Bye Bye Bullying

The much-publicized "Bully" documentary is coming out next Friday and I didn't realize until today that part of it takes place in Sioux City, Iowa. I spent two years in Sioux City as a news anchor/reporter at KMEG, the CBS affiliate, and covered many stories at local schools, so I became even more interested in seeing it. Bullying has been around forever and it's sad that it took this long for it to become such a topic of conversation and attention in the news. I think most of us have either been a bully to some extent or been bullied at some point in our lives. And let's be honest, it doesn't stop when you graduate from high school. There's bullying among friends and neighbors, and in the workplace. While I would love to say that I've never bullied anyone, that just wouldn't be true. I remember not being very nice to a certain girl in elementary school for really no reason at all, except that she was different. I thought I was being funny. Clearly, I wasn't. We're ALL different and we should be celebrating that, not ridiculing people, because of it. Once I got to junior high (luckily), I realized on my own that what I had been doing was wrong and mean, and I apologized to her. We then became friendly, but it doesn't change what I did. And here I am, all these years later, still mad at myself for acting that way. I also know what it's like to be on the receiving end. When I was in ninth grade (it was still junior high back then), I rode the school bus every day and just about every day, these two boys who had gotten kicked out of their school in Santa Monica and sent to my school, would harass me. I know their names, but I won't mention them here. They would grab me, pinch me, you name it. One day I was wearing this really nice dress that my mom had gotten me for Christmas and I was trying to get off the bus at my stop. I was in the back of the bus and they were both grabbing and pulling at me, not letting me off the bus. I swear to this day that the bus driver saw what was going on and didn't step in. He continued on to the next stop with me still on the bus. The boys even ripped the back of my dress. I was finally able to break free and get off a couple stops up the hill. I was angry and humiliated. I walked all the way home crying, but wiped away the tears before I got home, because I didn't want my mom to see me so upset. I didn't want to tell her what happened, even though I didn't do anything wrong. I think so many kids don't share what's going on with their parents, because they don't want them to get involved or they're embarrassed, and sadly, as we've seen recently, some kids end up killing themselves or others, because of it. Something needs to be done about this... NOW. Bus drivers, teachers, parents, kids... Nancy Reagan taught us to say no to drugs. Now, let's start saying bye bye to bullying. I think this would be a good place to open up the discussion about bullying - for children and adults, bullies and victims. Who would like to share???

Waiting for a Miracle

Why do so few people realize and fully comprehend the true importance of education? In the Davis Guggenheim documentary, "Waiting for Superman," a few educators and a few parents are trying to make a difference. The educators are trying to make a global difference, the parents are trying to make a difference for their own child. The movie focuses on the horrendous public school system in the United States. Now, before I call it horrendous, let's talk about this. I went to a public school my whole life and I turned out just fine and there are, of course, plenty of others just like me, who are contributing members of society. I had some bad teachers, I had some mediocre teachers and I had a lot of incredible teachers - Mr. Quinette, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Vincent, Mrs. Honey, Mrs. Emmons, Senor Frese and my all-time favorite, Mr. Brownstein. There are others, but you get the idea. I'm sure most, if not all of us, have had at least one teacher that made a difference in our lives - someone who told us we could do something when we didn't think we could or someone who wasn't afraid to have students laugh at him or her to get their point across. I admit I lived in an area of Los Angeles that had a good school system, but it's not ALL about the school system, where you live or your teachers. There's something very important that people often forget. Any guesses? THE PARENTS! You can't just drop your kid off at school and pick him or her up and think that they're getting all they need in the classroom. They need special attention. Parents need to take an interest in what their kids are learning in school, help them with their homework and continue teaching outside the classroom. I spent many years as a news anchor covering stories on literacy (or more accurately illiteracy) and I spearheaded a project called One Classroom at a Time. I spent a lot of time in the classrooms talking to teachers and students. There are public school teachers out there, who want to get through to their kids and go the extra mile, but they have so many obstacles - overcrowding, low or no budget for school supplies and so many other things. I've talked to teachers, who tell me that it's hard for their students to concentrate, because they left home with no breakfast and they don't have lunch with them or money for lunch. Teachers have told me that a lot of their students' parents are strictly Spanish-speaking, so they can't even communicate with the parents and tell them about problems their child may be having. When I did my series on illiteracy, a lot of the teachers and principals I contacted were afraid to talk about it on-camera. They didn't want to stir things up. WELL, WE NEED TO STIR THINGS UP. One teacher told me that the No Child Left Behind Act was allowing kids to graduate from high school NOT knowing how to read. How is that possible? If you can't read in first grade or second grade, why on Earth would you be allowed to advance to the next grade? It does a complete disservice to the child and society to graduate students, who can't read or write. If they don't possess the basics to succeed in a job, let alone a career, they often turn to a life of crime - drugs, theft, you name it. The reality is that most people, who don't graduate from high school will end up in prison or dead. We can't require licenses for parents (though I sometimes think we should), so what can we do? Yes, our education system is broken. Yes, some teachers who have tenure slack off, because they can. Yes, some parents have no clue what their children are studying in school. And yes, people can still succeed with all these obstacles. The children are our future and if we don't make a difference in these kids' lives starting at a very young age, then none of us will have much a future at all. It's up to all of us to solve this problem... ALL of us. If we don't step up to the plate, then we truly are waiting for a miracle.