Bullycide - The Bullying Continues In Our Schools

 BULLYCIDE - The Bullying Continues

Bullycide is a term that describes the tragic taking of ones own life as a result of bullying.  Some of my readers can remember from August 2013 I wrote a post about one such Bullycide that occurred in the Greenwich CT Public Schools system.  A young boy killed himself at the commencement of school after summer break.  This was a tragic case of a student suffering incessant long term bullying.  This suffering student telegraphed his fears to fellow students, school officials, and even posted on facebook his music request for his impending funeral.  Bullying in our schools and workplaces is a big problem.  The insidious act of bullying is a more widespread and serious problem than most parents realize.  School districts and school boards have a vested interest in keeping reports of in-school bullying close to the vest and will cover for and protect not only the victim but also perpetrators under the guise of "protecting the student".  This results in gross under-reporting of incidents on campus.  Make no mistake about it - Bullying continues on school campuses across the country as sure as these campuses of rampant torture are awarding teachers as "Teacher of the Year".

According to bullyingstatistics.org, for year 2010, 30% of students 6th through 10th grades experience bullying as either a victim or bully.  That is 1 out of 3 students exposed first person to bullying.  I myself was victim to physical bullying as a young boy in middle school.  No wonder we have Police officers dedicated to school campuses.  Bullying in schools is such a large problem as many as 70% of students in public schools acknowledge that bullying is an ongoing problem.  As kids get older and progress to college bullying also follows them their in the form of hazing rituals whereby serious injury and death are common conclusions to hazing activities.  Something needs to be done.  Suicide is the leading cause of death amongst children under 14 years of age. With the massive influx of children from neighboring Mexico and South American countries the epidemic of bullying in our country is only going to get worse and the inherent yearn for school officials and main stream media to hide such bullying incidents is only going to get stronger. 

Become Informed
What can we do as parents and grand parents of children school age and older?
Look up information on bullying.  Learn what forms and types of activities that occur on campus and off which constitute bullying.
Even subtle name calling which continues for long periods is harmful.
Gather  as much info as possible on the school district you are concerned with in respect to incidents on campus.
Attend school board meetings, ask questions, request documentation and statistics on bully cases, raise issues, and hold school board officials accountable for issues happening on school property.

Protect Your Child and Grandchildren
If you ask school officials what you can do to protect your child against bullying you will get weak responses and diversion from reality.  Don't bother asking.  You will be labeled a troublemaker.  School literature such as student and parent handbooks will give the impression that all is well, your child is safe, and officials are trained and equipped to handle bullying cases effectively.  That is a half true pile of bunk.  School officials are trained more on damage control than protecting little Jane or John while in their charge.  So, what can you do?  Take heed of these guidelines that are common sense, empowering, and self supporting of your child taking an active role in self protection rather than simply encouraging your child to report what they see and feel.

Talk to your child about bullying and the different forms of such behavior.
Talk to your child about protecting ones self and not to rely on school officials to protect them.
Learn about situational awareness yourself so you can teach your child.  No one else is going to teach this to them.
Practice makes perfect.  Practice through drills of demonstrating bully tactics with your child.  Have your child act both the bully and the victim.  This includes physical contact as well as verbal and electronic bullying.  If you are not capable of the physical training get your child enrolled in a practical self defense training course.  See below on how to evaluate a self defense, Karate type school for your child that will teach reality based skills.
Train your child to be resourceful with materials that can be used in a self defense situation if necessary.
Teach flight or fight response.  It's ok to run.  Sometimes that is not an option.
Equip your child for school.  You can't send little Billy to school with a club, brass knuckles, or a gun.  You can send him or her with non-lethal practical tools to protect and instill confidence.  See below my list of items every child should have on them or in their back pack.
Most importantly teach your child about what to do if bullying happens to them.  What to do if they have no choice but too physically defend themselves against an attacker.  Most important is to tell your child you are their protector and advocate.  No matter what the circumstance or predicament they are to say nothing to anyone until you join them at the school.  Nothing means nothing beyond Name and your contact number.  No details, no names, no lies. Nothing.

