Town rallies around Whitney to give her best Homecoming experience ever. Photo courtesy Dale G. Young / The Detroit News

Being named to the Homecoming court of your high school is many a girl’s dream but that dream turned into a nightmare when one 16 year old Michigan girl was voted in as a prank until her town rallied to support her. Many local businesses are contributing to the expense of the occasion so she can have a special night.

On September 13 2012, Whitney Kropp, a sophomore at West Branch’s Ogemaw Heights High School, learned that she had been voted in as part of the Homecoming court as a cruel joke. She had endured teasing before according to her mother Bernice Kropp, but nothing that compared with this.

Kids would point at her in the hallways and laugh. The boy who was chosen along with her dropped out of the program. Whitney was humiliated. She even endured teasing on Facebook. Whitney thought she was nothing but a joke to her classmates.

Before long, though, other kids began approaching her with support, encouraging her to take her place and not miss out on Homecoming. The student body of 800 elects a king and queen along with a prince and princess from each class to make up the Homecoming Court.

Dan Cwayna, the superintendent of the West Branch-Rose City School District, refrained from commenting on the situation out of respect for Whitney’s privacy other than to say he was aware of the situation.

The quiet, polite teen has decided to go to the dance with her boyfriend, who has been nothing but supportive throughout the ordeal. Her mom says they were all very angry at first but the outpouring of support from the community has been overwhelming.

When she learned of the prank, resident Jamie Kline started a Facebook page to garner support for Whitney. Though only 2100 people call West Branch home, the Facebook page has so far gathered more than 4000 likes from people throughout Michigan and across the nation. The page is filled with messages of support and shared experiences of bullying.

Among the businesses reaching out to Whitney is Jen Case, owner of Whit’s End Salon in West Branch She has offered to color and style Kropp’s hair at no cost to her. She understands that bullying is a serious problem and she wanted to do what she could to turn the trauma into a positive event.

Whitney’s gown, shoes, dinner and even a tiara are being supplied by other local businesses who share Case’s sentiments. They all wanted Whitney to have the night of her dreams.

Kevin Curwick, 17, fights cyber bullying with kindness on Twitter. Phot courtesy of The Guardian Express

Kevin Curwick, the 17 year old football team captain at Osseo High School in Minnesota is changing lives through Twitter. His mission is to combat cyber bullying by complimenting classmates using the same medium used to bully many of them. The unexpected upshot of his actions is that it’s catching on.

In a world longing for the positive, Curwick believes a kind word can go a long way. He may be right. Since opening his Twitter account, @OsseoNiceThings, Curwick has heard from people as way away from Minnesota as Connecticut, England and Australia.

Knowing how some of his classmates had been picked on through another Twitter page, Curwick started posting messages of encouragement, complimenting them on the strengths and talents. He remained anonymous, never letting his friends know he was behind the kind words that were lifting their spirits.

It was after an inquiry from KARE 11 that Curwick decided to take his alter ego public. It was then he learned his actions had instigated a movement of sorts. The Twin Cities area is now flush with “nice” pages and they movement is spreading across the country.

Recognition in the form of complimentary tweets has been received by Curwick from teachers, politicians and even form potential colleges. Celebrities jumped on the bandwagon after Curwick’s cause made it as a headline on the Huffington Post. A phone interview with Ran Seacrest and a tweet from swimsuit supermodel Brooklyn Decker followed. Still, Curwick prefers to remain out of the spotlight.

Senior Megan Nivison believes it only takes one person to initiate that change and she sees that person as Curwick. She says what he’s done has boosted the confidence of others. She personally saw his work in action when a friend got bashed and he posted something “amazingly true” in response that saved the situation.

Curwick will be the first to tell you he’s not a standout on the football team but if you check out his @OsseoNiceThings page you’ll see that he is a standout in other ways and in people’s lives. He likes being part of a lasting movement rather than being just a news flash.

Karen Klein, school bus monitored bullied by four of her students. Photo Courtesy of The Hollywood Gossip

Karen Klein, a grandmother who works as a school bus monitor, has had an unusual week.  It began when four male, middle-school students who regularly ride on her bus began taunting her. Several kids on the bus filmed the events and one video, entitled “Making the School Bus Monitor Cry” was posted on YouTube.

By Wednesday, the video had more than 100,000 hits and since then has reached more than 1,000,000 hits. It shows Klein, sitting on the bus and enduring taunts and cruel remarks from the four boys. They picked on her age, her weight and other factors relentlessly. The video lasts more than 10 minutes.

Klein displays unbelievable control in the face of the bullying she was subjected to. She has spent 20 years as a bus driver and monitor. She says the 4 boys involved have been known to misbehave before but there has never been anything like this, in all her years working with the kids.

Officials from the Greece School District where the students are schooled, along with local police, are looking into the incident. While Klein doesn’t want charges pressed against the boys, she does feel they should be punished and made to publicly apologize.

