Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Push Back Project raises the issue of Bullying prevention in DeKalb County Schools - starts at Dunwoody.
Push Back Project Facebook - Twitter - Email
DeKalb County Bullying Awareness and DeKalb County Bullying Policy
DeKalb County Bully Prevention Project PowerPoint
AJC - 1,900 cases of bullying are seen in metro schools with DeKalb being worst.
CNN - My bullied son's last day on Earth
Atlanta Unfiltered - DeKalb paid $389,161 to investigate bullying at 1 school.
DeKalb School Watch Blog previous story on subject.
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Surprising info from one of the articles listed:
DeKalb County schools led the list with 696 incidents, but did not record how many students were removed from class or faced disciplinary action. The law, school administrators noted, does not require that they keep track of disciplinary measures. That does not mean the system does not take bullying seriously, said Quentin Fretwell, director of student relations.
“If an incident is recorded, an action toward resolution is taken,” he said in an e-mail.
Interestingly, when Jaheem Herrera committed suicide due to bullying endured at his elementary school according to his mother, Dr Lewis promptly went out and paid nearly a half-million dollars to Judge Thelma Wyatt Moore to do an investigation. This is strange, as judges do not do investigations, investigators do. The judge was supposed to render a final written report, but in the end simply made a public announcement that she found no evidence of bullying.
Cha-ching! Bullying pays in DeKalb!
Some of Moore's commentary on the investigation:
In Pakistan, it’s apparently possible to interchange the words “happy” and gay” — at least to one open lesbian, who is both. But shockingly, the retired Superior Court judge hired by Jaheem Herrera‘s school to review whether anti-gay bullying led to his suicide decided that students who were calling him “gay” only meant to declare the 11-year-old boy was “happy.” It’s a farce.
Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore (pictured, below), who was hired by the DeKalb School System (currently being sued by Jaheem’s mother Masika Bermudez), found nothing wrong with kids throwing the word at Jaheem.
The Southern Voice quotes Moore last week at a press conference: “The children use ‘gay’ for anything and everything. The clothing is gay, the gesture is gay, what they say is gay, and that is a term they use. Now with these students we asked them, ‘Well, what does gay mean?’ They said ‘gay means happy,’ and this is many of the students.”
http://www.queerty.com/were-supposed-to-believe-jaheem-herreras-classmates-called-him-happy-20090602/
We will never have absolute proof, but it's a well known secret among Central Office staff that Ron Ramsey and Robert Tucker drafted much of Thelma Moore's half-million dollar report. Those two men are disgraces to the school system.
Tucker already receives a DCSS pension, so why is he allowed to double-dip and be paid again, as Ramsey's No.2?
Ramsey is a state senator, has a bunch of family businesses, and was even under consideration to be appointed as a judge recently. Dr. Atkinson, Ron Ramsey NEEDS TO GO!
I guarantee he performs non-DCSS business during his work hours, from his DCSS Office, on his DCSS phone, on his DCSS computer, etc. I really hope he does not have a DCSS-issued vehicle.
Ramsey and Tucker, DCSS will be a much better school system without you two employed by it!!!
P.S. Hey Ron, how did your boycott of Dunwoody work out?
“I serve notice on the citizens of Dunwoody and businesses in the PCID, the consequences [of incorporation] will be dire, will be green. We will have an economic boycott against all the Dunwoody business community.”
An Open Records Request could reveal documents/emails on Ramsey's computer related to the Herrera report.
Ramsey and his wife's business still owe $250,00 in federal taxes!
anti-bullying month in dekalb?! oh, please. at the school where i work, gay and lesbian students are frequently told by teachers that they are going to hell or that they are too cute to be "that way" - one teacher's response to the beginning of our school's gay-straight alliance was "we don't need kinda stuff in here." anti-bullying? the name calling and pushing and under the breath comments keep coming. sadly, many teachers at our school feel that those kids bring it on themselves for "being that way." and frequently my glbtq kids get in trouble for standing up for themselves in class when the teachers won't silence the bullies. what is it going to take for parents and communities to take this seriously?
Have you reported it? Have you used the new hotline if you're being stonewalled in your school (or even if you haven't tried in the schoolhouse yet)? Also, take a stand yourself if you haven't already -- offer to SPONSOR the LGBT group's efforts. Or to accompany the sponsor in his/her efforts.
BTW, I haven't read the (revised?) anti-bullying policy -- does it include statutory consequences for schoolhouse personnel who fail to report bullying, much like the statutes governing failure to report abuse or suspected abuse?
It doesn't even matter what I may think about how quick kids are to label themselves one thing or the other. At the point bullying emerges, all bets are off. If any adult in that school, by his/her silence supports the bullying of those children, a child's life is immediately at stake. Immediately.
You ask "what will it take for parents and communities to take this seriously?" Answer: YOU.
thanks for the response; i already sponsor (with a colleague) the gsa, i have 11 mentorees (sic?) who asked me to mentor them who identify as glbtq (not to mention six straight mentorees), I report things as they happen; this year, 3 of my kids were confronted on school grounds (well after school) by a group of students, one of whom was armed, and told that their mothers should have killed them at birth. i reported it, the students made statements, but i still see some of the kids in the group at school daily. what does it take? i'm not giving up, but how much can one teacher do?
DeKalb taxpayers spend $1,750,000+ in salary and benefits for 22 Prevention/Intervention employees (2010 salary and travel audit). That is $79,000 per employee. Only a few of these personnel hold social work or teaching certificates. One of these employees taught for a few years and has an expired teaching certificate with an ethics violation.
Preventing bullying and aggressive behavior is supposed to be their job function.
Where is the quantitative measurable data for this department?
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