Thursday, July 22, 2010

Bullied to Death

Slate Reporter Says Phoebe Prince's Death By Bullying Case More Complex Than It Seems

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What caused Phoebe Prince to end her own life? Credit: Facebook

A clique of evil teenagers bullies the new kid in school to death.
What a tragedy. What a story.


For all the shades of gray in the world, here was a black-and-white tale of good versus evil -- complete with villains we loathe from our childhoods and dread as our own kids enter adolescence.


But was Phoebe Prince really hounded to death at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts?


Emily Bazelon, an editor at Slate, paints a very different picture as she covers the trail of six students charged in connection with Phoebe's suicide on Jan. 14.


"It's more complicated than the idea of a predatory pack of kids descending on her," Bazelon said this morning on the Today show.


Bazelon reports that Phoebe was already severely depressed when she moved to South Hadley from County Clare, Ireland, last year. She missed her absent father. She engaged in self-mutilation. She even attempted suicide once before.


According to Bazelon's fact-finding mission, the first attempt was prompted by Phoebe's breakup with a senior (now facing charges of statutory rape as well as civil rights violations in the wake of her death). And the bullying that followed may not have been systematic or orchestrated as earlier news reports suggest. Reportedly, one alleged bully stopped when confronted by school administrators.


Several students said they considered the situation with Phoebe "normal girl drama."


"My investigation into the events that gave rise to Phoebe's death, based on extensive interviews and review of law enforcement records, reveals the uncomfortable fact that Phoebe helped set in motion the conflicts with other students that ended in them turning on her," Bazelon writes on Slate.


"Her death was tragic, and she shouldn't have been bullied. But she was deeply troubled long before she ever met the six defendants," she adds. "And her own behavior made other students understandably upset." 


Bazelon's coverage suggests that six students face charges ranging from criminal harassment and stalking to civil rights violations, because South Hadley District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel has made bullying a cause celebre in her long history of seeking excessive punishments. To wit, Scheibel slapped a 17-year-old kid with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, with charges carrying a maximum 60-year sentence for making YouTube videos of himself lighting explosives in a field. He was later acquitted.


"Scheibel and her staff stepped in because they thought South Hadley High mishandled the lead-up to and the aftermath of Phoebe's death," writes Bazelon. "Does that amount to penalizing teenagers because the adults failed to do so?"


If so, the penalty could be up to 10 years in prison.


Bazelon adds that Phoebe's mother told school officials that her daughter was a victim of bullying in Ireland and was on antidepressant medication. Even after the first suicide attempt, however, officials allegedly did nothing to help the teenager.


While Bazelon's analysis doesn't defend the bullies, it seems to wave an angry finger at schools and their apparent problems in identifying bullies and helping kids at risk.


"There is no question that some of the teenagers facing criminal charges treated Phoebe cruelly," Bazelon writes. "But not all of them did. And it's hard to see how any of the kids going to trial this fall ever could have anticipated the consequences of their actions, for Phoebe or for themselves."


"Should we send teenagers to prison for being nasty to one another?" she asks. "Is it really fair to lay the burden of Phoebe's suicide on these kids?"


So far, they've been kicked out of school, publicly targeted and blamed for a girl's suicide. When the pretrial hearings for these kids begin in September, will the punishment fit the crime?

Related: 
Opinion: Be it Bullies or Sandra Bullock, the Victim Is Not to Blame

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This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out?

What's taking so long? This is the fight of our professional careers. Are You In or Out? "Hell has a special level for those who sit by idly during times of great crisis."
Robert Kennedy

The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.

Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.


There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.

Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
Download The Art of Setting Limits

SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR


CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer

Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.

Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.

A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.

In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.



Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT

The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:

Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.

Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women

We Must Never Forget These Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Women
Nor the Fool Politicians that used so many American GIs' lives as fodder for the fight over an english noun - "Communism"