with all the news about teens committing suicide, especially gay teens, what has struck me is how so many people have spoken up. i cannot imagine anything more important than preventing another child from being bullied, let alone killing themselves. feeling alone and not accepted...many say they've shared those same feelings in middle or high school. but to think about killing yourself...really killing yourself, there are no words that people should say to cause those feelings.
councilman joel burns from fort worth spoke out and from his heart. his speech is so personal...for 12 minutes it's hard to watch him and not feel some of the pain he's felt. i dare you not to be angry after you watch this video...angry that mr. burns experienced so much pain and angry that the children he spoke of are dead because of other children who didn't think about their words and actions.
how are we raising children who think it's ok to cause such pain? it's unacceptable to me that another child should die because they feel alone or different. parents and schools need to recognize that respect may just be as important as the 3 r's to learn and maybe we need to make it the 4r's.
wwcd: find and share more heroes like joel burns
thank you so much for saying what I have been thinking for so long. It is simply NEVER ok to bully someone, and making harsh "jokes" at another's expense is that. Parents and schools need to have a zero tolerance the same as for a punch in the face!
ReplyDeletethanks casper. respect begins when a child feels respect themselves. they learn how to show respect from inside out... not outside in. when adults are brave enough to face the judgments they make and set them aside in order to be more accepting, it helps. when adults say "that joke is not funny" to another adult, it helps. "what you said was hurtful." "you are making me sick with your meanness." these are things that help adults experience what we are asking our children to do -- to stand up in their wholeness, out of respect for themselves, and enforce acceptance and respect for others. it is hard to do. just think about your own experiences.... it takes all of us together to make this change.
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