Lets say you prepare your child and you did it well.  Bullying has occurred and your child has witnessed it or is the victim.  Your child had no option but to use self defense against an attacker and felt his or her life was in danger.  Training really paid off.  Not only did your child defend but now the attacker has serious injury or worse had to be taken off campus in an ambulance.  It is imperative that your child clam up.  At that point Police involvement is a necessity.  So will legal representation for you and your child. Clam up, shut up, and keep quiet until Mommy or Daddy get there or your attorney arrives whether at the principles office or heaven forbid Police Station.  Prepare your child for the worst.  As a parent, walk you child off campus post incident if possible.  Say nothing if possible or at minimum state your name, relationship to the [your]child, and your child was fearful of "serious bodily harm".  If there is police presence and leaving is not an option everyone clam up until you can lawyer-up.

Here is my list of items you can equip your student with to protect and command self confidence.

• A pocket Spy pen; USB memory with camera.  The police wear body cameras.  Why not your child. Remember no inappropriate use and only for capturing evidence of bullying, bad behavior, or attacks.

• Keys on a key ring with at least three keys.  One key in-between each finger.  Johnny can't have brass knuckles but a fist full of keys is almost as good.

• A good solid metal pen.  You can't equip a knife in your child's bag but a good sturdy steel cased pen is almost as good.  Learn and teach various strike points to your child for such an improvised weapon.

• A strong draw string bag.  One that can hold some money-coins, keys, or some other heavy and dense object or improvised with items such as a rock, can of soda, bottle of water, etc.  This can be swung at an attacker with devastating results.  Attach the bag to a belt from around the waste, swing with great velocity, and an attacker is going down quick.

• How about a small bottle of artist ink, the darker the better.  The bottle can be opened and splashed on an attacker even in the dark.  This will positively identify the bully attacker or even teacher with the roaming hands of a pervert.

• How about a loud audible personal alarm.  These 70+ decibel screamers are an excellent distraction.

These are all legal, non threatening, non-violent passive tools of protection your child can carry on their person.  However you can train you child to use what is available within their reach as a weapon or distraction as well.  A broom handle, dust pan, chair, lunch box,  some hard dense object, or anything that can be implemented as a self defense weapon.  Schools are full of safety equipment that can be used as a last ditch effort to defend, distract, or deflect an attacker.  Fire extinguishers are excellent pieces of equipment.  Especially the dry chemical types can blast an air depriving blast of powder in an attackers face.  Fire alarm pulls can be a great distraction as well in a dire circumstance.  When your daughters or sons life depends on quick action all is fare.  Teach them to use what is available and don't be a victim.  That is why school buses particularly scare me.  With a distracted driver struggling to keep 4 tons of metal in control, some bully's surround your child, and then start the pummeling.  The school bus environment is a very risky place for an unprepared child to be in.

The School District of Shame and Awards
So what about the School District in Greenwich CT almost 2 years after a student was tortured to death in classrooms and hallways?  Since my post in August 2013, the school district has posted all school board meeting Minutes and is up to date.  After a few mentions in school board meeting minutes containing some empty promises and pep-talk memos to school staff and concerned parents does anyone think the kids are any safer than before this terrible tragedy took place in 2013?  You would think that a school district that lost a child to bullying would take active measures to get staff training, document monitoring of bully activities on school property, and report progress in School Board Meeting minutes.  Well think again.  No such activity commenced after this poor child was tortured to death in the hallways and classrooms.  Since the burial of that poor student in Aug 2013, nearly 14 teachers in that child's school district have been congratulated as Teacher of the Year.  You can rest assured that the teachers are covering for themselves and are getting their pay raises.  They could not care less about the bully crimes on-going in the school.

