How about some good news....Basketball players defend Kenosha cheerleader targeted by bully!

How about some news about what is good in kids today! JR

Basketball players defend Kenosha cheerleader targeted by bully

KENOSHA -- A student being bullied at a Lincoln Middle School basketball game caught the attention of the basketball players. They walked off the court to come to defend her. 

This is where it all happened for Desiree Andrews.  As she was being bullied from the stands, a few boys on the team said enough's enough, and that's where this bullying situation turned her life around.

 

Desiree Andrews no longer walks to class alone.  Students have been drawn to her after a situation that could have taken away this pretty smile.

 

"The kids in the audience were picking on Dee, So we all stepped forward," said Chase Vazquez, Lincoln Middle School basketball player.

 

Andrews has Down syndrome.  These three boys were in the middle of a game when they heard something upsetting directed at one of their cheerleaders, a girl who dances to her own beat.

 

“So when I heard they were talking about her like, it kind of like made me mad," said Miles Rodriguez, Lincoln Middle School basketball player.

Basketball players stepped to action, walked off the court, and told the bully to stop.

“It’s not fair when other people get treated wrong because we’re all the same. We’re all created the same. God made us the same way," said Scooter Terrien, Lincoln Middle School basketball player.

Dee and the boys are now eighth graders and last night, played their last game in the gymnasium that they have affectionately dedicated to their friend.

We asked Desiree Andrews: “Are they calling it something special?"

Kids who are bullied can have nightmares years later

A study looked into kids who were bullied and found they have nightmares and night terrors years after being bullied.

New research suggests that kids who are bullied when they're younger may be more likely to suffer from nightmares and night terrors a few years later.

However, bullies themselves don't appear to face any higher risk of disturbed sleep.

"They sleep solidly," said study author Dieter Wolke, a professor of developmental psychology and individual differences at the University of Warwick in England. "That is clearly different than what most people think. They are not disturbed thugs, but calculated manipulators."

The study has weaknesses. Its design doesn't allow researchers to compare the percentages of children -- bullied or not-bullied -- who have bad dreams. And researchers can't be certain that being bullied at a younger age directly causes nightmares a few years later. It's possible that some other factor is responsible.

Still, "there is a clear association" between being bullied and having nightmares and night terrors, the researchers found.

What's a night terror? It's when a child gets "stuck" between stages of sleep and may scream and thrash around. "They're nearly impossible to wake and won't remember the episode the next morning," Wolke said.

For the study, the researchers examined surveys of over 6,400 children in the United Kingdom. The children answered questions about bullying at ages 8 and 10, and about sleep problems at age 12.

Overall, 24 percent of the kids had nightmares and 9 percent had night terrors. Even after the investigators adjusted the statistics in the study so they wouldn't be thrown off by high or low numbers of children who had issues such as psychiatric problems, those who'd been bullied when they were younger were still more likely to have these kinds of sleep problems at age 12.

Not all kids who have nightmares or other sleep problems are being bullied. However, among those who do, the level of extra risk of bullying is "moderate," Wolke said.

Could the nightmares be the problem that contributes to bullying by, say, causing kids to be more anxious and seen as vulnerable? Wolke said the study findings don't suggest that possibility.

Robert Faris, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, said the study appears to be valid and fits in with previous research that has linked bullying to stress, anxiety and depression. "It does seem likely that anxiety would play a role in nightmares," he said.

What to do? "It is important for pediatricians and doctors to be aware of this relationship," study author Wolke said, and ask about bullying when kids have sleep problems. "Identifying and helping children who are being bullied would eliminate potential mental health problems in the future," he said.

But Faris pointed out that many victims of bullying -- perhaps more than half -- don't feel comfortable telling their parents about what's going on, often because they feel their parents can't do anything about it.

That may indeed be the case, he said. Still, this study suggests that parents of kids who have chronic nightmares should be aware that this behavior may be a sign that their child is being bullied, Faris said.

What if a parent doesn't think their child will open up? "Don't ask directly about whether they're being bullied, but engage in some more subtle conversations instead," Faris suggested. "And pay attention to what's going on with their interactions with friends."

The findings are to be presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Vancouver. Research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Study: Bullying Causes Significant Emotional and Physical Consequences for Children With Autism

This study discusses the short term physical and emotional stresses of bullying on children with autism.

