At least one board member said members of the panel felt threatened by a memo from the office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that warned board members could lose legal representation from the Attorney General’s Office if they ignored its advice.
In June, the board had voted 7-4 to exempt existing abortion clinics from the new construction standards, only to have Cuccinelli’s office refuse to certify the regulations.
Two Northern Virginia Democrats are sponsoring legislation to attempt to curb teen bullying, a topic that’s received heightened national attention due to a spate of suicides of teenagers who had been targeted by classmates.
Taylor’s mother has said she complained to school officials and local sheriff’s deputies that the 16-year old was being bullied but they did little to help. The local sheriff’s office has said it investigated her complaints and turned them over to school officials after determining no laws had been broken. In a wrongful death suit she has filed against local officials, Taylor’s mother indicates that her son’s bully allegedly told him before his death: “You need to just go ahead and kill yourself and get it over with.”
Ebbin’s bill would define bullying as “recklessly or intentionally endangering the health or safety of a student by exposing the student repeatedly, and over time, to physical aggression or intimidation, whether through direct physical contact or through the use of information or communication technology, resulting in bodily injury or other harm to person or property.” It would also give victims the right to sue those who have bullied them.
1 in 3 adults admit to have been bullied by a boss. According to USA Today:
One in three adults has experienced workplace bullying, according to surveys conducted earlier this year by research firm Zogby International for the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI). Nearly three-fourths of bullying is from the top down, according to a 2007 study.
Some tyrannical managers scream and send out scathing e-mails. But often, an oppressor uses a more subtle — and easily covered — collection of behaviors. These actions could include purposely leaving a worker out of communications so they can’t do their job well, mocking someone during meetings and spreading malicious gossip about their target, says Catherine Mattice, a workplace consultant who specializes in this issue.
The acts may seem trivial, but as they build up over time, the ramifications can be monumental.
Bullied workers often feel anxious and depressed, can’t sleep and are at increased risk for ailments such as hypertension. Some employees feel so overwhelmed, they just can’t see a way out. “Sometimes, unfortunately, suicide is the result,” Mattice says.
Do people just accept bullying more from a boss? Do they fear retaliation to the point of being fired? Why are people more willing to put up with it?
The cable news channels are full of the sad story of Tyler Clementi. Tyler was a freshman at Rutgers University and committed suicide last week by jumping off a bridge to his death in the Hudson River. What caused this young man to go to such drastic measures to end his life?
Tyler had a sexual encounter in his dorm room. Apparently he asked for the room until midnight. Unbeknownst to him, the roommate left his computer open and the web cam streamed the entire episode onto the Internet. The roommate and a friend tweeted the information. Tyler’s encounter was with another man.
One has to ask what kind of monsters would do something like this? Recording this young man’s personal sexual encounter was just another form of bullying. Bullying goes on all the time. In fact, there is an epidemic going on in this country and it isn’t just against gays. Phoebe Prince of Massachusetts wasn’t gay. She was basically tortured to death by her peers, who have been charged in her death. Tyler’s bullies, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy. They can receive punishment of up to five years in prison.
People don’t send their children to public school or to college to have them bullied by others to the point they take their own lives. Suicide with gay youth is 4 times that of straight kids. Yet, is bullying just a phenomena with young people or can it happen with any group? Does it happen at the office, in the neighborhood, in our political dealings, on the blogs? Bullying can and does happen everywhere.
We all need to look to see if our behavior involves bullying. We also need to watch for bullying behavior with our kids. Some of the most serious bullying starts with older siblings. However, experts say that today’s technology allows bullying to be carried to new levels. No longer are kids just beaten up on the playground or jumped on the way home and their lunch money stolen like in the good old days. Now people can sit behind a computer, such as happened with Tyler Clementi, and create situations that make someone’s life no longer worth living. Some folks survive and laugh at their tormentors. Others, like Tyler, decide to end it all.
It has come to our attention that the merchants of Old Town Manassas are being asked by the anti-KK zealots to close up shop for 1 hour during the middle of Fall Festival, between 12:00 and 1:00 pm. Are they nuts?
Fall Festival and the other events held in the City are to promote fun, highlight the city, and bring in folks to spend money in the City of Manassas. Localities all over America do this and each place tries to add its own unique touch to an event; something that makes the festival special.
What kind of a self-serving, narcissistic, selfish person would ask merchants in this economic crunch to turn away potential business for an hour? Why? Are they going to pay each merchant their lost revenue? Are they going to replace the BPOL tax loss for the City? Are they going to replace the sales tax to the state? Are they going to pay the salaries of the worker bees who might get put on unpaid ‘break’ for an hour?
Do these people think that the average shopper coming from outside Old Town Manassas gives a fig about KK Temptations, which by the way, isn’t even open for business yet? The Moonhowlings roving reporters will be taking note of which businesses were bullied into closing. We will publish those names. Our readers and contributors may handle the situation as they feel best.
[Clarification: People may chose to spend their money in establishments opposing KK Temptations or instead they may choose to withhold their money from said establishments.]
One has to ask what on earth these people are trying to do to the City. This proposed behavior is illogical. What people boycott themselves? The object of the boycott won’t even be open for business.
Knowledge is power. This boycott is all about bullying and power. Some of us will not allow ourselves to be bullied.
There’s a story on all the cable channels today about the father of a handicapped child who got so upset and enraged over his child being bullied that he got on the school bus, asked his child to point out her tormentors, and verbally blasted the kids hazing his daughter.
