Spring and our minds turn to ,,,

I am aware that the national news may cause me to focus on bullying and the pain some of our young people are forced to endure. There will always be kidding and playing around. Yes, it may be teasing and perhaps a little too sharp at times. Those moments of friendly interaction are vastly different from the spiteful, mean and intentional acts of harassment.

If the opportunity presents itself, you might have that discussion with your children. Tuesday April 13 is a PTSA meeting at 7 pm with a speaker on the topic - Connecting with your teen."

But I stray from my original purpose. For whatever reason the spring sometimes when our thoughts turn to other things than the books and the upcoming test. For some of our students, that is every day and every season.

But over the years it seems that an "insider" activity has been to start a notebook (nowadays that might be electronic or some MySpace MyFace) with the name of the various people one knows at the top of the page. The notebook is then passed around to that circle of friends and comments are added under each of the names. Depending on who starts the notebook, there can be specific questions or prompts for the comments. As you can suspect, they can get a bit harsh or even hurtful.

This activity is more prevalent in the junior high grades. We see it from time to time in our 9th and 10th graders. Especially among a "close" group of friends. Almost always someone gets mad or hurt in the process. A slight comment can be very painful to targeted individual.

We do not condone this activity in school. As you might suspect, the students do not ask us for permission. If you are aware of your son or daughter being involved in some like this, you might ask them about it and how they feel about being "criticized."

I'm sure this is more MyFace and MySpace stuff and is just as hurtful to some individuals. You can't image how many parents see nothing wrong with words and phrases their children use in social networking.

Being a kid should be fun. Yes, there are some bumps and tears along the way just in the natural process. They should not be subjected to the mean and nasty young people out their.

If you have particular concerns or questions, let me know.