Every teacher in every school in the United States should be required to attend yearly instruction on how to recognize and correct situations where their students are bullied and harassed by other students.

In my opinion, any school which allows this to go on after being informed by a bullied student or the parents is committing a criminal act.

This was in Georgia, so you can imagine how heartbroken we are. I'm a board member of a new interfaith organization called Faith and Community Alliance. We are planning a gathering/protest in front of the Dekalb school board building on Tuesday. I will miss it because I'll be in DC to lobby Congress. The local PFLAG is involved with this, as well as Georgia Equality.

One of the things I brought up was that children are targeted for their gender expression, which equates to someone supposedly being gay, as per the bullies. An eleven year old may not have established a sexual orientation quite yet, but how they express themselves usually is what the bullies decide to key on. I'll try to keep people informed as much as I can under the circumstances.

I am so confused. I am in the process of becoming a social worker. I know that I am by law a mandated reporter of even the suspicion of child abuse.
Doesn't everyone in a school, short of the maintenance crew, fall into this category? Where are they when this is taking place?

I find it bizarre that in a society that holds parents accountable when they spank their children (I think this is a good thing) that we send these same protected children into an environment that destroys their self esteem to the point where they take their own lives.
When Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover committed suicide on April 6th I wrote a paper for my psychology class.
This is a horrible tragedy! I need to do more.