Banishing Bullying Behavior challenges students, parents, educators, education support professionals, administrators, counselors, and policy makers to confront the culture of cruelty that is devastating our society. This book is filled with insights, personal stories, anecdotal material, and strategies that are directed to the widest audience possible. It urges us to become change agents and empower children to transform their pain, rage, and revenge to empathy, kindness, and healing. Fried and Sosland tackle the demanding questions about physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, cyber, sibling, and even summer camp bullying. What sets this book apart is Chapter Eleven, "the Student Empowerment Session," which focuses on giving students ownership of the problem and the solutions. Anti-bullying legislation and school policies are essential supports, but we must change the hearts, attitudes, and behavior of students. President Obama said it well, “Bullying is not normal and it is not inevitable.” The implication of that statement is daunting but not impossible. Banishing Bullying Behavior will inspire you to prevent peer abuse and intervene effectively when necessary.

Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action from Early Childhood through Senior Adulthood is just that, a call for each of us to take much needed action to stop the growing epidemic of bullying by people of all ages. This book is an in depth exploration of the various types of bullying: physical, verbal, emotional, cyber bullying and electronic bullying and the devastating, lifelong effect they have on their victims. In order to give the reader a clear understanding of the continuum of bullying behavior, Sosland presents the experiences shared by individuals of all ages in all stages of their lives. Many of these individuals came to the author with their stories when they heard she was writing this book "to spare others the enormous pain bullying had caused them". The serious and often tragic topic of cyber bullying and bullycide, often suicide by teens who have been bullied until they can no longer endure the pain, is discussed by parents as well as professionals. Cyber bullying is presented at all stages of peer abuse. Much has been reported and written about childhood bullying but it has become clear that students identified as bullies in third grade were bullies into adulthood. This book explores their behavior in the workplace and senior adulthood. It is estimated that approximately fifty percent of the students who are bullies in school are bullied at home either by a parent or sibling. The parent who bullies at home probably is also a bully in the workplace. The author presents an overview of workplace bullying and an in-depth look at bullying in the fields of medicine, law and academia. At the end of an interview with a professional who described twenty-one years as the target of a number of different bullies in one organization Sosland asked why she stayed that in that job such a long time. She responded that she loved her job, believes that her organization was doing important work and therefore was willing to put up the negative workplace environment. The book also presents advice on how to experience positive, healthy workplace experiences. A chapter devoted to the efficacy of leadership includes a discussion of healthy workplaces. Another chapter covers the topic of the enormous power of kindness. It addresses the role of modeling and teaching kindness as an important component of the solution to the bullying problem. This book concludes with model responses to the "Call to Action" with descriptions of several organizations responses. It includes guidelines for individual and group responses.

Banished is an eye-opening, deeply personal account of life inside the cult known as the Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a fascinating story of adaptation and perseverance. You've likely heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. Perhaps you've seen their pickets on the news, the members holding signs with messages that are too offensive to copy here, protesting at events such as the funerals of soldiers, the 9-year old victim of the recent Tucson shooting, and Elizabeth Edwards, all in front of their grieving families. The WBC is fervently anti-gay, anti-Semitic, and anti- practically everything and everyone. And they aren't going anywhere: in March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the WBC's right to picket funerals. Since no organized religion will claim affiliation with the WBC, it's perhaps more accurate to think of them as a cult. Lauren Drain was thrust into that cult at the age of 15, and then spat back out again seven years later. Lauren spent her early years enjoying a normal life with her family in Florida. But when her formerly liberal and secular father set out to produce a documentary about the WBC, his detached interest gradually evolved into fascination, and he moved the entire family to Kansas to join the church and live on their compound. Over the next seven years, Lauren fully assimilated their extreme beliefs, and became a member of the church and an active and vocal picketer. But as she matured and began to challenge some of the church's tenets, she was unceremoniously cast out from the church and permanently cut off from her family and from everyone else she knew and loved. Banished is the story of Lauren's fight to find herself amidst dramatic changes in a world of extremists and a life in exile.

Although twice exceptional students are gradually receiving more recognition and intervention, they are still a grossly underserved segment of the school population. A Call to Action: Identification and Intervention for Twice and Thrice Exceptional Students begins with basic information about twice exceptional students—students who are both gifted/talented and who also have learning disabilities—and provides strategies for how educators can identify these students. It is imperative that classroom teachers provide intervention to address both exceptionalities since these students often score at grade level on standardized tests, the giftedness score lowered by the learning disability raised by the giftedness, resulting in neither exceptionality being addressed because they do not qualify for either of the special services. This book discusses the Informal Reading Inventory, how it should be administered, and how the information provided by this instrument can enable the classroom teacher to meet the special needs of these students. It also presents Stopwatch Spelling, a program that with a fast-paced, confidence-building approach, helps many students overcome a frustrating impediment to becoming proficient readers and spellers. A Call to Action draws upon classroom and clinical experiences, field work, and interviews with twice exceptional students of all ages, parents, and community partners.

Bullying in schools has become the focus of a growing body of literature; however, much of that work diminishes the role of social context, social identities, and prejudices despite extensive research evidence suggesting that many victims of bullying are targeted because of an aspect of their social identity. This book demonstrates how the prevention and intervention of this phenomenon, termed identity-based bullying, is a social justice issue. Expanding beyond bullying prevention that focuses on individual perpetrators, the book examines identity-based bullying in schools as a microcosm of larger systemic tensions and conflicts. The author utilizes a social constructivist perspective to understand the experiences of children as active agents in their own lives. She also provides an international framework to describe the impact of culture, social structures, and politics from the US and the UK. Challenges and barriers to addressing identity-based bullying are explored and recommendations are made for best practices for teachers, administrators, and mental health professionals to prevent and respond to identity-based bullying.

Drawing on her decades of work with troubled youth and conflict resolution, bestselling parenting educator Coloroso offers a groundbreaking guide to an escalating problem of school violence.

In his Nautilus Award-winning classic Touching Spirit Bear, author Ben Mikaelson delivers a powerful coming-of-age story of a boy who must overcome the effects that violence has had on his life. After severely injuring Peter Driscal in an empty parking lot, mischief-maker Cole Matthews is in major trouble. But instead of jail time, Cole is given another option: attend Circle Justice, an alternative program that sends juvenile offenders to a remote Alaskan Island to focus on changing their ways. Desperate to avoid prison, Cole fakes humility and agrees to go. While there, Cole is mauled by a mysterious white bear and left for dead. Thoughts of his abusive parents, helpless Peter, and his own anger cause him to examine his actions and seek redemption—from the spirit bear that attacked him, from his victims, and, most importantly, from himself. Ben Mikaelsen paints a vivid picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots of his anger without absolving him of responsibility for his actions, and questioning a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities. Touching Spirit Bear is a poignant testimonial to the power of a pain that can destroy, or lead to healing. A strong choice for independent reading, sharing in the classroom, homeschooling, and book groups.