More and more there are stories on mainstream news mediums about teachers abusing trust granted to them and perpetrating horrible crimes of abuse such as molestation, cruelty, and rape.  These are some of the most dangerous bully's with access to our children.  Teachers having "affairs" and resultant pregnancies with students is sick.  School districts prepare students for this insidious festering atrocity by assigning reading lessons containing sexually explicit stories of rape, incest, homosexuality, and even bestiality.  All under the guise of a nurturing learning environment.  Take a gander at little Johnnie's reading list.  Then go to open school night and orate the worst sexually explicit dialogue from the reading list, article, or distributed pamphlet.  Likely, you would be threatened with prosecution for lewd behavior if you did that in the kids play area of your local fast food restaurant.  Why is it acceptable for your child to read that material while alone but if read out loud at a school board meeting  it is not.  Schools have become sewers containing some of the worst behavior of human kind.  Protect your child.  Prepare your child.  Prepare yourself.

Martial Arts Training
Get your child some professional training in self defense techniques with a practical martial arts school.  Navigating the multitudes of schools available practically on every street corner can be an arduous task.  When selecting a school for your child keep in mind the purpose for that school and your child.  Not babysitting, not someplace to go after school until you get off work, not a club, and definitely not a school boasting a huge pile of trophies in the front window.  Ask friends, neighbors, acquaintances about schools in the area and if their kids go to those schools.  Inquire about the schools philosophy, instructors, structured curriculum, and training activities before even asking about cost.  Run a background check on the instructor(s) before enrolling your child.  Here are some things to look for when deciding on a martial arts school.

1. Does training occur always with bare feet?  This is a big mistake.  In the "Real world" bare feat self defense only happens at the beach or pool.  Training with street shoes, school shoes, sneakers is imperative, real world, and practical.
2. Is training always in the classroom?  Dojo?  Again real world is not the Dojo.  Training in a public park, on different surfaces, and close quarters is ideal.  Remember the school bus scenario?
3. Is situational awareness taught along with the fighting disciplines?  This is incredibly important.  Knowing your surroundings and risks can be half the battle of keeping one safe.
4. You want a well rounded training for your child and one that will prepare for real life situations.  Bringing home a bunch of trophies because your kid is quicker than a matched opponent at slapping an arm or leg is not going to protect anything.

Be safe my friends.  

Global Warming - A Concern, A Myth,or Social Engineering Failure

Global Warming - The Greatest Hoax of Social Engineering
Since the late 1990's "Global Warming" has been a buzz-word in the print media progressing into the national American media.  Since year 2000 "Global Warming" was no longer a buzz-word.  Mainstream Media outlets and news broadcasts started pontificating the dangers of "Global Warming" incessantly. Nightly lambasting of the American People began which came with a good dose of guilt trip for using fossil fuel, coal, and electricity.  Even cows and livestock were spotlighted as culprits that were going to be the cause of a dangerous increase in global temperatures.  Ultimately, we were all threatened with melting of the polar ice caps, oceans would rise hundreds of feet in depth, shore lines would migrate miles in-land, and snow would become a extreme rare event that millennial children would never see in their lifetimes.  As late as mid 2000's  we were all dared to ignore incandescent light bulbs, cow flatulence, and greenhouse gases.  Where do greenhouse gases come from.  You, me, cars and trucks, cows, boats/planes, animals, trees...mother earth.  The most concentrated source of greenhouse gases comes from the private jets that fly Global Warming Alarmists to and from speaking engagements.

Global warming - Is not a global calamity.  It is an epic fail of social engineering fueled by greed and power.  Realistic thought processes and rationality automatically debunk the claims of "Global Warming Alarmists".  Here is what we know and how "Global Warming" is no more real than a snake with ten heads or the presence of flesh eating Zombies walking the earth in search of nourishment.

