Cerf Upholds Bullying Charges in First Cases Under Tough New Law

State education chief rejects parents’ appeals in East Brunswick, Tenafly incidents.

One involved an East Brunswick sixth-grader who called out a classmate in gym for “dancing like a girl.” The other involved a fourth-grader in Tenafly who embarrassed a classmate for having head lice. In the first legal cases to go the distance under New Jersey’s tough new law, both episodes have been upheld by the state as incidents of bullying and harassment. Parents of the accused students had appealed the initial findings by the local districts. But state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf this month upheld the schools’ determinations in each instance, the first such rulings by the commissioner under the state’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. Legal experts said there will surely be more such cases to come. “It takes a while for them to …

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Anti-Bullying Law Runs Out of Cash

Ambitious and strict, the state's new anti-bullying law is also out of funds.

The deal was announced in the governor’s office in early March, a bipartisan agreement to save New Jersey’s anti-bullying law with an infusion of cash and a promise to take a harder look at ways the state can support school districts. Four months later, the cash for last year has been spent, none is appropriated for the next, and the task force created to examine the law and its impact is still to meet. Such has been the checkered history of the new law, considered one of the toughest in the country for its strict rules to investigate and closely track accusations of bullying. But from the start, some schools have bristled at several of the requirements, with a few bringing a legal challenge against the state claiming that it was creating …

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Clementi Family Pleased with Jury Verdict

In statement released Friday, family says in dicey digital world, young people need to know actions have consequences

The parents of late Ridgewood teen Tyler Clementi said in a statement Friday they're pleased with a jury verdict that concluded their son was targeted by his college roommate because he was gay. "They reached their decision based on the facts shown by the evidence," the family of Tyler Clementi said in a press release. "At the conclusion of the trial, the defense’s explanation of what happened was simply not believable." Dharun Ravi, 20, was convicted on 15 counts, including a hate crime, related to incidents in which he spied on his rooommate with a webcam in the fall of 2010 and attempted to do so again several days later. He planned to broadcast Clementi's romantic encounters with another man to others, a jury found. Clementi, a gifted …

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Dharun Ravi Will Not Take the Stand in Spying Trial

The defense in the case has rested after a day and a half.

Dharun Ravi, the 20-year-old man charged in a highly publicized internet spying case at Rutgers University, will not take the stand in the case against him.  WNYC is reporting that the decision was announced by Ravi's attorney on Monday as the defense rested after a day and a half. Ravi faces 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, related to 2010 incidents in which he allegedly spied on his then-roommate Tyler Clementi via webcam as Clementi was in their shared room with another man. Clementi, who was gay, killed himself shortly after discovering the alleged spying by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Ravi is not charged in connection with Clementi's death. Ravi's case began on Feb. 24 and has featured …

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UPDATED: Opening Arguments Begin in Clementi Spying Trial

Trial of Dharun Ravi expected to last about a month

Two Rutgers students who lived in the same dorm as Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi told jurors Friday what they saw on the evening Ravi allegedly used a camera attached to his computer to spy on his roommate's sexual encounter with another man. Ravi, 19, from Plainsboro, faces 15 criminal counts stemming from the incident. Clementi, after learning about the spying, committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge. According to a report on NJ.com, Cassandra Cicco told jururs she was present when Ravi and then-roomate Molly Wei spied on Clementi in their shared room via webcam. NJ.com reports that Cicco told the court that the three saw the video briefly, with an image of two men in an intimate embrace. One of the men was …

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Judy Shepps Battle

4:57 pm on Friday, February 24, 2012

The trial of ex-Rutgers student Dharun Ravi for (among other counts) the invasion of privacy of his roommate Tyler Clementi that may (or may not) have caused Clementi to jump to his death off the George Washington Bridge has begun today. The question of whether this is a hate crime or the actions of an immature college freshman will be key. My hope is that the 16 jurors who are serving on this …   more ›

Jury Seated in Clementi Trial

A 16-member jury was selected today, with opening statements expected tomorrow (Friday) in the trial of Dharun Ravi, who is accused of spying on a Ridgewood teen at Rutgers days before the teen committed suicide.

A jury has been selected in the trial of a 19-year-old Rutgers student charged with spying on his roommate days before the roommate committed suicide, according to NJ.com. Opening statements in the trial of Dharun Ravi, of Plainsboro, are expected to begin Friday. The 15-count indictment charges Ravi with invasion of privacy, hindering apprehension and bias intimidation. The bias charges--two second-degree and two third-degree--are consider the most serious. The second-degree offense carries a prison sentence of five to 10 years, if convicted, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutors say Ravi set up a webcam and secretly watched his roommate,  Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, "in an intimate encounter with …

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Sixth-Grade East Windsor Student Raises Over $1000 to Help Fight Bullying

She donated half of the money raised to Melvin H. Kreps Middle School, and half to the Tyler Clementi Point Scholarship fund.

There wasn’t one moment that triggered Joleigha Howland to start fighting against bullying, but after a few small ideas and three short months, she had raised over $1,000 to donate to the cause. In October last year, 11-year-old Howland, with the help of her mother, Tara Howland, created a Facebook group called B.U.L.L.i.E.D after seeing kids being bullied. The group had 552 members as of Wednesday night. The idea was to offer support for kids who are bullied, and the group description provides additional websites and phone numbers for helplines. “I’m trying my hardest to just make this much bigger, with bigger consequences [for bullying],” Joleigha said. After the mother-daughter team came up with the acronym B.U.L.L.i.E.D., which stands …

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Fine Print: Anti-Bullying Incident Report Form

The war against school bullying gets a new ally -- a paper one.

What it is: The state this week distributed to school districts the new form for reporting incidents of harassment, bullying and intimidation under the new Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. The form is page 4 of the state's system for recording all incidents of violence, vandalism, and substance abuse in schools. What it means: The form is the first of several steps the state is taking to address worries about the bureaucratic burdens imposed by the new law aimed to prevent bullying in and outside of schools. While lauding the law's intentions, administrators and educators have said the state up to now has provided little guidance on how to implement a law that requires strict timelines and procedures for investigating accusations of bullying…

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Study: LGBT Bullying Has Long-Term Effects

Hightstown High School lacks a Gay-Straight Alliance, but officials say they’re not opposed to one.

It’s many kids’ worst nightmare: getting teased, pushed around or even beaten up at school. It’s a problem that’s particularly prevalent among members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, and a recent study shows that sort of bullying has negative, long-lasting effects on its victims. As reported by our partners at the Huffington Post, a study last month by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University determined that students experiencing slights like hearing “that’s so gay” up through those who are physically attacked is linked to long-term problems in health and development. Entitled “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Adolescent School Victimization: Implications for Young Adult Health …

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Moms Talk Q&A

Bullying: What Parents Can Do

Each week, East Windsor Patch poses a question to our Moms Council and then asks our readers to join in the conversation.

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council—Susan Masone, Siri Heinrichs, Cristina Fowler, Christine O'Brien and our intrepid columnist Lauren Kim—takes your questions, gives advice and shares their solutions to the problems vexing all of us. Have a question you would like to share, or just want to provide your opinion on the question of the week? Head over to the comments section to do just that. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today with the following question: What can parents do to prevent bullying or to help a child who is being bullied? And our expert moms offer some advice: Siri Heinrichs: This is a tough one.  If your child is the bully, I think you need a lot of empathy. It may be difficult to get …

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Danny McConaha (The Confident Nerd)

3:14 pm on Thursday, April 14, 2011

www.theconfidentnerd.com   more ›