Massachusetts Anti-Bullying Law

On Monday, May 3rd, 2010, Massachusetts passed a new anti-bullying law that is one of the toughest in the country, if not the toughest. This legislation gained momentum after the tragic deaths of Phoebe Prince and Carl J. Walker-Hoover.

Walker-Hoover, 11, a student at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, hanged himself in April of 2009 after being bullied in school. Prince, 15, a freshman at South Hadley High School, hanged herself on Jan. 14, 2010 following what investigators said was three months of harassment and bullying by fellow students.

When I was a youth, which now seems like a very long time ago, bullying was much simpler. You paid your lunch money to the bully who wanted it or else. Today, our children face a much greater challenge. With the rapid expansion of the Internet, social media sites and texting on phones, the bullying never truly stops. Children are immersed in the abuse 24x7.

It is sad to see how some cannot grasp how serious this topic is, until it happens to them. We have a tendency to live in our own world, blocking out some of the events that take place every day all around us. For a child, being bullied like Prince and Walker-Hoover is very real and very scary.

Take the time to sit with your children and explain what this all means and how to safely reach out for help. Kids have a tendency to hunker down and keep all of this to themselves, as they don't want to be singled out or considered a rat. It is much better to teach them the ways to reach out for help now, than find yourself in the situation the two families above had to deal with.

Children are our future; it is our job to keep them safe and to not allow anyone to steal their youth away.

For further information, please contact David Cullen at mailto:dave@isi-1.com

http://www.isi-1.com