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Bullying has become a tragic epidemic in our nation, and even our world, today.  It is with deep sorrow that I write this week’s blog post.  Yesterday, a weekly E-Mail Newsletter came across my inbox, from DisabilityScoop.com, and one particular headline, caught my  highly distracted eye, that read  “Man Jailed For Bullying Girl With Disability.” 

I quickly read this article as I was On-Air on WRBC.FM hosting/producing the RUInspired radio show.  Even though it takes me a while to read, it is because of engaging, informative, and inspiring news articles from sources that cover beats such as “DisabilityScoop” that are informative to read, I am still able to be informed about important news stories in our world.

If you’d rather listen to me talk about this article, then you can either use your text-to-speech accessibility tech tool or download and listen to episode #3 of the podcast edition of this week’s RUInspired show.

William M. Bailey, from the American state of Ohio, is a 43-year old man who was walking his son home from school.  According to this article from DisabilityScoop.com, Bailey had appeared to be mocking his neighbor, who is 10-years-old girl and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

The court judge had sentenced Bailey to a 29-day jail term.  Even though he argued that he had not mocked this girl, the girl’s parents had questioned if this man was indeed honest about the apology.  The reason why the parents questioned if the man was sincere or not is because the young girl was, according to this DisabilityScoop.com article, afraid to go outside because of this alleged bullying.

This article from that DisabilityScoop had cited another article in which the Canton, Ohio Repository had reported.  In this article from the Canton Repository, the assistant city prosecutor was quoted saying that Bailey had:

“…threatened to choke her with a chain, said Jennifer Fitzsimmons, assistant city prosecutor. A Stark County sheriff’s deputy filed the disorderly conduct complaint as a result of the video recording of Bailey and his son at the bus stop, citing Bailey’s actions as ‘offensive behavior,’ Fitzsimmons said.” 

Photo Courtesy TWCPublicity.com

In this article from the Canton Repositor, Fitzsimmons is quoted again by saying, “It’s unfortunate that it had to come to this,” she said, adding that the positive result of the incident was that it brought “recognition to the problem” of bullying.”

There is a documentary film called “Bully” that is released to DVD in 2013 that I was told about earlier this year from a listener to the Special Chronicles Podcast.  This documentary address this horrific issue of bullying and follows a group of students who were bullied on a daily basis.

According to The Bully Project website, this year there will be 13 million American kids who will be bullied and 3 million students who will be absent because they feel unsafe at school.

As is shown in the film trailer above, is evidenced by the news article mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, and the outrageous statistics that the Bully Project projects, you should see the vital need that there is to put an end to this bullying.  Join me and other advocates in this movement and let’s put an END to bullying.

If you’d like to hear more about my thoughts on how we need to Stop bullying, then download and listen to a talk that I gave at an elementary school entitled, SpecialTalks03: “NO Bullying and Overcoming Obstacles at School.”

And you may recall that two months ago, I recorded a recent “walkcast” edition of the podcast and also a recent opinion article, titled “Words do hurt,” that I wrote in the RUTorch newspaper, where I addressed Anne Coulter’s recent “R-Word” hurtful tweets.  Many like-minded disability advocates consider both in-person and “online social media” interactions to be considered bullying.

If more people get involved in Special Olympics, then your life will be changed for the better and perhaps we can indeed put an END to bullying.   Because just ask yourself, why would you want to bully someone who smiles and loves unconditionally?

Join in the Conversation!  Have you been bullied in school or do you know someone who is?  What are your thoughts on bullying?  What did you think about this man who was sentenced to jail for bullying a girl with a disability?  Do you think it was fair for this man to be jailed for bullying?  Share your feedback in the comments below and/or call-in to Special Chronicles Podcast Voicemail Feedback Line at +1-630-384-9137.