Bullying: Teachers are supposed to help students, but picking WHICH students to help is apparently a grey area for one teacher.

So far the poll on my blog says that people want to hear about other news. One of the news items today that caught my attention was a story out of Washington State about a video that surfaced of a middle school boy getting bullied for being gay and the teacher helping bully him. After that he went home and told his mom that he wanted to die. Here is the link if you want to read the news story before I weigh in: Bellingham Herald Story.

So. Two things.

First thing: Here's the deal with bullying people: it's not okay. Ever. I don't care if you don't agree with what someone else thinks, who they are, what they believe in, who they vote for, what they wear, who they like, etc. They still have the right to be themselves without being told it's wrong, just like you do. If a group of gay guys started making fun of and bullying a straight guy for being straight, that wouldn't be okay, and I'm pretty sure that all straight people reading this can agree that they would feel upset if their sexual orientation was made fun of or said to be weak or stupid or anything else. So why do some people think it's okay to bully gay people??! It's making fun of who they intrinsically are as people and it's not okay.

*Sidenote: I am mostly just talking about bullying people because of their sexual orientation, but obviously there are other "reasons" people bully. I don't want anyone to think I am minimizing those reasons. This is the one that is highlighted in this story, so it's the one I'm focusing on. Reiteration: It's not okay to bully anyone ever for any reason.

Second thing: A teacher was in on it?! Are you kidding me?! As someone with a teaching degree who is the daughter of two teachers, the sister of three teachers, and the fiancée of a teacher, I am pretty much 1,000% sure that you can't bully kids and you lose your job if you do. (Yes, that's 1,000%. I know it doesn't really exist. I was making a point.)

Now. That teacher was suspended. What? You think that's a typo and I meant to say "FIRED"? Nope. He got a 10-day suspension without pay. That's it. BECAUSE, according to this website they can't fire him because of tenure issues.

Also, apparently this happened on February 2, 2012? Why are we just hearing about it now?!

What do you think about all this? Is it okay to let teachers keep teaching even though they have driven students to being suicidal? What should happen to this teacher? Please leave comments!

If you or anyone you know is in need of help, I have found the following websites to be useful. Please help. Don't let this kind of stuff keep happening.

ItGetsBetter.org
PFLAG
GLBT National Help Center
StopBullying.gov

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Election-time Healthcare Issue

So this morning I watched the news and one of the biggest headlines was about Paul Ryan's speech last night at the Republican National Convention (RNC). To be honest, I did not watch his speech because I was already asleep. But, apparently one of his biggest points last night is how he is super-hyped to get rid of Obama's health care plan, should Romney get elected.

Now. A little bit of background info on myself:

• I voted for Obama in '08. 
• Do I think he's following through on all of his '08 campaign promises? No.
• Do I know that he can't follow through on all of his '08 campaign promises because if he just got to run around passing whatever bills he felt like passing that would be a dictatorship and that would be bad? Yes.
• I just graduated from college.
• I am not married.
• I do not have a full-time job that provides health insurance.
• I have a chronic pain condition, so I have a lot of doctor appointments.
• I need health insurance to cover all those appointments.
• I don't have the money to pay for it on my own (see above: "I do not have a full-time job," ergo I have no money to pay out of pocket for those appointments).
• I LOVE the fact that the health care plan that Obama proposed and Congress passed makes it possible for me to stay on my parents' insurance plan even though I'm not a student anymore.

So, I know that two nights ago at the RNC, speakers were trying to reach and sway the young voters who voted for Obama in 2008 by bringing up the fact that we "shouldn't have to live our 20's out in our childhood bedroom because we're unemployed." I think that was Chris Christie who said that. Fine. I totally agree with that. Most of us who voted for him in '08 are still young enough and we are unemployed and now we get to stay on our parents' insurance plans until we are 26. Unless Romney creates full-time jobs for ALL the young people out there "in their childhood bedrooms" after he gets rid of Obamacare, the only thing that is going to change is that Obama's young supporters are going to have no health insurance, along with no jobs.

Should I bring up the point that a lot of the job creation Romney is talking about requires a certain level of education and that our public education system is unfair and not everyone gets a chance at getting a good education because of where they live? *whew* (Yep, that was a run-on sentence, for those of you paying attention to my grammar.) Nah, I'll save that for another day. :)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

P.S. Not everything I do on here is going to be political! It's an election year with only a couple months left until the election, so it's on my mind and other people's minds and this is a great way for me to blow off steam about it. I'm getting married in 10 months and so I'll write about stuff relating to that and I just got new kittens, so I'll talk about them, too! And other news headlines and fashion and cool stuff! Keep reading!