In our society, bullying is commonly seen as a normal, inescapable part of growing up that children and adolescents must simply endure. In Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide, Butch Losey challenges this viewpoint, arguing that bullying is not a part of childhood development, but rather an aberrant behavior that, for the victim, can lead to adverse decisions, such as suicide and homicide. He provides a detailed understanding of the relationship between bullying, suicide, and homicide and an assessment and response strategy that can be utilized by mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents. This strategy involves a three stage ecological approach: screening to identify warning signs for bullying, depression, suicide, and violence by means of the Bullying Lethality Identification System (BLIS), developed by Losey and a colleague; assessing the risks of suicide and threats of violence using specially tailored forms and tools; and mediating to identify appropriate interventions. All of the associated tools and forms that the author has created are included as appendices and on the accompanying downloadable resources. Losey’s sensitive and compassionate treatment of this important subject will inform and motivate mental health professionals in their work with victims of bullying.

A teenage girl’s suicide raises questions of culpability for internet bullies in this investigation by the criminologist and true crime author. On September 5, 2015, in a public park in LaVergne, Tennessee, fourteen-year-old Sherokee Harriman drove a kitchen knife into her stomach as other teens watched in horror. The coroner ruled it a “suicide.” But was it? Or was it a crime perpetuated by other teens who had bullied her? Sherokee’s tragic death created a media frenzy focused more on sensationalism than finding the truth. Meanwhile the community of LaVerge sought answers to questions about who, if anyone, should be held criminally responsible for bullying. Criminologist Judith A. Yates peels back the distorting layers of social media and news coverage to examine a timely question with far-reaching implications: was Sherokee Harriman bullied to death?

Bozeman's work appeals to sociologists, criminologists, psychiatrists and forensic linguists. His thesis is three-fold: to explore emergent themes in suicides and murder confessions, to determine whether Durkheim's suicide typologies might also be applicable to homicide (heretofore untested), and to expand upon the "forces of production" and "forces of direction" in the stream analogy of overall violence to include the coincident rise of both forces in what the author refers to as the stream-flood analogy. Findings support the integrated approach to the study of suicide and homicide. The most exciting revelation in the book is that evidence of the value of Durkheim's suicide typologies were, in fact, present in the language of homicide offenders.

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

The second edition of this bestselling book is designed for mental health professionals, educators, and the parent/caregiver, this book provides specific ideas and techniques to work with children in various areas of complicated grief. It presents words and methods to help initiate discussions of these delicate topics, as well as tools to help children understand and separate complicated grief into parts. These parts in turn can be grieved for and released one at a time. A new chapter is included, called "Communities Grieve: Involvement with Children and Trauma." It includes information on The Taiwan Earthquake and how the community worked with children, a school bus accident in which 36 elementary school children witnessed the death of the bus driver that was driving and how the school system worked with these children and their families; a boy who was running on a cross country team and got hit by a car, which was witnessed by teammates; and how a non-profit community grief agency worked with family, school, and community. The last study is from the Oklahoma bombing and the outgrowth of a place for the traumatized children and how they still work with kids and family today. This chapter then contains new activities to work with traumatized grieving children. The new edition also includes updated resources, books, curriculums, websites, hotlines and another new chapter on bullying and victimization issues. The chapter for educators has been expanded, including the coverage of topics such as at-risk students, gay and lesbian issues, and self-injurious behaviors.

The prize-winning PBS correspondent's provocative antidote to America's misguided approaches to K-12 school reform During an illustrious four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow—winner of the George Polk Award, the Peabody Award, and the McGraw Prize—reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, on everything from the rise of district-wide cheating scandals and the corporate greed driving an ADD epidemic to teacher-training controversies and America's obsession with standardized testing. Along the way, he taught in a high school, at a historically black college, and at a federal penitentiary. Now, the revered education correspondent of PBS NewsHour distills his best thinking on education into a twelve-step approach to fixing a K–12 system that Merrow describes as being "addicted to reform" but unwilling to address the real issue: American public schools are ill-equipped to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century. This insightful book looks at how to turn digital natives into digital citizens and why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one. Merrow offers smart, essential chapters—including "Measure What Matters," and "Embrace Teachers"—that reflect his countless hours spent covering classrooms as well as corridors of power. His signature candid style of reportage comes to life as he shares lively anecdotes, schoolyard tales, and memories that are at once instructive and endearing. Addicted to Reform is written with the kind of passionate concern that could come only from a lifetime devoted to the people and places that constitute the foundation of our nation. It is a "big book" that forms an astute and urgent blueprint for providing a quality education to every American child.