Seattle University Collaborative Projects - International Academy of ...

yet systematically well studied. In the age of globalization, many children are increasinglyspending their childhood in multi-cultural societies and the nature of bullying in this group maychange. This presentation will focus on clinical implications of bullying, as observed by a ChildPsychiatrist/Pediatrician over the past two decades. Case presentations will include clinicalobservations from various settings.Cyber-Bullying: Should Bullies be Protected by the Cloak of the FirstAmendment?Meryl Camin Sosa, Illinois Psychiatric Society, USA (msosa@ilpsych.org)More and more children are being seen in in-patient psychiatric units and therapeutic schools asa result of intense cyber bullying. Those are the lucky ones. Others commit suicide because theyfeel so hopeless and alone due to the bullying. Due to the advent of cyberbullying, bullying hasbecome so pervasive that children feel that there is no escape. Home is no longer the protectivesanctuary it once was. While many US states are enacting anti-bullying laws addressing bullyingin schools, these laws, with only one real exception, fail to address omnipresent cyber-bullyingoutside the schoolyard. With no clear cut U. S. Supreme Court ruling addressing this topic, somestates have been reluctant to expand the scope of bullying laws beyond the schoolyard due to thecontention, by the American Civil Liberties Union, that cyber-bullying in the home is protectedby the First Amendment. Opponents of anti-bullying laws have opposed inclusion of parochialschools within the scope of anti-bullying laws. If discrimination against LGBT persons is notallowed in universities, workplaces, and public facilities, why should it be allowed in parochialschools? Legal remedies, other than standard anti-bullying laws, will be explored in thispresentation.Why Are Bully Prevention Programs Failing in US schools?Dorothy Espelage, University of Illinois (espelage@illinois.edu)Bullying is highly prevalent, reduces academic achievement, and results in psychosocialproblems that extend into adulthood (Espelage & Horne, 2008). Despite the costs of bullying,the impact of bullying prevention programs in the US has been disappointing, especially inmiddle-schools. Two meta-analyses found that effects were non-existent or too small to bepractically helpful (Smith et al., 2004, Merrell et al., 2008). A third found that programs reducedbullying in non-US countries by 23% but effects for US studies were significantly lower (Ttofi &Farrington, 2011). It is important that anti-bullying legislation and policies are comprehensiveand enumerate specific characteristics of targets to be protected. Comprehensive policies aboutbullying and discrimination explicitly state protection based on enumerated personalcharacteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, race etc. Bullyingcontent is highly associated with homophobic banter (for review see Espelage & Poteat, 2012).52