Obama: Don't Accept Bullying
ABC News reports:
President Obama, revealing today he was not immune from being bullied as a child, kicked off a day-long White House conference to prevent bullying at the White House today, declaring that the one goal of the day is to “dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up."
“It’s not,” Obama said from the East Room, “it’s not something we have to accept.”
The president said too often people just respond to bulling by saying “kids will be kids” but that is overlooking the real damage that bullying can do to kids. The White House conference today is an attempt to open up a conversation about how to avoid that damage and stop the bullying by gathered students, parents, teachers and members of the community.
The First Couple both approached the issue from a personal standpoint – noting that the issue is of great concern to them not only as the president and first lady but as “a mom and dad.”
“As parents, this issue really hits home for us,’ Mrs. Obama said, “As parents, it breaks our hearts to think that any child feels afraid every day in the classroom, or on the playground, or even online. It breaks our hearts to think about any parent losing a child to bullying, or just wondering whether their kids will be safe when they leave for school in the morning.”
The president said that he too had been a victim of bulling as a child.
“I have to say, with big ears and the name that I have, I wasn’t immune. I didn’t emerge unscathed.”
A third of middle school and high school student have reported being bulling during the school year – almost 3 million students have said they were pushed, shoved, tripped, and even spit on, the president read the statistics.
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