Despite legislative efforts to control it and a zero-tolerance policy in Vermont schools, bullying remains a devastating reality for students. On this Vermont Edition, we discuss the problem with students who’ve been targeted. Robert Appel, Executive Director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission and Lynn Vera, a guidance counselor at the Center for Technology in Essex, help us understand what’s been done statewide to address bullying and why it’s such a difficult problem to solve.(Listen)
Also on the program, legal analyst Cheryl Hanna talks about the second Vermont court case to be accepted for a hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court this year. Vermont v. Brillon is a domestic violence case that could have a wide-ranging impact of legal thinking about the right to a speedy trial. (Listen)
Photo: 16-year-old Brittany Wieland tells about her experience with a middle shool bully.
LISTENER COMMENTS ON SCHOOL BULLYING
Jennifer from Middlesex
Haven’t we had enough hip teen movies (Not to mention Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs) that everyone should know that the bullies grow
up to be pathetic losers?
E-Mail From J.R.
There’s a local
non-profit which uses a model called the ‘bystander’ project, which puts the
majority of the responsibility, or at least some of it, not only on
the aggressor in a bullying situation, but also on those standing
around watching, listening, feeling badly about what they see, etc. . . if
those young adults begin to stand up for what they see others doing, it’d make
a big difference to not only the bullyer, but the bullied.