Where the story takes an amazing turn is in what happened next. The viral video caught the attention of Max Sidorov of Toronto who created a fundraising event on Klein’s behalf.  The “Let’s Give Karen – The bus monitor – H Klein A Vacation” had received more than $100,000 in donations from more than 10,000 online sympathizers by Thursday. As of today, the fund has swelled to $335,000. The fund appears on Indiegogo.com and will conclude July 20, 2012.

The original intention of the fund was to give Klein a vacation, far from the Greece, NY location of the incident to the country of Greece. Now that the funds have surpassed anyone’s wildest dreams, the excess will go to help Klein enjoy her retirement.

Klein has been seen on NBC’s Today show with Matt Lauer and on the local news station WHEC out of Rochester, NY. She expresses her thanks to those who have sent her flowers, letters, and email and reached out through Facebook to show their support and to those who have donated on her behalf.

Internet Fund Raises 350k For Bullied Bus Monitor

This week a very heartbreaking video and story have been circling the internet and over the course of a few days millions of people have seen the video. The video was shot by a student on a school bus in New York and after it was uploaded to Youtube the world reacted very quickly.

Throughout the 6 minute long video dozens of kids were seen bullying and harassing the elderly bus monitor until she began to cry, nothing was done to punish the kids or resolve the situation in the video but an online fundraising group has done what they can to remedy the situation. The video originally went viral early this week and in just a few days the online fund has raised over $350,000 for the woman.

The response has been absolutely overwhelming according to the women in the video and thanks to the new found internet fame she has been able to speak out against bullying and harassment around the country. The funds that have been raised will go in part to her, and in part to a variety of anti-bullying groups so that hopefully this sort of incident will not continue. The fact that the internet response has been so overwhelming is very heartwarming and the victim in the case has been able to reach millions of victims that suffer from bullying every day and will hopefully be able to make a difference in people’s lives.

Rean Carter, 5, gets his lifelong locks snipped for charity.Photo Credit PA Wire, North News & Pictures

Starting school is an anxious time for many youngsters and 5 year old Rean Carter of Sunderland England was no different, but Rean had an unusual reason for his anxiety.

Since his birth, his mother, Leaanne Smith, found herself unable to have his hair cut. She was so enamored of his golden curls that she just let them continue to grow. By the time Rean was ready to enter school, his tresses were nearly Rapunzel-like in length.

Children being the little creatures that they are, Rean suffered a great deal of teasing and was repeatedly told he looked like a girl. The school also required him to keep his hair tied up for health and safety reasons. It all came to bear one evening as Smith was doing the family ironing.

Rean began to cry and told his mother of the harassment he was suffering at the hands of his classmates. In spite of her affection for his long locks, Smith realized that it was time to take action.

She took the boy to his uncle, himself a barber and owner of ‘Fellaz’ barber shop. In short order, Rean had a whole new look and a bright smile.

How did Smith turn this into a positive event for her son? She had Rean collect sponsors from friends and family as way of showing support and encouragement prior to getting his hair cut. The effort paid off. Rean was able to raise more than $500 for Sunderland Royal Hospital, a place he spent 4 weeks at during 2010 when he was being treated for impetigo.

In addition to his new stylish look, Rean received a supportive welcome from classmates and teachers when he appeared with his new look.

His mother is also thrilled. She was amazed at the weight of the hair when they collected it and placed it in a bag. It now takes just a few minutes each morning to groom his hair where she once spent considerable time, washing, combing and detangling it each day. She says he sleeps better now too because the hair doesn’t get in his face while he sleeps.

A new look, supportive friends and family, and a lesson in charity have made this child a very happy 5 year old.

http://www.txwes.edu/provost/ucd.htm

For Arun Ghandi, the grandson of the famed spiritual leader, Mahatma Ghandi, the issue of bullying is very close to his heart. Growing up under the terrible yoke of apartheid in South Africa, Arun was bullied and beaten by white South Africans for being “too black” and by black South Africans for being “too white.”

Although his initial plan was to seek revenge against his oppressors, his grandfather taught him that justice has nothing to do with getting even and rests instead entirely on the ability to transform one’s opponents through love and suffering.

Arun has taken his grandfather’s original message of non-violence and love to New Hope, Pennsylvania in a two-day event that commenced last Friday and continued through the weekend involving a speech, a cocktail reception and benefit party at the New Hope Ramada, which is located on Route 202 in New Hope. All funds gleaned from admission fees, which ranged from $75 for the benefit party to $125 for the private reception, will benefit The Peace Center (http://www.thepeacecenter.org), whose focus is on conflict resolution, bullying prevention and tools for mediation.

The Peace Center stands like a beacon in the night by promoting respect and acceptance via conflict resolution programs throughout the Delaware Valley region of the United States. They were delighted that Arun Ghandi targeted their organization to promote.

Arun Ghandi, now a widower, is the author of several books about his famous grandfather, and his mission in life is to travel all over the world, sharing the spiritual leader’s powerful and enduring legacy of non-violence.