“No one should have to go through anything like this especially a 12 year old child. All they wanted to do was play basketball. They didn’t expect anything like this to happen,” 6th grade parent, Chandra Davis, said.

Davis is furious the players responsible for hazing her son are being allowed back on the team.

“Some of the 7th grade boys had gotten some of the 6th grade basketball team in the locker room and they were taking Gatorade bottles and sticking them up the behinds of the 6th graders,” Davis said.

Superintendent Dr. Daniel Freeman says when the school first found out about it last Wednesday they immediately canceled practice for the following night to investigate

“It started out as good natured fun but it got a little too rough, “Dr. Freeman said.

The boys will also be facing juvenile assault charges. Full story.

Two students’ injuries required treatment at the Athens hospital while several others received minor injuries Thursday night at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house, according to OU and Athens police.

The fraternity received a citation Friday charging the organization with hazing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. The fraternity entered a not-guilty plea in Athens Municipal Court on Monday.

Police learned of the incident when student Michael Pristera, 18, of Prospect, Ky., was found unconscious in his dorm room in Jefferson Hall late Thursday after a fraternity initiation meeting.

He suffered mouth injuries and a bloody nose and was covered with abrasions shaped like hand prints, police said.

Another student treated at the hospital said he was “blindfolded and forced to chug large amounts of alcohol and repeatedly slapped around” by Delta Tau Delta members. Full story.

Saloom says his ten-year-old son was bullied at the school for three years. He claims he and his wife spoke to several teachers and administrators, and says nothing was done.

“It’s very hard for a child to come forward and say they’ve been bullied because they take a lot of pride in their young youth-hood,” Saloom said.

Saloom pulled his son out of the school in September. On Monday, he filed a lawsuit in district court, demanding more than $10,000 he already paid for this year’s tuition. In order to get the money back, Saloom says the school asked him and his wife to sign an agreement, stating that they would not talk about the issue with other people or to the media. If they did, they would not get the refund.

Dunham School Headmaster Bobby Welch says the entire story has been blown out of proportion.

“I don’t look forward to even having to read the language of it because it’s so disappointing. I’d much rather be having a conversation with the parents,” Welch said. Full story.

The couple asked the Chatsworth Police Department to look into their son Tyler’s last days, saying he took his life because he was distraught over years of being bullied at school. They say the school system didn’t try to protect their son or adequately address their complaints, and they are considering filing a lawsuit against it.

Tina Long says she’s not giving up and will continue to work to raise awareness of the impact of bullying in school and the tragedy that can occur if it isn’t addressed. Tyler had Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, which further complicated his situation, his parents said.

“We’re going to fight as long and hard as we have to to get bullying stopped,” Tina Long said.

Chatsworth police chief Terry Martin did not return several phone messages left on Friday. A written statement from detective Jim Whitehead said, “… After conducting interviews and reviewing videotapes, the police department has decided that no criminal charges are forthcoming in the case.

“The police department would like to send condolences to the Long family for the loss of their son. David Long, a retired military service member, and Tina Long, a registered nurse, (have) certainly served their community well, and losing their son is tragic for the family and community.” Full story.

Parents of students at The Sanibel School first addressed the board Nov. 3. On Tuesday the board heard from 34 speakers, an overwhelming majority of them addressing the allegations.

Some claimed that special needs children were being forced out of the school to ensure that the school average did not decrease, while others said instances of bullying and harassment went unaddressed.

Another parent, in support of the top-rated school, said a petition was signed by 160 parents in support of how the school administration conducted business.

Superintendent James Browder said the Office of Civil Rights is conducting an investigation into the allegations. The district will also carry out a subsequent investigation within its professional standards and ESE department.

Browder expects the investigations to take approximately three months.

“This is an administrative issue and that falls under purvey of superintendent,” he said. “I take all of these very seriously and I will make the right decision in the best interest of students, staff and the community.”

Teuber said he hopes the issue can be resolved between both sides.

“There are a lot of things that don’t get solved when people carry grudges,” he said. “Sanibel is a great community. I hope we can come to this and get this resolved and that everyone gets a resolution we can work with.”

While many came out in support of The Sanibel School, other parents discussed their child’s horrific experiences. Former students also addressed the board about being bullied and being ignored by school officials

“My children were both bullied and harassed over the last five years,” said Claudia Foster, a parent. “My oldest son was denied participation in his eighth-grade graduation ceremony because he refused to dig through a cafeteria trash can as ordered by his principal.”

Two teenage girls, former students at the school, said they were threatened with violence by other girls in the school, but nothing was done. Full story.

