Comments on White House Bullying summit

makeLAUGHTERct  twitter

 i think the largest challenge is cultivating a culture of respect,
 i love the idea of posting CORE VALUES on all the walls of the school, beginning from DAY one, setting the tone.

I did NOT have this growing up, it was always tattletales and snitching,
and sometimes getting the bully punished IF you had the guts to speak up,

but even worse, the  repercussions of snitching=MORE BULLYING ugh.. It just perpetuated the silence

Today simple tools will be the challenge, and also getting the entire faculty to implement, and to collaborate w students and families to have consistent policy.

I love when I hear about schools having BULLYING AWARENESS WEEK, early in the school year.. Great idea, im curious as to how effective ti is, I think the younger you start the better, older students just find ways to sneak it

Creating bystander awareness is key -peopel who witness and stay silent, have great power to speak up and say that not OK,
we never even thought about bystanders when i grew up
everyone jstu stared in silence, or joined in the laughin teasing

I still get notes on facebook from my childhood classmates saying how they admired me from afar, how brave I was to be myself, even before I came out,
I was  different:, asian, and not a tough kid, just a brainy artsy nonconforming kid, an easy bully target.
oh i and i dressed like culture club, duran duran and flock of seagulls, all at the same time.. bully paradise..
im thrilled that students have this summit today -
i still think of my HS classmate who was closeted and could not deal with the peer pressure,and committed suicide,
wish he was here today to see this summit

From facebook live cyberbullying discussion
LOVE THIS!!
“radical idea to me as a youth” [even as adult]” it is “NOT WEAK to ask for help”

BULLYING SUMMIT!!!

just got a text from INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
our publicist KATHY HORN has just entered into the White House BULLYING PREVENTION SUMMIT today!, woohoo!

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Tomorrow President Obama and First Lady host Anti-Bullying Conference at the White House

How Exciting!
The Obama's are holding a conference directly addressing Bullying. A landmark moment in history for everyone -could it be that our administration is proactively working to create a safer world for everyone? regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, perceived orientation and gender expression?

I never thought I would see something like this addressed by any president when I was growing up, in fact, even my parents wouldn't address it, or at least, I didn't have the tools to confront what was happening when I was a young queer kid, of color in small suburban Illinois.
One time bricks/rocks were thrown through the window w/ graffiti and trash strewn everwhere and the mailbox smashed. Horrific haunting feeling when I recall standing in the front yard with a bat, hoping for the vandals to return.

Whenever I speak or perform at a college or a high school, i see into students eyes and i see hope, despite the horrors that still exist today, at least I know when i tell a story or a joke and make people laugh or think, there's a chance that they will not have to go through what I did, and my work is done..
here's a link for tomorrow's event

here's to MAKE LAUGHTER COUNT,
changing lives, one joke at a time