Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What do you know about Bullying?

Before I went into this weeks assignment of interviewing someone I knew about the topic of bullying, I wanted to introduce everyone to the newest publicized death related to bullying. Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14 year old student from Williamsville, NY, committed suicide this past Sunday September 18th after continued bullying and torment about his sexual orientation. To the right  I linked a video from Jamey's Youtube channel. The video is called "It get better, I promise" and shows a glimpse inside the life of Jamey and the message that he has for so many other children that are being bullied today. The video was posted on May 4, 2011, only 4 months ago.




Jen's Interview
Lauren--- Student, History Major at Salem State

Q:    Is this a problem you think is important?  Why/ Why not?
            A:  I think bullying is important because it can have dangerous repercussion, and it is a topic that can affect all students and kids no matter the age, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic class.

Q:   Do you think others in our community this is an important problem? why/ why not?
A: Do you mean Salem state or do you mean my home town. Because where I’m from its really not a problem, everyone’s on the higher end of middle class well except me but I still wasn’t bullied. But my other hometown Haverhill it was a problem because well everyone was always being beaten up, never that much verbal bullying.

Q: But is it an import problem do you think its something that needs to be addressed, no just in college or in towns, in America do you think its an important problem to focus on?
A: Yeah.

Q:   What policy, if any, does government now have to deal with this problem?
            A: How am I suppose to know that..I assume there is something against it but I don’t really know. I mean you get in trouble in school but I don’t think that there is a law against.


At this point I informed Lauren of the policies against Bullying to ask the following questions.

Q:  What are advantages of this policy?
            A: I think it’s good that there is a clear definition of what bullying is, so that teacher and school officials know what to look for, as well as gives them instruction on how to report it. Because if there isn’t a clear definition how can you report it.

Q: What are disadvantages of this policy?
            A: I think that it could be over used. While bullying is overused, I think that… well think about the boy who cried wolf,  there may be more kids saying he said this but there's no proof, or kids may say something in anger and that kids is in big trouble. I mean yes bullying is bad but I mean kids need to learn that kids can be mean not everyone is really nice, they need to get a thick skin.

Q:  How might the policy be improved?
            A: Well you just gave me a synopsis (the law its self is very long), I think that there should be specifics on what teachers should do or how they should react with each situation. Because each situation is different so each situation needs to be handled differently.

Q:  Does the policy need to be replaced?  why?
            A: No, its brand knew and I think we should see how it work first.

Q:  What disagreements, if any, about the policy exist in this community?
            A:  I don’t this is the first time I have ever heard of the policy.

Q:   Where can I get more information about this problem and the different positions people take on this 
problem?
            A: well I get my information from you, but I would assume government websites, schools, teachers and maybe even doctors.

Q: What your worst memory with bullying, seeing it, having it done to you, or doing it to someone else?
A:  I was bullied when I was little like first and second grade, I was beat up.

Q: As in you've were beaten up?
A: Yeah I would come home with cuts, bruises and scrapes. When I told the teachers they just said to stay on the other side of the playground then him. But because he was bigger, stronger, and faster he would catch up and beat on me.  One time he even through my coat in a toilet.

Q: Do you know why he would beat you up?
A: well I assume that he had a crush on me because that’s what everyone told me, because we were in the first and second grade, but I don’t really know.You know thinking back what he did was really bad and the teachers legit did nothing to help me. Like one time I was running across the cement slab they called a play ground, I had a coat on with a hood. He was chasing me and grabbed my hood I started chocking feel back, hit my head. All the teachers did was have him sit in for the rest of recess.

Q: Saying the teacher didn’t react really well. Having the new policy, how do you think it would have changed their reactions?
A: I think that now it would well is taken more seriously when someone hit someone else. I mean they are sent to the principal’s office, they have notes sent home, and their parents get called. It wouldn’t have been tolerated now. I think a kid’s voice is heard today. If a kid says he hit me it’s believed unless proven wrong, rather than prove to me he’s doing this. 


The main thing i learned when doing this interview was  the fact that although its relevant to everyone out there, who has kids in school, will some day in school, that people really dont know much about the subject. At the same time, the law, although its a law and put out  there for everyone to read and be informed about, people dont really know what the law entails or how it affects students.


Erin's interview 
The person that I interviewed was Joan who is a parent and a hair dresser. I told the person I was interviewing about the problem we are studying and then asked the following questions to her.


Q. Do you think that  bulling is a big problem why or why not?
A. I do feel that bullying is a big problem going on in this world today. I think that it’s even a bigger issue in the schools today that needs to be stopped and mad a top priority.

Q. Do you think that there are some people in our community that feel that bullying is not a big problem?
A. I’m sure that there are people in the community that do not think that bullying is a problem. I just hope that there are not many people that feel this way in the community. I do not understand how people feel this way when there is stories of children killing themselves over being bullied all their life.

Q. Do you know if the government has any laws that are but into place to stop bullying in our society.
A. I know that there are some laws that have been placed to stop bullying in the past few years. I can not tell you much about them or who in government made them but I do know that some laws have been made.

Q. Now that I have explained to you what laws the government now has on bullying ,do you feel that there are some advantages to this policy?
A. I feel that this policy is great and that its important that in the law there is a clear definition of bullying so the teachers and people in the community know what is considered bullying and if there was not a clear definition of what bullying is people would all have different definition of what bullying is then it would create the problem of then how can you report it.

Q. Can you think of a time where you have seen someone being bullied?
A. I can think of many times back when I was in school where I saw people being bullied. I do remember that I was the type of person that would step up and say something to the person the was bulling the kid.

Q. Do you think that bulling is more common in today's society then when you were growing up?
A. I do think that bulling is a lot more common in today's society. I also feel that all the networks like facebook, myspace, and twitter make the mater worse in today's society.

Q. Have you  heard of any cases on the news or even about any trials about children and teens being bullied?
A. I have heard of many cases where students were being bullied by other students in their school and have even heard some case where the student had taken their own life because of being bullied for years. I think that it is very important that people in the community are aware of this problem and but a stop to it. 

Erin's thoughts on the bullying interview she did with Joan

I learned a lot from doing my interview with Joan on the topic of bullying. I learned that people seem to be aware of the problem that bullying plays in our society and are aware that there are laws that are now put in place to end/ prevent bullying. People also for the most part are concerned about bullying in the communities and feel that it's important to put an end to it. I also found that most people that over 40 years old feel that bullying is worst in the modern day society. The reason that the feel this way is that in this society now there are social networks like twitter, facebook, and myspace where bullying goes on in these social net works. From doing this one interview it has kind of made me want to go out and interview more people on the problem of bullying in the community. I feel that it would be interesting to compare what other people have to say on the problem of bullying in our communities. I would also predict that there would be different response for different age groups as well.

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