The Ice Ages are Coming - The Ice Ages Are Coming
Before the age of  "Global Warming" there was a notion that Ice Ages would return to the earth.  Temperatures would be so cold Mother Earth would turn into a big ice ball mimicking the frozen planets Pluto and Uranus.  This was scary to me as a child growing up on Long Island, New York in 1960's-1970's.  Just having suffered through an incredible snow storm which dumped 2.5 feet of snow in less than 48 hours in the Town of Babylon the real threat of Ice Age seemed so plausible?  But, back then there was no solution to the problem offered.  Just a warning that CFC laden hairspray was going to doom all mankind.  Just a threat that we were all doomed to a frozen death; the same one that brought extinction to the dinosaurs.  What happened?  Here we are in the Winter season of 2015 with snow almost a daily event somewhere across America everyday.  With 40-50 % of American land mass covered with significant snow fall we are supposed to be concerned about the Earth frying us all like shrimp in a fry pan.  But we are all still alive?  No ice age.  No extinction.  I don't have to live a subterranean existence to insulate myself from sub-freezing ambient temperatures?  The 2nd Ice Age never came.  The zealots proclaiming Ice-Everywhere have died off of old age or just shut up altogether.  Why were we so stupid to think they could be right? So gullible are we?  So naive to believe that the earth would cover over with ice?

 Oh - the cleverness of them!
Why were we fooled? Because we had prominent minds and notoriously popular figures proclaiming global calamity.  Sounds familiar doesn't it.  News organizations were starting to realize that if they could get us to watch this news medium known as "TV Nightly News" they could sell advertisement minutes on commercial breaks and make money the old fashioned way.  News outlets were all to eager to publish hogwash, fiction, and pontification solely to boost viewership thereby increasing revenue from commercial spot dollars.  Back in the 1960's and 1970's network TV exploded.  The nightly news became a hot spot of information, intrigue, and moderate human suffering with news stories presented hours after happening. Like the "Killing of Kennedy", the subsequent killing of Oswald by Jack Ruby captured live as it happened almost in real time we were all glued to the TV.  I remember watching television on a black and white TV.  It was great.  When my parents brought home a Color TV I thought that was the bomb-diggity.  Holy-Cow! Color TV.  Then in the eighties came Cable TV, HBO, and those naughty channels with high tuner numbers.   When I think back to those times I feel so dumb for having irrational thinking that there was a real possibility Ice Age was coming and there was nothing anyone could do about it.  Think about that for a minute.   What if global temperatures were really cooling.  Our first warning would be some warm blooded terrestrial animals were already extinct.  Polar ice caps have grown to a 25% increase in mass.  Polar bears are migrating as far south as NY City.  Oceans have risen and gobbled up coastlines because the massive expanse of the ice caps have caused the oceans to deepen.  What could we do to stop it.  What would we do to stop it?  Are we that naive to think we could change the climate on a planet 8,000 miles in diameter! and over 24,000 miles in circumference?  Sure we could.  Hey maybe we could all take our blow dryers and point them out our bathroom windows.  Collectively, if every human on earth  would point a running blow dryer out the window surely the earths temperature could rise enough to combat global calamitous cooling.Yeah right.  There is a bridge in Brooklyn for sale and you can buy it.  Think about this.  The earth as we know it is 3.6 - 4.0 billion years old.  The age of the Solar System is estimated at 4.5 billion years old.  Do we really think that man can actively change the climate on earth after all these years.  Organized temperature monitoring tables have been kept for about 200 years. Is that really long enough of a period of time to proclaim we are experts on the subject of "Global Warming".  Of course the thermometers developed in the 1800's were as accurate and reliable as ones used today to study global warming.  It is just my personal thought but I think temperature monitoring devices used for the purpose of supporting arguments for global warming are adjusted to falsely report temperature increases.  Are we that arrogant, so self aggrandizing to think we are so great we can change the climate.  In ancient times characters claimed they could bring rain to parched dry land...What were they thinking.  They fooled some of the people some of the time but when the season past and not a sprinkle of rain fell they were in big trouble.  Somehow, now the global warming alarmists have the answers.  Capitalism, the use of fossil fuels, and the excess lifestyle of Americans has caused irreparable damage to Mother Earth.  But they NOW have the answer!  Just purchase efficient fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs, buy electric cars, and buy solar panels for producing electricity on our roof tops.  Stop eating meat, stop burning coal for energy, and produce electricity with nuclear technology.  Buy only "Green" endorsed products and we can save the world from ourselves.  Again, do we Americans think we are the only people on earth that matter?  Buying CFL Light bulbs are the worst thing you can do for the environment.  They contain Mercury (Hg).  Some Climate Change Alarmists will say that the 1-4 milligrams of Hg contained in a CFL bulb is harmless if you are exposed to the contents of a broken CFL bulb.  Oh sure.  That is like saying trace amounts of Arsenic is harmless as well.  How about this Tuna Eating Public! Eating just 3 Oz of Ahi Tuna will dose you with 100% levels of what the EPA considers safe consumption of Mercury in one week. Then there is the threat of proposed regulation on CO2 emissions (aka Carbon Footprints) from household and commercial entities.  These CO2 emissions monitored at our expense will then be taxed.  Who is going to get all that money?  "The Carbon Footprint" in America is not even a drop in the bucket compared to the CO2 emissions of India, Pakistan, Russia, and China.  And what about CO2 emissions?  Do we really think we can get rid of CO2?  Do we think we can get rid of matter we don't like?  Uh - there is something called The Conservation of Mass? What are we imbeciles?  No, we are not imbeciles.  We are victims of a hoax perpetrated by greed, built upon guilt complex, by those that think they are smarter than all of mankind.

