Bully-be-gone!

Sep 152009
 

This has got to be one of my favorite back-to-school stories… and best ever bullying story.

Like all parents, I am concerned about bullying.  I am also concerned that many of the ways that we encourage kids to deal with bullying are at best ineffective – and at worst set them up for even more torment.  That is what’s so great about this story – instead of making the victim responsible for ‘fixing’ the problem the majority of the student community stood up together and said “enough.”

It seems that a young man showed up for his first day of upper school wearing a pink shirt – and was seriously harassed for his ‘offense.’

Fortunately, other students noticed, and having had “enough” decided to take action. 

Two of the students, 12th grade boys, went out and purchased 50 pink t-shirts and handed them out to friends to wear the next day.  They also e-mailed friends and classmates who turned to their own closets in order to lend support.   

On Day Two at Central Kings Rural High School in Cambridge, Nova Scotia school students and faculty alike were treated to the sight of a sea of pink… as if the majority of the student body was challenging the bullies to take them on as a whole.

 Asking kids who are being bullied to take action on their own behalf often sets them up for more torment…. despite the best of intentions ‘telling an adult’ often leads to escalated and more secretive bullying.  But when the whole community stands together and says “enough”…. Well, that’s pretty hard to ignore.

Want all the details?  Click here to read the original news story http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2007/09/18/pink-tshirts-students.html

Linda Lopeke’s Smart Start

Feb 202009
 

If memory serves, I stared a Linda Lopeke before we spoke.

And, although Linda is often stared at, it (the staring) may be related to the disability that almost took her life on several occasions. I just remember watching this woman “work the room” at a conference. She’s effective, relentless — and funny!

Linda was born with Klippel Feil Syndrome, a disorder that, minimally, fuses vertebrae in the neck. Doctors advised her mother to institutionalize her. They didn’t expect the child to live. They were wrong…. she didn’t and…. she did.

Disability is a small part of Linda’s “story.” She was only 12 when her father left home and did not pay support. Her Mom had an 8th grade education and had never worked outside of the home. Typical of the life that would follow, the young girl started a “mother’s helper” business. She delivered newspapers. And, at 14 she convinced administrators at the Computer Institute to allow her to take their entrance exam.

For the next two years, she attended high school by day and “computer school” on weekends, graduating with her ticket to a technology career when she was still in the eleventh grade.

She left home at 16, with everything she owned in a single cardboard box. Since then she….

* became the youngest project manager in the history of banking to lead a major technology implementation.

* delivered over 500 success strategies (IT systems, corporate services & programs, post-merger & acquisition planning) to her clients.

* published more than 100 books and technical communications on behalf of her corporate clients.

The mother of two “successful adults in training” has recently turned her attention to a new program she is developing to help entrepreneurs successfully launch new businesses.

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