Long Term Emotional Issues Related to Bullies and Their Victims
August 15, 20129 Tucson Sahuarita High School Students Accused of Bullying
January 17, 2013Story shared from the Mail Tribune.
Paul Coughlin has harsh words for bullies: Stop it on the schoolyard or you may end up in a prison yard.
The Medford author and founder of a bully prevention program has been researching serial bullies for a decade and describes their behavior in schools and on sports fields, small towns and big cities to audiences around the U.S. and in his own community.
He says taunting and teasing can quickly escalate to criminal acts. With male bullies, he finds actions may turn into sexual assault.
Recently, the Ashland Police Department reported incidents of attempted sexual assaults at a summer football camp that has led to the arrest of a 17-year-old from the Rogue Valley.
Three Ashland High School football players have been implicated and charged with coercion in luring five teammates into a Linfield College dorm room in McMinnville. Two of the AHS players are facing charges of conspiracy to attempt to sexually penetrate with fingers younger players while players stood witness.
George Kramer, whose son is a member of the football team but was not implicated in the acts, said, “This was a terrible and sad event and I believe that AHS, the football team and all of us should do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He continued: “Bullying, hazing and, of course, sexual intimidation should not be tolerated in any degree and we need to do whatever is necessary to assure that this sort of behavior does not escalate.”
It is against Ashland School District policy for any type of hazing, harassment, intimidation, bullying or menacing to occur at any time at school or at a school-sponsored event.
Mediation Works has presented its Bullying Prevention and Bystander Awareness Program at Ashland and Talent middle schools, and the Jackson County Sexual Assault Response Team, Community Works and Ashland police have taught sexual assault prevention programs at Ashland Middle School and Ashland High School for three years.
A Community Works employee and others were asked to talk to the AHS football players soon after the alleged incidents took place last June at the football camp. More prevention classes are scheduled for this year.
Coughlin, author of “Raising Bullyproof Kids” and whose Freedom-From-Bullying programs (theprotectors.org) are used around the world, is not involved in the AHS case, but he has worked over the years with local schools to identify and prevent aggressive behavior and abuse.
“As a community, there are so many misconceptions about bullying that it stops us from getting clarity and finding solutions,” he said Monday in Ashland.
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