The Rise of Climate Change

When Global Warming Alarmists started to be ignored they needed a new gig. Cir. 2012 ~ Alas the age of "Climate Change".  Climate change is the perfect misnomer.  Climate is always changing.  Last week there was ice covering  all of outdoors in North Georgia.  This week there is rain and warmer temperatures then a day later snow.  In a span of 10 days the climate in North Georgia changed from rain to low teen temps, rain, then snow.  I drove my car from Savannah GA to North Georgia of which the trip took 4 hours.  The climate whizzed by at 70 MPH from 40 º

temperatures, rain, then sub freezing temps and finally ice covering the roads, trees, and vehicles.  Yes, that is climate change.  Can't dispute that.  However, the Global Warming Alarmists have now adopted "Climate Change" as their new mantra.  The same empty substance just a different name.  Yes ~ we have climate change.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall the climate changes with stark regularity every year with pin-point predictable precision.  Even Man's pontification of what a groundhog thinks is biased toward Global Warming.  58% of Groundhogs surveyed in 2015 were told they were predicting early Spring.  That is until NY City Mayor killed the stand-in groundhog by dropping her on her head.  2014 may have brought the untimely demise of the Groundhog on Staten Island because she "Predicted 6 more weeks of winter" which did not fit the liberal minded paradigm of Global Warming or Climate Change.  But it is not the end of the world.  There is only one way that man can end his rein on the planet earth.  Nukes- Nukes and more Nukes, bombs that is.  We can extinct ourselves quickly with Nukes or die a slow agonizing death from Mercury poisoning.  The earth will still spin every 24 hours and rotate around the Sun every 365 days.  Unless of course if we all pointed our running blow dryers due north out our windows we could possibly alter the Earths axis, thereby causing global upheaval.  We better quickly legislate ourselves from doing so and tax every minute we point our blow dryers in the same direction.  This of course would be monitored with GPS tracking in our blow dryers which will push the cost of such luxury devices to well over $500 USD, which will then connect on line to the Internets, uploading data to NSA, finally reporting to IRS for tax revenue collections.

God Almighty
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.  Genesis 1
God is like your Mother. She brought you into this world and she can take you out.  Only God can change the climate as he sees fit to play out the destiny of man.  Not scientists, not Global Warming Alarmists, nor Climate Change band wagon jumpers, not even light bulb salesman.

Don't worry, the human race is not that smart that we can claim we know how to change weather or that we can turn sand into gold.  It has been tried before with persistent failure.  Just like the alchemists who failed to turn lead into gold, the Climate Change hoaxers will fail as well.

Good day my friends.  Stay warm.

Scott R. Mayorga A.A.S., BS MT (ASCP)H CLS
hematech@yahoo.com
labhematech@gmail.com
@hematech

Wrist watches for the ordinary man - Bulova Marine Star

Wrist watches for the ordinary man - Bulova Marine Star 330 Ft. Chronograph Alarm

Bulova Watch Company makes a very fine time piece with a long history of creations since inception in 1875.  Just looking at the current line up of Bulova watch lines makes me stare in awe at how beautiful they are and how meticulously constructed the pieces are.  Bulova represents one of the venerable USA watch makers to ever become incredibly successful.

