Yasmin Shiraz

Recent news reports are reporting that 27 Year Old New York middle school teacher, Melissa Weber, has been arrested for having sex with her 14 year old male student. I’m outraged and disgusted and  I can’t understand it. I couldn’t understand Letourneau and I don’t understand this. Why would a GROWN BEHIND WOMAN be interested in a 14 YEAR OLD BOY?

Over the past several years, I’ve seen far too many twenty-something teachers being arrested for these same crimes. Melissa Weber is being charged with statutory rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child. She faces 7 years in prison, but I believe she should face far more time for abusing the public’s trust.

Are we becoming so desperate in our need to hire teachers, that anybody will do, including child molesters? It seems as if we are. For the most part, I’ve liked the teachers that my children have had so far, but I cannot honestly say what would happen if I found out that my 14 year old son was having sex with his teacher. I don’t know how I’d react. I’m sure I’d be as angry as this VICTIM’s mother.

Let us all watch Ms. Weber’s case with great interest. If she is in fact guilty of the crimes that she is accused of, she should be processed and punished for the pervert that she is. I believe we should be as passionate in her conviction as people were about Michael Vick’s case. If there is anything we should be united in protecting, it’s our children’s innocence.

Peace and let’s protect our children.

Yasmin

*JMO – Just My Opinion and denotes any articles on this blog that are editorial/opinion articles

Sources:

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=91001&cat=14

I’m on the radio today (May 28, 2009) with Cynthia Brian who is the founder of Be The Star You Are and Starstyle. Her brands are about empowering women, children and families. Cynthia is one of the nicest, most positive people that I’ve met in this business. You can listen to the interview here under Radio Shows 5/28/2009:

http://wtr.radiopilot.net/worldtalkradio/vshow.aspx?sid=764

It’s also on ITunes for the date of May 28, 2009!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=310762728

I’m on with Tommie and The Bartender…

I’m on the radio with T. Blackmon of The Connexshun.

According to a new government report, partially published in The Washington Post, there is a drop in violence going on across the nation. For schools, this means there were 27 homocides of “victims ages 5 to 18, traveling to or from school or at a school-sponsored event in the 2006-2007 school year.” But in 1992-1993, there were 34. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that bullying and other forms of victimization like taunting, being the subject of rumors, being threatened, being excluded from activities, etc—all those things continue. According to this report, “32% of students in 2007 reported having been bullied at school.”

Katrina Baum, one of the authors of the report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety” who also is a researcher at the Bureau of Justice and Statistics was interviewed in the Post. She seemed to be in favor of anti-bullying programs, “…when they [anti-bullying] programs work well, they change the attitude that kids have toward their school. The kids have more of a stake in the school…”

That’s refreshing to know! Some anti-bullying programs are helping to prevent more children from being victimized. We cannot allow bullying to be the elephant in the room. Talking about bullying with young people will help in reducing the incidents of it.

Resources:

http://www.thewashingtonpost.com

I was just sent this video of The Scary Guy. I love him and we’ve never met. Check out this video, he really confronts the issues of hate, violence and bullying. And, that blue moustache MUST be one of a kind. 

I have to commend People magazine for its May 18th issue which featured the article Bullied to Death? : Two Boys, Two Towns, Two Tragedies. The article detailed how two boys, Carl Walker-Hoover, 11 and Jaheem Herrera, 11 both committed suicided within 10 days of each other. The common factor in both of their suicides is that they both had been bullied at school and both had been called ‘gay’ by bullies.

As I read the article, it seems that both boys were counseled at their schools about how to feel and react when they were bullied, but the article doesn’t seem to indicate that the bullies received any counseling at all. That’s like telling the victim to get stitches every time an attacker cuts them, but you never tell the attacker to stop cutting them.

The situations involving these boys–one lived in Springfield, Mass and the other lived in Decatur, GA– is an example of the homophobia that exists in schools across the US. And, it also points to the fact that we as a society are not doing enough by counseling those who are getting bullied and then we say little or nothing to the actual bullies. Furthermore, it seems that the parents of bullies don’t have enough empathy for the kids who are being bullied–until their own child becomes the victim.

Let me give you an example: If you know your child is bullying someone and you do nothing to prevent it, you need to take more responsibility and look into the future. Say the kid who is getting bullied, one day gets angry and decides to strike back. Maybe he/she brings a knife or a gun to school and when your kid bullies him as he’s done countless times before, your child gets shot or your child gets stabbed… to death. Then what? All of a sudden, the parent of the bully is now the parent of the victim.

Parents, we should do all that we can for our children not to become bullies. And think about it for a minute. If you think bullying is okay because your kid isn’t being bullied, wait until the victim strikes back. It won’t be so cool then.

Resources:

National Youth Violence Prevention – http://www.safeyouth.org

The Megan Meier Foundation – Preventing Bullying & Cyberbullying

People Magazine