Antwone Fisher

Picture courtesy of Google.com

On the night of June 27th, 2012, we watched a movie titled, Antwone Fisher. Antwone's mother gave birth to him while in jail so he was passed over to the state. Once in a foster home, he had to stay with the Tates family. The father was a preacher and he had two foster brothers, one named Keith and the other Dwayne. Fisher and dwayne were the only two that were beaten and their foster mom referred to them as "niggas". Whenever the family went out, Antwone was forced to stay home with their cousin Nadine and she would make him touch and please her in sexual ways. When he got older, he finally stood up to Mrs. Tate after years of being beaten. He eventually went to the Navy where he was still bullied by the other seaman. Because he was bullied so much, he turned to fighting with resulted in him going to counseling. Although he had to go, he didn't talk. After a while, he opened up to the counselor  (Denzel Washington) and began to express the anger from his childhood to him. His counselor encouraged him to go back and find his real family. After intense thought about it, he decided to go through with it. His father died before he was born so after searching through multiple telephone books, he found his aunt. She agreed to see him and they opened him with welcome arms. His aunt and the few family members that he met asked him if he would alike to meet his mother. He, agreed and they took him to her house where she was just as surprised as he was. His mother knew exactly who he was but she was speechless. He went on to express how hurt he was because she didn't try to reach out to him over the years. Once he left, he went back to his father's side of the family where they celebrated his return home. Once established in his family, he went back to the Navy to tell his counselor about his experience.  

Workshop Press Release: What is the value of this workshop?

Inesha Carruth

As I sit down and interview Inesha Carruth, a graduating senior from Cedar Shoals High School who will be attending Augusta State in the fall, she explains the value of this workshop as being very insightful. She goes on to explain that the workshop was designed for those of us who are aspiring broadcast and print journalist. It provided us with the opportunity to learn all of the in's and out's of being in the multimedia business. "I got to see how real journalist work" Inesha commented. Throughout our week long journey, other lessons were centered on the salary of a journalist, the  traveling aspect of the career, the behind the scenes work and the crazy hours.  In addition to the crash course in journalism, the workshop's topic was centered on bullying. We all received shirts that discouraged bullying. In our efforts to promote anti-bullying, as a unit, we created a public PSA pledging not to bully. "I will wear my "No Bullying" shirt, proudly pledging to operate in love, not fear, i will always pledge not to bully" said Inesha. This has been an eye opening experience and a great opportunity to learn new things and create new bonds.

Are YOU A Bully?

Kaelin Martin, Dennis Edgecombe, Nayirah Muhammad, Briana Alexander

“Bully/Bullying: identified as a noun, verb, and adjective is defined as systematic or chronic psychological or physical inflicted pain that interferes with ones education. “

- Brooks Rumenik, Director of Office of Safe Schools of Florida Department of Education.

Do you find yourself unintentionally picking on an individual that may not live up to your standards in the place of learning? As a student walks the halls it is only natural to notice other students as you walk by. Without paying any attention to it, you singlehandedly select a person and zoom in on them. Scanning them from head to toe, you find at least five things that may be wrong or just plan weird. What is your initial response? Do you take a picture and post it on every social network that you are affiliated with? Or maybe you laugh and joke about it with your friends in the lunchroom. Could you be that person who looks them in the eye and embarrasses them in front of the entire student body? With that said, a simple question arises. “Are you a Bully?”

Whether you know it or not, you could have habits that allow others to view you as a bully. These things may seem relatively normal to you, while they can be verbally or physically harmful to others.

After an interview of Brooks Rumenik of the Dept. of Florida Education by the young researchers of FAMU, they came up three things that could reveal a true bully.

Top Three Reasons YOU May Be Or Have Been a Bully

1  .     If YOU have ever been a victim or subject to intimidation in the workplace, on a sports field or in the classroom.

2  .     If YOU have ever been a victim or subject to assault, in the form of physical or psychological abuse.

3  .     If YOU have ever been a victim or subject to harassment; based on sexual orientation or religious preferences.

Even though the laws of conduct in Florida schools were reformed in 2008, bullying outside of the education system is still present. However, if you are in a Florida school, and are a victim of the conflicts mentioned above, please contact Brooks Rumenik using the contact information below.

Brooks Rumenik

(850) 245-0416

Brooks.Rumenik@fldoe.org

Cyber BULLYING

Photo courtesy of the ABC Original Movie "Cyberbully"

  On the night of June 25, 2012, we watched the ABC Family Original Movie, Cyber-bullying. It was about a young girl in high school who was mentally abused on an online website. 
  A fake page for a young man named James, who pretended to like her, was created. It started off small and went viral within minutes. Her friends started to leave her at school by herself because of guilt by association. The young man she had a crush on started to ignore her at one point, and it seemed as if life was over for her. The usual "mean girl" in the high school, constantly made snide comments and embarrassed her on the social network. 
  The bullying not only affects her, but her family and friends. In attempts to get her life back together, she says some hurtful things to her best friend and eventually tries to kill herself. 
  She creates a video called "The Real Taylor Hillridge". This video would have been the last thing anyone would see before she digested more than enough pain killers and overdosed. However, her best friend stopped her before she went through with it. After a few days in the hospital, and multiple group therapy sessions, she started to get better. 
  Taylor's mom then decides that the cyber bullying has gone too far. She takes the issue of cyber bullying to the state legislature and demands that an anti-cyberbullying bill be passed. 
  Just when things started to look brighter for her, she found out that her best friend Samantha was the person who created the fake account of this guy James. A turn in events started to occur after everything came to the light. 
  Now it was Samantha's turn to see how it felt to be the target of bullying. Word got around that she created the fake page and as a result, her peers then turned on her. Even after all of the tormenting Taylor received from her best friend Samantha, she stood by her and helped her through what she already went through. The movie does a good job at showing people exactly how mean words can affect people and their lives.