Tag Archives: Bullying

2 teens sent to prison for S. Korean bullying suicide

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2 teens sent to prison for S. Korean bullying suicide – CNN.com.

A South Korean court sentenced two teenagers to prison terms Monday after they admitted bullying a school classmate until he committed suicide.

The two, both 15, were sentenced to terms of three years and three and a half years. The Daegu District Court said the teens’ prison terms could be reduced by a year, depending on their behavior while in prison, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Beginning in April 2011, the two forced the victim to play online games on their behalf, took the game winnings and beat him frequently, according to the court.

The teens also admitted to taking food from the victim’s home, pushing his head into the sink and forcing him to eat biscuits off the ground, the court said.

The victim killed himself by jumping off a building last December, naming his assailants in a suicide note.

The incident sent shock waves across the country and led to police and prosecutors cracking down on school bullying.

While neither of the plaintiffs have a criminal record, the court said in a statement, prison terms were issued because of the outcome and seriousness of the crime and high public criticism.

The parents of the bullied student, who are both schoolteachers, filed suit earlier this month against the school, its head teacher and principal, and the parents of both convicted middle school students, Yonhap said.

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Wyoming students report increases in bullying, being bullied

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Wyoming students report increases in bullying, being bullied.

More than half of Wyoming middle school students have been bullied on school grounds and more than one-fourth said they’ve been the bully, according to results of a statewide survey released Wednesday.

One in four high school students said they have been bullied in the past year and about one in five said they’ve bullied other students in answers given on the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The survey, administered every other year since 1995 to a sample of Wyoming students in sixth through 12th grades, asks students to self-report activity related to drugs and alcohol, diet and exercise, suicide and other health-related behaviors. Results are used by schools, school districts and social service groups to plan prevention programming and interventions.

Two bullying questions were added to the 2009 survey and students were asked in 2011 if they had ever bullied another student. About 54 percent of middle school students said they had been bullied at school and about 28 percent said they bullied another student in the past year.

More female high school students (28 percent) said they were bullied in the past year compared to male students (22 percent.)

One in three Hispanic high school students said they were bullied. Hispanic and American Indian students said they bullied other students at a higher rate — 28 percent of each group compared to 18 percent for all students.

Although more male students said they had been bullied than female students in middle and high school, the percent of female students who said they had been electronically bullied was double the percent of male students.

The electronic bullying question was added because of high rates and stories of cyber bullying being reported nationwide, said Meaghan McClellan, prevention education consultant for the Wyoming Department of Education. McClellan, who works on programs to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, said she’s most surprised by the high rate of students who reported physical abuse by a girlfriend or boyfriend — between 13 to 15 percent since 2005.

The percentage of middle school students who said they learned about HIV or AIDS has dropped steadily since 2003 — only 53 percent said they learned about the diseases in school in 2011 compared to 75 percent in 2003.

McClellan said the department offers training sessions across the state, but sex education is left to individual districts and schools.

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