Nearly 70 percent of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience emotional trauma as a result of being bullied, according to findings published today in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, while a significant portion were concerned for their own safety at school. The study also found that children with ASD who presented with pre-existing psychiatric diagnoses were at increased risk for involvement in bullying, with children diagnosed with ASD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or depression at highest risk of being victimized over a one month period.

This study was led by researchers from the Interactive Autism Network, a project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute that is the nation's first online autism registry with participants from 47 states, making it the largest collection of autism data in the world.

"Recent research indicates that children receiving special education services are at risk of being victimized at higher rates than regular education students," says Dr. Paul Law, senior study author and director of the Interactive Autism Network at Kennedy Krieger. "Our findings show that not only are these children being bullied more, but they are also experiencing significant short-term, and likely long-term, effects of being bullied."

Participants in the study included parents of 1,221 children with ASD recruited through an online questionnaire. Researchers utilized the Bullying and School Experiences of Children with ASD Survey, a 63-item questionnaire, to collect key data from parents regarding their child's school environment, involvement in bullying, and the child's educational and psychological functioning. Additionally, researchers used the Parent Observation of Child Adaptation (POCA) to reflect parents' ratings of their child's behaviors and level of psychological distress after a bullying incident. The study's findings on the characteristics and psychiatric comorbidities most associated with bullying are below.

Characteristics of Children with ASD Involved in Bullying

• Over a one month period, 38 percent of children with ASD were bullied, with 28 percent frequently bullied.
• Immediate consequences of being bullied included emotional trauma (69 percent) and physical injuries (8 percent).
• Nearly 14 percent of children who were bullied reported being scared for their own safety.
• Eighteen percent of children were reported to have been triggered into fighting back, with 40 percent having an emotional meltdown or outburst that resulted in disciplinary action from school staff.
• Nine percent of children with ASD acted as bullies, with five percent identified as frequent perpetrators of bullying.

Psychiatric Comorbidity and Bullying Behaviors

• Children with ASD who also presented with ADHD and depression were more likely to be bullied.
• Children with ASD who also presented with conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder were more likely to be bullies.
• Children with ASD who also presented with ADHD, conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder were most likely to be bully-victims, characterized as being both victims of bullying and behaving as bullies.

According to Dr. Law, it is well documented that short-term consequences of bullying include poor mental and physical health outcomes. The long-term consequences can also have a serious effect on the well-being of an individual with ASD. In many cases, the effects of bullying can extend into adulthood with an increased risk for later psychiatric illness.

"Our results provide insights that will help teachers and school staff identify children with autism who may be at the greatest risk for bullying involvement, either as victims or perpetrators," says Dr. Law. "Outside of school, parents should be encouraged to talk to their child about bullying, particularly if they are concerned their child may be a victim. Parents should also set up appointments to talk to the staff or teachers at their child's school to learn more about how they can work to prevent bullying and help children involved in bullying cope with the consequences."

Future research is needed to clinically validate the correlation between a child's psychiatric diagnosis and bullying behavior. Longitudinal study designs will also help to provide insight into the sequence of events related to bullying behaviors and psychological and physical issues. Researchers hope that with greater information on the bullying behaviors and the consequences of bullying on children with ASD, parents, school staff, teachers and health care providers can better protect this particularly vulnerable population.

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Children with Autism Get Bullied More Often

A new study claims that children with autism are bullied much more often than the average child.

A study based on information collected from 920 parents suggests an estimated 46.3 percent of adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder were the victims of bullying, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Bullying involves negative actions toward a peer and is characterized by a power imbalance -- physical, social or cognitive -- between the victim and the perpetrator. Relatively little research has examined bullying involvement among adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the study background.

Paul R. Sterzing, Ph.D., M.S.S.W., previously of Washington University, St. Louis but now affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues used nationally representative surveys to identify the prevalence of bullying involvement, compare prevalence rates of bullying involvement with adolescents with developmental disabilities that overlap with the core deficits of an ASD, and identify the social ecological correlates of bullying involvement.

The prevalence of bullying involvement for adolescents with an ASD was 46.3 percent for victimization and was "substantially higher" than the national prevalence estimates for the general adolescent population (10.6 percent). The rates of perpetration of bullying (14.8 percent) and victimization/perpetration (8.9 percent, i.e. those who perpetrate and are victimized), were about equivalent to national estimates found among typically developing adolescents, according to the study results.

