EmpoweringParents.com » Bullying

A Whole New Way to Bully: Peanut Butter as a Weapon

Elisabeth Wilkins, EP Editor — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:53:34 +0000

From the “Weird New Ways to Bully” file: In the news this past week, there have been stories about kids bullying classmates who are allergic to peanut butter. They’re hiding the offending food in lunch boxes or in the lockers of children who are known to have the dreaded allergy. Now, an eighth grader in Kentucky has been charged with a felony for crumbling up peanut butter cookies and putting the potentially lethal substance into the lunch box of a classmate. (Luckily, the classmate did not suffer a reaction.) Believe it or not, for some people even trace amounts of peanut oil can cause a severe reaction or even death: as in the case of the 13-year-old Australian boy who died last month when he came into contact with peanuts at a school camp.

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Girl Bullying called “A Troubling Trend” on YouTube

Elisabeth Wilkins, EP Editor — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:37:20 +0000

Turns out the Florida cheerleaders weren’t alone. Teens are posting girl bullying episodes and girl fighting to MySpace, YouTube, and other social networking sites. Some experts classify this behavior as cyberbullying–but is it something even worse?

Click here to read the story…

Battling the Playground Bully

Elisabeth Wilkins, EP Editor — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:48:44 +0000

My friends and I all have secret fears about our children. My friend Caroline is deathly afraid her children will get sick. She wakes up at night, heart pounding, wondering if the bruise on her son’s arm is really cancer. My other friend Jaimie worries that her daughter is so socially awkward that she won’t ever make good friends. My secret fear? That my son will be bullied in school, just like I was in 4th grade. (But that’s a topic for another blog post.)

Well, my fears were realized last fall. When I picked Alex up from the playground at pre-school, I saw him playing with some other kids, but as I got closer, I realized that one of the boys was actually throwing rocks at my son. Not only did Alex not say anything, he didn’t even move out of the way. When I ran up to the them, the tears were rolling down my child’s face, and all he said was, “Billy is hurting me.” Ugh. As I hugged him, I felt about 3 inches tall. How could we have raised our son and not taught him how to protect himself? (Never mind how to assert himself!)

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The Connection Between ADHD and Bullying

Dr. Robert Myers — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:00:24 +0000

The February issue of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology features a study that says kids with ADHD are more likely to be bullied at school–or to actually be bullies themselves.

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