remembering lawrence
i don’t know if you have heard of thishate crime against a junior high student who was openly gay, but it seems like there hasn’t been nearly enough attention paid to it. pop by and show your support.
xo
n.
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val said,
February 29, 2008 @ 11:22 pm
what is it with the american children these days - i cant believe the gruesome acts that happen at the schools in your country - i am so glad that my child lives a million miles from there.
natasha said,
March 2, 2008 @ 3:25 am
val, unfortunately, this type of thing goes on everywhere. as a woman who was treated pretty badly by both children and teachers, i realize that it is not america. it is humanity. people like to pick on others, and even comments like the one you made can be taken to mean that your country it better than our and we are brutal people, etc, etc, rather than really just thinking about how horribly cruel kids (and adult) can be to each other. plenty more cases of bullying for all kinds of reason will go unreported and go on to change the people involved…sometimes into distrustful, mean spirited people. instead, we need to give kids a place to go when they are being bullied and threatened, as well as teaching kids how to interact with other people with kindness.
where do you live?
val said,
March 2, 2008 @ 5:23 am
i didnt mean it as your country - thats why i said american children as thats the nationality of the children, this may happen elsewhere but no it hasnt happened in my country of Australia & unfortunatley yes america does have a bad reputation overseas for the way some schools now have metal detectors etc, etc.
Yes kids can be horrible to one another but murder is a whole new level.
And yes society does play a part in how these children are behaving whether society wants to accept responsibility for it or not.
There is too much violence nowadays, and kids see this and ofcourse then act on it.
Im sorry if my opinion is not what you thought Id say, but I wont change my thoughts on this.
val said,
March 2, 2008 @ 5:36 am
what i was trying to say which im not sure if it came across was that yes theres bullying, racisim, etc, etc at our schools here in OZ, but theres never been murder.
natasha said,
March 2, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
val, you are absolutely welcome to post comments, i appreciate it, i swear! i agree that guns just should not be available to everyone, it is really scary, but i think that shootings in schools are given an insane amount of airtime here (although not this poor kid’s one) as i said, i was mercilessly bullied and it doesn’t take a gun to cause a disasterous effect, the rate of suicide in bullied kids is really high, too. it is a huge shame. i imagine that you are close enough to your kids to see the signs if they were being bullied, and that they feel close enough to you to tell you if something bad is happening to them, and in the end, that is the important thing, and that the school is willing to be harsh with bullies. i do wonder what the statistics are with extreme violence related to bullying. usually the one with the gun is the kid getting bullied, so this was kind of unusual in that respect.
again, thanks for your comment:)
val said,
March 2, 2008 @ 8:27 pm
i agree with you on the guns - thats why im glad there is a strict gun law here.
I also know here we have a zero tolerence policy at our schools for bullying & racisim & this is delt with promptly within the schools
& our school has couselling programs, a school buddy system, and kids are taught to live by their MARBLES - which stands for Manners, Attitude, Respect, Behaviour, etc, etc, -
and i must admit that these expectations of the kids has made for a happier school life than probably what I had as a kid.
natasha said,
March 3, 2008 @ 11:31 pm
yeah, that sounds pretty good! i was talking to my husband about it who saw your comments and 100% agrees with you, whenever i said that i wondered what the statistics of violence and bullying in other countries were, and if they kept it more quiet in the news and he agreed with you that in america these days kids aren’t held responsible for their actions and aren’t punished. i personally think it has more to do with kids having parents that either abuse them or just don’t care about their kids, and then the kids in turn treat other people that way.