Teams of ‘experts’ are analyzing the situation. The dad was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He said he had complained to the school and nothing was done. He will now stand trial. We don’t know what will happen with the daughter or the boys who were throwing stuff on her and pinning her ears back. The daughter has cerebral palsy and it has been reported that she is on suicide watch.
First off, let’s look at all the sides. The father is frustrated. He reports his concern to the school and the horrible behavior towards his daughter continues. Most of it apparently is happening on the bus. He is so upset over his inability to protect his child that he loses it and cusses out and threatens the kids who are perpetrating the problem.
Rachel Maddow does an excellent job of showing how rights can be taken away by making whatever it is that people are trying to do inaccessible. Inaccessibility substitutes for making an act illegal. Its a rather cowardly, un-democratic means of getting one’s own political way. Maddow also interviews the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Maddow explains how hospital regulations would financially burden abortion providers rather than making abortion safer (Double wide hallways, swinging doors, 15 mile proximity to emergency room, etc.) Cuccinelli’s explanation is vague and full of weasel words, so that the average Virginian really doesn’t know what is being said.
Cuccinelli attempted draconian, technically illegal abortion legislation while he served in the Virginia Senate. He was unable to ever pass his legislation. Now he attempts to circumvent legislation by simply declaring his opinion to be law. His attempts to codify his own opinion won’t fly for long.
Cuccinelli will not last. Most people don’t like having other people in their bedrooms. It remains to be seen if McDonnell will execute Cuccinelli’s opinion into state policy. Meanwhile, Cuccinelli has driven Virginia so far to the cultural right that he endangers other Republicans who might not be extremists.
Finally, Maddow addresses something the rest of us have been aware of for a long time. There is a tendency to bully those who are pro-choice. Many pro-choice people feel too intimidated to admit they are pro-choice, much less hold their legislators accountable for their votes. Every woman in Virginia must decide that the women of Virginia are capable of making their own morally appropriate choices. They need to decide today that they will not allow others to define them. Pro-choice is not being pro-abortion and do not let anyone tell you it is.
UVA President John Casteen III delivered a chilling, emotional speech to those gathered at the candlelight vigil for slain lacrosse player Yeardly Love. His message should be repeated over and over in middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities, churches, libraries–just about anywhere there are women.
Casteen told the mourners that we are all responsible for getting people help who are entangled and trapped in toxic, violent relationships. We can not longer just tell our friends, relatives and acquaintances to ditch a toxic relationship. We have to step forward and perhaps make some of those unpopular calls. Doing so might just save someone’s life–someone like Yeardly Love’s life.
The fraternity of silence and the culture of hiding abuse can no longer be tolerated.
There are profound ironies in our gathering here tonight for this purpose. This is the spring time. It’s the time of year for renewal, for new beginnings. And yet we have come here to grieve the ending of a young life, of Yeardley Love’s life, one full of promise and high prospects—and one not unlike yours.
I want to talk tonight about Yeardley Love, and I want to talk about you, and about this community—about us. Some of what I have to say is very hard. Bear with me, and listen.
Fighting Hate West Virginia Style. Westboro descending on Charleston, WV to inform the good people in the state capital that the Montcoal mining disaster happened because God hates …who even knows…oh ….they got a threatening note from West Virginia.
Westboro had mentioned deceased Morgan Harrington on their website. The VT student was murdered last fall after disappearing from a Metallica concert at UVA. Students organized and simply outnumbered qnd out performed Westboro in only the way United VT can do! Morgan’s parents were on hand to express their displeasure at having their daughter’s name dragged through the mud after her horrible fate.
BLACKSBURG, Va., (WIBW)_ Members of Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church turned up at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia on Friday morning.
They were there for a protest following the mine disaster which claimed the lives of at least 25 miners. Rescue teams continue to search for four more miners whose fate is still unknown.
The church claims the explosion was a result of a threatening memo that the church said was sent from West Virginia, the New York Times reported.
According to the Charleston Gazette, more than 300 counter-protesters were on hand for a counter demonstration against the six church members who showed up.
Nearby, larger numbers of church members fanned out across three locations in Blacksburg, Virginia nearly two years after the shootings at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people.
They too were met by counter protesters, including the father of Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student who disappeared last October. Harrington said he couldn’t believe the Westboro Church was including Morgan’s memory in their protests.
What, if anything can be done to stop these vile people? They are using the very laws that make us tolerant Americans against us. Hopefully the Supreme Court case will castrate their efforts. I would contribute to any plan to legally put these disgusting wretches in their places. I think jail time sounds real good.
And when you thought they couldn’t go any lower, check out the parting shot. This sign was from the Sago mine disaster in 2006. However, they arrived at Montcoal, WV today with similar tactics. The poor people of Montcoal are trying to mourn their dead and recover their lost. They just don’t need this crap.
Hopefully Phoebe Prince’s life was not in vain. Bullying has been around since the caveman. However, never has the emphasis been so keen as now. It seems that the death of Phoebe Prince has become the Columbine of school bullying.
As more is being told about this tragic event, we find out that that the root of the problem was because Phoebe caught the eye of one of the star football players. The statutory rape charge resulted from the fact that he was 18 and she was 15. He was also one of her harassers. His girlfriend and her buddies then got into the act of persecuting Phoebe for going out with her boyfriend. You know, that all too familiar case where it is all the girl’s fault and the boy is off the hook for any wrong doing. At any rate, on the last day of her life, Phoebe was hit with an energy drink can thrown from a car when she was walking home from school. She went into her house and hanged herself with a scarf given to her on her birthday.
