Press the “Bully Button”

A school in California is using technology to combat bullying. No, it doesn’t involve security cameras or anything like that. The school placed a “Bully Button” on its already existing app. Students (and parents, and other adults) can use it to report bullying anonymously. Nobody likes a bully. Despite this, there always seem to be some out there searching for someone to pick on. One of the problems with bullying in high school is that students become fearful of reporting it to school counselors or other staff. The concern many students have is that there is potential that the bully … Continue reading

Study Connects Allergies to Bullying

Two recently published studies connect bullying to things that parents might not immediately think would make a child a target for a bully. The studies found that kids with food allergies, and kids who are overweight, are especially likely to get bullied. You might want to talk with your kids to see if this is something they are experiencing at school. Much has been said of the negative impact that bullies have on the peers that they target. It happens at school, on the playground, and across the internet. Sadly, there have been several stories in the news about teens … Continue reading

The Horror of Cyber Bullying

I read a story today of a 15 year old girl who committed suicide this week because of the relentless bullying she was getting both at school and online. A month before her death she posted a youtube video sharing her story in hopes that it would help someone else going through the same thing. I’m not sure why her story stuck with me so much, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it all night. This girl was absolutely beautiful and incredibly talented, yet even in death, there were many cruel comments posted on the video. I … Continue reading

How to Handle Bullying

October is a month that has been dedicated to the anti-bullying initiative, however, this is something that should be addressed continually throughout the year. It is something we are all familiar with, but when your child becomes the victim of it, it can be difficult to decide how to handle the situation. Teach your children early on that it’s not okay for anyone to treat them poorly. If one of the kids hurt their feelings at school, be sure to tell them that just because someone said something mean about them doesn’t make it true. Let them know that it … Continue reading

Preventing Cyber Bullying

Unsupervised kids and the internet are a bad combination. As a single mother it’s almost impossible to watch your child every second they are on the computer. Somehow, we must, until they are old enough to really understand the dangers it is our job to protect them from themselves. Young girls do not understand that people are not always who they say they are, that boy from the next town they are chatting with may very well be a grown man preying on young girls. There are many ways to protect kids online, the biggest being keeping the computer in … Continue reading

Grandmother Bullied on School Bus

Oh the lessons you can learn on a school bus. Lesson #1: Don’t bully an innocent grandmother/bus monitor, and then smirk as someone shoots video of you in the act. Because… Lesson #2: The chances of said video going viral are astronomical and… Lesson #3: The chances of said grandmother having the last laugh are even greater. Just ask Karen Klein. The 68-year-old grandmother from upstate New York has endured plenty of pain in her life, including the death of her beloved husband and the tragic loss of her son to suicide. However, it took a bus full of tweenage … Continue reading

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – May 27 – June 2, 2012

Once a week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review brings you a quick summary of each of the blogs that appeared here in the past week. It gives you an easy way to find the ones that you missed, or that you didn’t have time to read the first time around. The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on May 28, 2012. This week, I’d like to point out an episode by FAQAutism. The episode is called “End-of-the-School-Year-Blues”. It discusses how the changes that occur at the end of the school year alter the usual, expected, routine of the … Continue reading

End-of-the-School-Year Bliss

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Sing it with me. No more pencils, no more books, no more dragging kids out of bed, no more making lunches at 5 a.m., no more threatening children to finish their homework, no more last-minute scrambles to find missing socks and backpacks while the school bus sits at the end of the driveway… I’m done. Thank goodness, the end of the school year is just around the corner. Thankful. Thankful. Thankful. That’s me. While some parents are cursing the end of the academic year, I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I’m not … Continue reading

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – April 22 – 28, 2012

Once a week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review gives you a quick review of all of the blogs that appeared in the past seven days. This is a great way to catch up on the blogs that you wanted to read, but didn’t have time for. What did you miss this week? The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on April 23, 2012. This week, I’d like to point out an episode of NPR’s “Morning Edition” that is titled: “Children With Autism Are Often Targeted By Bullies”. A survey by the Interactive Autism Network found that almost two-thirds … Continue reading

How a Father Discovered Teachers Were Bullying His Son

A father of a child who has autism started getting notes sent home from school with his child. The notes said that his son had violent outbursts at school. The son couldn’t tell his father what was going on, so the father put a recording device into his son’s pocket before sending him to school. It turned out he was being bullied by his teachers. Stuart Chaifetz is a single parent. His son, Akian, is ten years old and has autism. Akian, like many kids who have an autism spectrum disorder, has difficulties with verbal communication. Therefore, Akian couldn’t simply … Continue reading