Victimization was related to having a non-Hispanic ethnicity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, lower social skills, some form of conversational ability, and more classes in general education. Perpetration was correlated with being white, having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and getting together with friends at least once a week. Victimization/perpetration was associated with being white non-Hispanic, having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and getting together with friends at least once a week, the results indicate.

"Future interventions should incorporate content that addresses the core deficits of adolescents with an ASD, which limits their verbal ability to report bullying incidents," the authors comment. "Schools should incorporate strategies that address conversational difficulties and the unique challenges of those with comorbid conditions."

The authors also concluded: "Inclusive classrooms need to increase the social integration of adolescents with an ASD into protective peer groups while also enhancing the empathy and social skills of typically developing students toward their peers with an ASD and other developmental disabilities."

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Study: Special-Ed Students at Greater Risk of Being Bullied

Students with visible disabilities and those receiving special education services for behavioral problems are at greater risk of being bullied and of bullying others, according to a new study.

These children also are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior and have disciplinary problems at school, the researchers found.

The findings reveal the complex nature of bullying, the study authors pointed out in the report, which was published June 27 in the Journal of School Psychology.

"These results paint a fairly bleak picture for students with disabilities in terms of bullying, victimization and disciplinary actions," lead author Susan Swearer, professor of school psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said in a university news release. "Sadly, these are the students who most need to display pro-social behavior and receive support from their peers."

The study included more than 800 special-ed and general-ed students between the ages of 9 and 16 from nine different schools. The investigators found that 38 percent of the students admitted to bullying other students and 67 percent said they had been the victims of bullies.

Not only were special-ed students at greater risk for being bullied or bullying others, students with visible or more obvious disabilities, such as language or hearing impairments or mild mental handicaps, were victimized most often. They also reported the highest levels of bullying.

On the other hand, the study authors found that students with non-observable disabilities, such as a learning disability, were not affected as much by bullying and reported similar levels of bullying as students without disabilities.

"The observable nature of the disability makes it easy to identify those students as individuals with disabilities, which may place them at greater risk for being the easy target of bullying," Swearer said in the news release. "Also, being frustrated with the experience of victimization, those students might engage in bullying behavior as a form of revenge."

There were no significant differences in bullying between boys and girls, the findings showed. General-ed students in fifth grade were victimized more often than students in grades six through nine. For students in special-ed, however, there was no difference in bullying by grade level.

Anti-bullying interventions should focus on students' pro-social skills, the study authors concluded. Those in general education could serve as pro-social role models for students with disabilities, they suggested. In addition, students with visible disabilities should be better integrated into general-education classes, which may prevent them from being bullied.

"Programming should be consistently implemented across general and special education, should occur in each grade, and should be part of an inclusive curriculum," the authors noted. "A culture of respect, tolerance and acceptance is our only hope for reducing bullying among all school-aged youth."

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Being Left Out Puts Youths at Risk for Depression

The challenges that come with battling a chronic medical condition or developmental disability are enough to get a young person down. But being left out, ignored or bullied by their peers is the main reason youths with special health care needs report symptoms of anxiety or depression, according to a study to be presented`123 April 29, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.

Being bullied has been shown to increase students' risk for academic and emotional problems. Little research has been done specifically on how being a victim of bullying affects youths with special needs.

In this study, researchers led by Margaret Ellis McKenna, MD, senior fellow in developmental-behavioral pediatrics at Medical University of South Carolina, investigated the impact of bullying, ostracism and diagnosis of a chronic medical condition on the emotional well-being of youths with special health care needs.

Participants ages 8-17 years were recruited from a children's hospital during routine visits with their physicians. A total of 109 youths and their parents/guardians completed questionnaires that screen for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Youths also completed a screening tool that assessed whether they had been bullied or excluded by their peers.

The main categories of youths' diagnoses included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (39 percent), cystic fibrosis (22 percent), type 1 or 2 diabetes (19 percent), sickle cell disease (11 percent), obesity (11 percent), learning disability (11 percent), autism spectrum disorder (9 percent) and short stature (6 percent). Several children had a combination of these diagnoses.

Results of the youths' answers on the questionnaires showed that being bullied and/or ostracized were the strongest predictors of increased symptoms of depression or anxiety. When looking at both parent and child reports, ostracism was the strongest indicator of these symptoms.

"What is notable about these findings is that despite all the many challenges these children face in relation to their chronic medical or developmental diagnosis, being bullied or excluded by their peers were the factors most likely to predict whether or not they reported symptoms of depression," Dr. McKenna said.

