Cyberbullying

[ultraman6970]

ANybody is following the situation at FL with cyberbulling?

Insane... in may in NY something similar happened too.

shucks!!! :/

Parents try to be friends with some uncontrollable kids and crap like this happens, just insane :(

[Nags&Ducs]

ANybody is following the situation at FL with cyberbulling?

Insane... in may in NY something similar happened too.

shucks!!! :/

Parents try to be friends with some uncontrollable kids and crap like this happens, just insane :(

Yep. I read the comments from the 14 yr old, and I was so infuriated. How does a 14 yr old and 12 yr old think like that?

[binxnyrwarrsoul]

Yep. I read the comments from the 14 yr old, and I was so infuriated. How does a 14 yr old and 12 yr old think like that?

I'd bet the kid's mother and/or father are either absent, or as un-feeling as that 14 yr old. I'd also bet that her background and upbringing wasn't too pleasant.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . it's difficult for me to see kids like this getting their habits anywhere except from their parents. I've seen accounts like this before where the kids were described as totally devoid of any feelings or empathy. It's chilling.

I think kids are sponges and absorb what's around them--everything--good or bad. What could have happened in the life of a girl like this to make her act like this. To make her feel like this about fellow human beings?

More important, what do you do to turn this kid round? Or is it already too late? Is the best thing just to remove her from the population so she doesn't hurt anyone else?

BBD

[verticaldoug]

Watch a little (un)reality TV for a bit which is popular with this age group. You get to see all sorts of bullying techniques.

Real Housewives of NJ
Jersey Shore
Kardashians
Simon Cowell dresses down someone on some of the first seasons of Idol

Don't underestimate how vicious the nice little girls in leafy suburbs can be.

[AngryScientist]

Doug is right on. I live in one of those leafy NJ suburbs, and listening to some of the stuff that goes on between mothers and kids is totally disturbing.

[fuzzalow]

Nothing more repugnant than witnessing self absorbed children being pleaded to and negotiated with by self preoccupied parents.

[Dave B]

My problem is when you do recognize that the parent(s) are the root of the problem...then what.

I am dealing with a student who is literally becoming a menace and when we met with his other it was a blinding flash of the obvious. All teachers involved are at a loss to figure out how to manage this boy. We are all still trying, but his mom is a bully and so is he.

I understand why kids are this way, but trying to correct the behaviors when they are learned at home and reinforced is an uphill battle pedaling a tricycle with Ritz crackers for wheels.

[ultraman6970]

Probably some know Dr. Spock and his theories back in the 70s, his ideas were ok but with some kids you really need old style of discipline. It is hard to be a parent, but is harder to leave love behind and see your own kids for what they are as a person and try to correct them, love really blinds people and IMO you can't mix unconditional love as a parent than what your kid is becoming, two different entities, because when you mix them you get blinded of all the bad things a kid can do to another person.

From what I could gather the 12 y/o at least showed some remorse and her dad in the interview with a tv channel at least was getting open to recognize that he might have done wrong that I really dont know if it was from the heart or not but at least shows that the guy is really touched by the problem that is at least a 1st step. In the case of the 14 y/o well... looks like the whole family is a mess, her younger sister looks like is a bully, the family is just in denials... even if the account was hacked as they say... the other girl will speak for sure.

Here in VA a set of brothers killed the family dog like a week ago, they hit the small dog till it died... then you wonder if kids are like that because are just wild or because parents have the leash to short on them, then you go to jail because you take them corrective measures when they get out of control, that sucks.

[redir]

Kids have always been and always will be mean. My father who was a black belt in Judo taught me how to deal with bullies. A better way may be to instill confidence in your child so that they can shrug off any bully's. It is a very sad situation. Technology has only made the abuse easier and almost constant 24/7.

But still, how can you charge a 12 year old with a felony?

This case comes to mind: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131007/12450724783/15-year-old-student-commits-suicide-one-week-after-arrest-streaking-during-football-game.shtml

Sure what this kid did was wrong but charge him as a felony sex offender?

The girls deserve punishment (what I don't know) but they are children too.

[PQJ]

No question parents play a huge role in how kids turn out. But I think we're ignoring the extent to which American society/culture is to blame as well. I grew up outside the US and while there were definitely mean kids who did nasty things, I never, ever, ever saw the kind of bullying I've seen in the US and heard about from my American friends.

If we extol the virtues of I, me and my, as is done here on a magnitude not generally done elsewhere ("elsewhere" being defined as a good part of the rest of the world, but certainly nowhere near all of it), well then . . .

[Climb01742]

what must be so much harder for kids today is...

when i was young and there was a bully in my class/school, you were safe when they weren't around. a bully needed to be near you to be dangerous. proximity was danger; distance was safety.

today, with technology, they can always be 'near' you. there's so little safety.