Bully Proof

For my campaign and product, the topic that I want to talk about is bully prevention.  To get myself more familiar on how to stop bullying and bullying in general, I watched two videos from CNN and read informational documents about bully prevention from CQ Researcher.  The first video I watched was called, Fighting Back Against Bullies.  The video shows a school called, the Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy, teaching kids how to step up to bullies with self defense and confidence.  Their program is called, "Bullyproof"  The motto of Rener Gracie, the co- creator of the Gracie Bullyproof program, is "Fight fire with water."  In other words fight back to defend and stop a bully, but not to the point of beating the bully to death.  Over 60 kids have been on the program and most of them were victims of bullying.  Because of the program, the kids have gained confidence when standing against a bully both verbally and physically.  And because of the training beoing provided to them, the bullys never harassed them again.  But the program has had a number of complaints by schools because their methods violate the zero tolerance policy.  The reporter asked Gracie how can his son go up against a bully but not go againts the school.  Gracie's response to his question was that the bullies violate the rules and when they harass the victims, they are both on the same boat.  The best way not to get suspended is to avoid confrontattion and have confidence.
The next video I watched was the interview called The Bully Pyulpit. Thed person being interviewd was Kirk Smalley, another victim who lost his child from bullying.  He is a man on a mission to end the crime that took his son's life and evry child's life in American schools in the 21st century.  Smalley lost his 11 year old son, Ty from bullying.  Ty was bullied for 2 years since his final year in elementary school.  Until one day he had enough being harassed and decided to retaliate.  Ty and his perpetrator were both suspended.  But that suspension was Ty's breaking point and decide to take his own life.  Ty was Kirk's only child.  In the inter view Kirk said, "I hold myself responsible for his death."  And he further says, "It was my job.  It was my job to protect him.  No matter where he went it was my job to protect him."  Since Ty's death, Kirk has made a promise on his son's grave  that on Father's Day hwe will "make bullying history."  So no parent would bare the pain of losing his or her loved one that he or she loved so dearly.  He further states that parents of biullies should also be held accountable for their childrens crimes.  Possibly the reason for this is because the oarents have failed to teach their children how to be role models, behave and be good students in school.  So parents are known as an asset to their children's crimes.  The same away parents arwe assets when their kids drin with their friewnds in their household.     The reporter asked Kirk if he wanted to sue the school and his response was, "Money will not bring my son back."  In the final minutes of the interview smalley told the reporter that he never washed his son's last load because he wants to rememeber his son by smelling his clothes and his bed everytime he goes to Ty's old room.
The final piece of information I found was from cq researcher and the article I read was called Preventing Bullying.  Tyler Clementi, a former student from Rutgers University, took his life when a webcam was secretly recording his sexual encounter with another student. The video went live on cyberspace by his own roommate and another student.  Both students were charged for invasion of privacy.  After his death, the big issue by debators is that victim's free speech rights are violated by the anti bully laws.  But the law reamain unweighed for the crime known as bullying.  Bullying has been around from the beginning of time but the new strain of bullying started when two Columbine students created a massacre on campus by killing and injuring students and staff and themselves in the end.  The Columbine Massacre became the deadliest school shooting in history in an American High school.  The cause of the attack according to experts was that the terrorists were victims of harassment and they held a grudge against their enemies. Then Missouri teenager Megan Meier's suicide triggered the call for stricter laws on Internet harassment.  Then the deaths of Phoebe Prince and Tyler Clementi helped their states to pass ne anti bullying laws.  The current situation on bullying is that lawmakers and states are still working on passing more anti bullying laws to Congress and some politicians believe differently of creating laws to stop the crime.