"Professionals need to be particularly alert in screening for the presence of being bullied or ostracized in this already vulnerable group of students," she added.

In addition, schools should have clear policies to prevent and address bullying and ostracism, Dr. McKenna suggested, as well as programs that promote a culture of inclusion and sense of belonging for all students.

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Being Bullied Tied to Anxiety and Depression in Certain Children

Special-needs youth with chronic medical conditions or developmental disabilities are at risk for anxiety and depression if they're excluded, ignored or bullied by other young people, a new small study says.

It included 109 youngsters, ages 8 to 17, who were recruited during routine visits to a U.S. children's hospital. The patients and their parents completed questionnaires that screen for symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the youngsters also completed a questionnaire that asked them about bullying or exclusion by their peers.

The patients in the study had one or more conditions such as: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (39 percent); cystic fibrosis (22 percent); type 1 or 2 diabetes (19 percent); sickle cell disease (11 percent); obesity (11 percent); learning disability (11 percent); autism (9 percent); and short stature (6 percent).

The researchers found that being bullied and/or excluded by peers were the strongest predictors of increased symptoms of depression or anxiety in the young patients.

"What is notable about these findings is that despite all the many challenges these children face in relation to their chronic medical or developmental diagnosis, being bullied or excluded by their peers were the factors most likely to predict whether or not they reported symptoms of depression," study leader Dr. Margaret Ellis McKenna, a senior fellow in developmental-behavioral pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, said in an American Academy of Pediatrics news release.

"Professionals need to be particularly alert in screening for the presence of being bullied or ostracized in this already-vulnerable group of students," she added.

McKenna said schools should have clear policies to prevent and address bullying and exclusion, as well as programs that promote a culture of inclusion and a sense of belonging for all students.

The study was slated for Sunday presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Boston. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Study Claims Two-Thirds of Kids With Autism Have Been Bullied

Nearly two-thirds of American children with autism have been bullied at some point in their lives, and these kids are bullied three times more often than their siblings without autism, a new survey finds.

Bullying occurs in every grade but is worst in grades five through eight, with 42 percent to 49 percent of autistic children in those grades bullied, according to the survey of nearly 1,200 parents of autistic children ages 6 to 15.

The Interactive Autism Network (IAN), a project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, conducted the survey.

"These survey results show the urgent need to increase awareness, influence school policies and provide families and children with effective strategies for dealing with bullying," Paul Law, director of the IAN Project, said in an institute news release.

Children with autism, a developmental disorder, usually have delayed language development and difficulty with social interaction.

"Children with [autism] are already vulnerable. To experience teasing, taunts, ostracism or other forms of spite may make a child who was already struggling to cope become completely unable to function," Law said. "The issue is complex and we plan to carefully analyze the data and publish peer-reviewed findings that will serve to advance policy and care for individuals with [autism]."

Overall, 63 percent of kids with an autism spectrum disorder have been bullied at some time, the survey found.

Children with autism in public schools are bullied nearly 50 percent more often than those in private schools or special-education schools, the researchers found.

Types of bullying experienced by autistic children include: being teased, picked on or made fun of (73 percent); being ignored or left out of things on purpose (51 percent); being called bad names (47 percent); and being pushed, shoved, hit, slapped or kicked (30 percent).

Bullying is experienced by 57 percent of children with autism who want to interact with others but have difficulty making friends, compared with 25 percent of those who prefer to play alone and 34 percent of those who will play with others only if approached.

Fifty-two percent of the parents said their child had been taunted by other children in order to trigger a meltdown or aggressive outburst.

Kids with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning type of autism, were nearly twice as likely as children with another autism disorder to be bullied, perhaps because of different school placements, the researchers said.

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The School Bully Is Sleepy

School bullies and children who are disruptive in class are twice as likely to show signs of sleep problems compared with well-behaved children, new research shows.

The findings, based on data collected from 341 Michigan elementary school children, suggests a novel approaching to solving school bullying. Currently, most efforts to curb bullying have focused on protecting victims as well as discipline and legal actions against the bullies. The new data suggests that the problem may be better addressed, at least in part, at the source, by paying attention to some of the unique health issues associated with aggressive behavior.

....The researchers found that children who had behavioral issues were twice as likely to have shown symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing, like snoring or daytime sleepiness. Among children whom parents specifically identified as school bullies, the finding was similar.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/the-school-bully-is-sleepy/