American Morning
A year-long look at bullying
Director, Lee Hirsch is putting the finishing touches on his project, "The Bully Project: One year in the life of America's bullying crisis." He spoke with CNN's American Morning Monday.
The Bully Pulpit
By Carol Costello and Bob Ruff
Sometimes all it takes is one person.
In the minds of many, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat in the white section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama sparked the civil rights movement in the 1950s.
Candy Lightner lost her 13-year-old daughter to a hit-and-run drunk driver in 1980. Her decision to co-found MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, led to a nationwide movement which has been instrumental in strengthening state and federal drunk driving laws.
Kirk Smalley wants to ignite another kind of movement, one that might have saved his 11-year old boy, Ty. He wants parents, kids, educators and “all those smart people out there” to come up with a plan to end bullying in our schools.
We caught up with Smalley at a rally at Western Heights High School at Oklahoma City. He was invited to speak at the invitation Upward Bound, whose Stand for the Silent campaign was inspired by Smalley’s one-man mission to end bullying in schools.
“I have to make a difference,” Smalley told the students. “I promised my son on Father’s Day this year I’d stop this from happening to another child.”
Smalley says that for years his son, Ty, struggled with a bully at school.
“He was always getting called names. You know, Ty was always pretty small for his age, and he’d get shoved, pushed here and there.”
Smalley says Ty was a typical kid with typical grades who took the abuse for two years. On the day Ty finally decided to push back—physically—he got into trouble for doing it. He was suspended from school. For Ty, that was too much to bear. On that day, last May, he killed himself. He was 11 years old.
Ty’s funeral was captured by independent filmmaker Lee Hirsch, in the upcoming documentary “The Bully Project” which documents the pain suffered by the bullied and their families across the nation.
The pain that Smalley feels is still palpable. “Ultimately,” he said, “my son’s safety rested in my hands. I was responsible for my son’s safety–I’m his Dad! It’s my job to protect him! No matter what.”
Assistant Deputy Education Secretary Kevin Jennings was appointed by President Obama to keep kids safe at school. Ty’s story could easily have been his own.
“I was bulled very severely when I was in junior high and high school,” he says. “And the first day of 10th grade I actually refused to go back to school because I simply wasn’t going to go back to a place where I was bullied every day.”
Jennings organized the nation’s first-ever bullying summit over the summer. But, even he admits it’s a baby step. Experts can’t even agree on how to define bullying. Is it physical? Electronic? Psychological? Non-verbal? All of the above?
“It’s taken us a long time to develop a bullying problem,” says Jennings. “It’s going to take us some time to solve it.”
There are no Federal guidelines that schools must follow to deal with bullying. They’re on their own. In Smalley’s home state of Oklahoma, each school district deals with bullying in different ways. It’s something else that infuriates Smalley.
“A lot of schools around the country, their answer to bullying is they let the victim leave a little bit early. They let them go home early to get a head start on the bully…You’re singling this child out! This child that’s been picked on, you’re singling him out now!”
Real solutions will come too late for Ty. But, Kirk Smalley is on that mission. He has spoken to scores of schools about the dangers of bullying and worked with Outward Bound to hold “Stand for the Silent” rallies around the nation.
“I’m not going to stop,” he told us. “I’ll fight bullying wherever it’s found. Schools. Work place. I’m not going to quit until bullying does….”
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Americans abroad alerted: Terror plot rooted in Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany (CNN) –A group of jihadists from the German city of Hamburg are alleged to be at the heart of the recent al Qaeda plot to launch co-ordinated terrorist attacks against European cities, according to European intelligence officials.
The plan prompted the U.S. State Department to issue a Europe-wide security advisory for Americans traveling in Europe.
Western intelligence officials say they learned about the plot when Ahmed Sidiqi, a German citizen of Afghan descent was arrested in Afghanistan in July and taken to the U.S. Airbase at Bagram for questioning. He has not been charged and intelligence sources in Germany say he is co-operating with the investigation.
In early 2009 Sidiqi and ten others left Hamburg for the tribal areas of Pakistan - where most joined a jihadist group fighting U.S. and coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan, according to German intelligence officials.
Sidiqi told American interrogators that at least one member of his travel group was to be a "foot-soldier" in the plot, with other members of the group helping to plan the attacks, a European counter-terrorism official told CNN. FULL STORY
Verizon says it will refund some 15 million customers
(CNN) - Verizon Wireless said Sunday it will refund about 15 million of its customers because the company incorrectly charged them for data sessions.
Over the past few years, some 15 million Verizon customers who did not have data plans were billed for sessions on their phones that they did not initiate, said Mary Coyne, the company's deputy general counsel, in a statement.
She added the majority of data sessions involved minor exchanges caused by built-in software. Others involved opening the web, which should not have incurred charges, she said.
"We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future," Coyne said. "Our goal is to maintain our customers' trust and ensure they receive the best experience possible."
Current customers will receive notification of credits on their October or November bill of between $2 and $6 in most cases, while former customers can expect to receive a refund check in the mail. Some will receive larger credits or refunds.
Rutgers holds vigil for student who committed suicide
(CNN) - Rutgers University held an emotional vigil Sunday evening as the campus grapples with the suicide of a student whose sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online.
The body of Tyler Clementi, 18, was recovered from the Hudson River on Thursday, more than a week after he jumped from the George Washington Bridge, which spans the river between New York and New Jersey.
Two other Rutgers students - Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, and Molly Wei, 18 - have been charged with invasion of privacy. The pair allegedly placed a camera in Clementi's dorm room without his knowledge and then streamed his sexual encounter online, according to the Middlesex County, New Jersey, prosecutor's office.
"Our entire campus is very upset about what happened," said Greg Blimling, Rutgers' Vice President of Student Affairs. "The entire campus is in mourning. And we feel very deeply for what happened to the family. This is a terrible tragedy."
Students and other members of the university community, some wearing pins that read "Pride," stood silently as they lit and held white candles. FULL STORY
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