I purchased a Bulova Marine Star 330 Ft. chronograph back in 1996.  I spent about $330 for this time piece.  It became a daily wearer for a long time to come.  The watch is beautiful and dutifully suited for measuring time.  The watch is rugged yet stylish, dressy, and classic looking.  I was looking for something different back then but something I could wear in the Clinical Laboratory setting and not worry about getting wet, exposed to chemicals, and the dust contained in latex gloves.  I also wanted a time piece to keep elapsed time for me during lab operations.  Hence, I found this beauty in a jewelry store window.  I took it home and have been amazed by its function ever since.

This watch has been worn in laboratory settings, during skateboard runs, on bicycle treks, in ocean surf, swimming pools, and during home maintenance and auto repair procedures such as painting, lawn care, and oil changes, etc..  To this day the watch shows some wear but could easily pass for a time piece of a year or two old.  The gold finish is just as bright and polished as the day I purchased it.  The hard mineral crystal has one tiny ding but no large scratches to give away its 18 year age.  Due to cracks the original black rubber strap has been replaced with a rubber replacement that was easily obtained.  The current band contains a small compass.  This rubber strap band is also showing age so I have another strap waiting in the wings when the time comes.

I love this watch.  I love gadgets.  This watch has gadgets.  It does much more than keep time accurately with super quartz precision.  Stop watch function is converted from the sweep second hand with the touch of a register button.  Standing at the ready the second hand is at 12 waiting for start.  Stop watch time is recorded on three registers; 1/10th second, minute up to 60, and hours up to 12.  Stop and start can be repeated multiple times without resetting stop watch function.  Another push of a button returns the watch to sweep second hand movement.  If a count down timer is more of what you need this Marine Star has that as well.  With sweep second hand sweeping press and hold the button at 10 to move the indicator in the 1/10th sec. register to a desired amount of time from 1-49 minutes.  The register has dual indicator markings.  Press the button at 2 and the count down timer gets underway with three audible beeps.  An audible alert will sound at the end of the count down which is silenced with the press of any button.  The count down time indicator can also keep track of manual counting from 1-50 and beyond such as golf swings, laps, reps, etc.  Very handy!

There is also a rotating bezel with ratchet clicks marked with a gold dot at 60, 10,20,30,40,50 and alternating hash marks in gold.  If a real alarm is what you need the Marine Star has that as well.  Pull out the stem at 4, then the stem at 3.  The hands will then wildly rotate to an alarm time previously set on the watch.  Turn the stem clock or counter clock wise to advance the hands to a new alarm time on a 12 hour clock.  Rapidly turning the crown will put the watch into continuous motion.  When desired time is shown rotate the crown slowly to make final adjustment of alarm time.  With desired alarm time indicated push in the stem at 4 and leave the stem at 3 out.  The watch will now return to current time and the watch will alert at the desired set alarm time.  I have amazed many with the antics of this watch.  When I say I can make time go backwards I can amaze anyone who doubts that I can do that with just a pull of the stem at 4 to 1st position and a clockwise turn of the stem.  Add the stop watch function and the watch looks like it is going absolutely bonkers.

 

Does this watch indicate time?  Yes very accurately so with function and innovation of a fine Bulova quartz movement.  Although this watch does not have a screw down crown I have successfully worn this watch in swimming pools and ocean surf many times without harm to the watch.  It still keeps time reliably and functions beautifully.  Watch batteries last 1.5 to two years depending on usage and those can easily be obtained from various battery retailers.

Finding this exact watch for purchase on line can be tricky. I spotted another used beauty on EBay in June 2014 with a bid of $200.00  If you search you can find.  Although, the current line up of Bulova time pieces includes both quartz and automatic varieties.  Take your pick "Ordinary Man"...  New or used with Bulova Marine Star you will not be disappointed.


As time marches on make the most of your time.  Enjoy your watches for all occasions.

Scott R. Mayorga  A.A.S., BS MT(ASCP)H CLS