“I felt my son needed to be protected. The bullying completely disrupted his ability to feel safe in a learning environment,” said Theresa Jackson, a Forestdale resident and mother of a 13-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder.

Jackson told the Joint Committee on Education about an incident in which her son, then 12, was videotaped at a Forestdale Elementary School dance without his knowledge. The classmate shared that cell phone video, including the full name of Jackson’s son, on YouTube, where viewers posted pages and pages of unkind comments, Jackson told the committee.

“To this day, when that song that he was dancing to comes on the radio, we turn it off immediately because we can still see that look on his face, from when he first saw that video on YouTube,” Jackson said in an interview before the hearing.

Jackson spoke in support of a bill that would require the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to design a model policy to address bullying and provide that model and other educational materials to school districts. The school districts could then modify their own anti-bullying policies.

The bill would require school districts to involve a variety of community members, including students, parents and law enforcement officials when drafting their anti-bullying policies. Copies of those policies would be posted in public areas in the schools, including cafeterias.

While no one testified in opposition of the bill, Paul Andrews, director of professional development and government services at the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said that the organization supports the legislation but pointed out many schools are already addressing bullying in schools.

“We don’t want it to become a clerical issue where it’s going to take more time to fill out paperwork than it is to follow the statute,” Andrews said in a phone interview.

But State Rep. Matthew C. Patrick, D-Falmouth, who is co-sponsoring the bill, denied that the bill would create more bureaucracy for school administrators. Full story.

Two incidents in two weeks have two Drake fraternities in big trouble.

Police said the Phi Delta Theta members forced another student to drink so much his blood alcohol was six times the legal limit.

Officers said the student drank close to 10 glasses of Everclear.

Officials said the university and the national fraternity administration for Phi Delta Theta have already decided to remove the chapter from campus. The national fraternity is also suspending the Drake chapter’s charter.

The ban will remain in effect for four years. Fraternity officials said that a university investigation found the chapter responsible for hazing and underage drinking.

“We commend the national fraternity for its cooperation and swift action,” Dean of Students R. Sentwali Bakari said. “The action the University is taking reflects the Drake community’s values and commitment to students. We are deeply concerned about the safety and well being of our students.” Full story.

The Britain’s Got Talent star also spoke frankly about her learning difficulties.

And she admitted it took her more than six months to get over her mum’s death. She stayed at home with just her cat Pebbles for company.

Now though Susan – dubbed SuBo by the media – seems to have put all her troubles behind her and wants to become a worldwide chart-topping star.

Susan, 48, said: “I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another.
“I’m just a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on.

“That was what I felt was happening to me. And this feels like a good way of making up for that.
“I don’t think the resources were there for me back then at school.Teachers have more specialised training now. Full story.

“He was my best friend, my role model, I looked to him for advice,” Troy Long, Tyler’s fourteen-year-old brother, says.

Troy says his older brother meant the world to his family. In sixth grade Tyler was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome – a form of autism that creates social disorder, but Tyler still managed to enjoy sports, video games, and his family.

“When Tyler smiled he just had that look like he was the best man around,” Teryn Long, Tyler’s sister, says.

But that smile died on October 17.

“I felt shocked, disbelief, it was like a part of me had vanished,” Troy says.

“I got out of bed and I went in Tyler’s room where David was and I saw him hanging there and I knew he had had enough,” Tina Long, Troy’s mother, says.

Tina tells us that she knew the seventeen-year-old had been bullied in the past and she had tried to warn Murray County High School administrators, but says things only got worse. She says the bullying got so bad that Tyler simply stopped talking about it until the day he died.

“There’s a loss that I can never explain and I don’t know how long it will be or how long it will be with us but I continue to see one image of Tyler and that’s not the image I remember Tyler the most by,” David Long, Tyler’s Father, says. Full story.

Bebo has a site open for teenagers to talk about being bullied and some background tips for parents, while Facebook offers concrete adviceto parents and children, listed below:

1. Only accept friends you know
In order to prevent harassment from strangers, only accept friend requests from people you know and report any messages or profiles that look suspicious. Facebook is based on a real name culture, and fake profiles are regularly disabled when they’re reported to us. Only confirmed friends can post to your Walls or contact you via Facebook Chat, so if you’re worried that someone will make inappropriate posts or send offensive messages, you should ignore that person’s request.

2. Stop abusive behavior
A block prevents someone from viewing your profile. If you receive inappropriate or abusive communication, you can block the person by listing his or her name in the “Blocking People” box at the bottom of the privacy page. In addition to blocking, if you receive abusive messages on your wall or via Facebook chat, you can remove the offender from your friend list. Full story.