then I got my answer, they were not capable of the same rage as I. They wanted a show and I wanted freedom from personal oppression and I would do what it takes. Would they? No! Didn't they know that I was, in my mind figuring out how to help myself because as I had learned so many times before. No one was coming to save me. It was time to change; time to step up and I knew it would not be pretty. But, at that one moment I knew this was it, this daily terror was going to be their last time... and I will learn how to stop this, I will find a way, I will talk to someone, I will read a book, I will learn to fight, I will learn to stop this senseless-ness madness so many students endure each day, with apparently no obvious end in sight. I knew I would have to learn to win, but how?
Note: I did learn to stop the bully's then and it was amazing how I turned it all around for me and my classmates. From the time I was eight and for the rest of my ongoing life, which I am living and living well, I did learn one thing, the bully's are always there and always looking for some way to assert their social flaws on society. We need to teach our children, adolescents, and growing adults that the wolves never leave so we, you and I must teach them how to stay prepared....
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by alk2011 September 16, 2011 10:31 PM EDT
Parents, stop talking about, making fun of and judging your neighbors, co-workers, family etc.etc.etc. You are setting an example to your kids that it is ok to judge others and talk about them and it is ok to say what you want about people and treat them however you want without any regard for the other persons feelings or having any consequences. This is where bullying starts. By your words and actions your kids act like you in school and on-line. I work in a hospital in a major city. The department I work in has over 50 female employees aged between 30 to 60. There are women who are still in school so to speak. They have clicks, talk about their co-workers, plan get togethers but don't include the people "out" of their click. Most recently some of them decided to bring snacks to work and kept them to the "click" members and did not offer snacks to anyone else. Seriously, GROW UP!!!! Is this how you would want to be treated being left out? Is this how you want your kids to act? Is this behavior ok with you? You should be ashamed of yourselves but you 40-50 year old teanagers will always be bullies since you think you are better than the rest of us. You are where this starts.
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