"How can “Christian” groups oppose bullying ban?" I think what it comes down to is this. The Bible warns Christians to beware of false prophets that will try to lead them astray. Based on what I am seeing from these so called Christians, they are ignoring that warning and accepting what someone else is teaching them as true, and not bothering to read the scriptures for themselves. Because frankly some of what I have seen is so directly opposite of what is taught in the new testament that it is considered a denial of Jesus and thus an offense to God

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Right on.

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It is sad that we too often limit ourselves to the term “bullying” when bullying only represent part of a continuum of aggression. It is only when we consider the entire continuum that we can identify an individual’s (any individuals regardless of age, gender, culture, education or hierarchy) emerging aggression, which research has shown as the only effective means to identify a shooter, suicide or otherwise. Research has determined that from the Moment of Commitment (the point when a student pulls their weapon) to the Moment of Completion (when the last round is fired) is only 5 seconds. If it is the intent of a school district to react to this violence, they will do so over the wounded and/or slain bodies of students, teachers and administrators. Educational institutions clearly want safe and secure schools. Administrators are perennially queried by parents about the safety of their schools. The commonplace answers, intended to reassure anxious parents, focus on the school resource officers and emergency procedures. While useful, these less than adequate efforts do not begin to provide a definitive answer to preventing school violence, nor do they make a school safe and secure. Traditionally school districts have relied upon the mental health community or local police to keep schools safe, yet one of the key shortcomings has been the lack of a system that involves teachers, administrators, parents and students in the identification and communication process. Recently, colleges, universities and community colleges are forming Behavioral Intervention Teams with representatives from all these constituencies. Higher Education has changed their safety/security policies, procedures, or surveillance systems, yet K-12 have yet to incorporate Behavioral Intervention Teams. K-12 schools continue spending excessive amounts of money to put in place many of the physical security options. Sadly, they are reactionary only and do little to prevent aggression because they are designed exclusively to react to existing conflict, threat and violence. These schools reflect a national blindspot, which prefers hardening targets through enhanced security versus preventing violence with efforts directed at aggressors. Security gets all the focus and money, but this only makes us feel safe, rather than to actually make us safer. Some law enforcement agencies use profiling as a means to identify an aggressor. According to the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education’s report on Targeted Violence in Schools, there is a significant difference between “profiling” and identifying and measuring emerging aggression; “The use of profiles is not effective either for identifying students who may pose a risk for targeted violence at school or – once a student has been identified – for assessing the risk that a particular student may pose for school-based targeted violence.” It continues; “An inquiry should focus instead on a student’s behaviors and communications to determine if the student appears to be planning or preparing for an attack.” We can and must assess objective, culturally neutral, identifiable criteria of emerging aggression. For a comprehensive look at the problem and its solution, http://www.aggressionmanagement.com/White_Paper_K-12/

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Wow! I'm a Christian myself, and even I didn't know that some of my brothers and sisters in Christ were so opposed to an anti-bullying bill for school children just because they think it might legalize gay marriage. So, I guess it's okay to love and respect others only as long as the "others" aren't gay or lesbian? I can think of two other groups that conservative Christians would oppose, too, and possibly even bully if they were given the chance, three, actually, if you count nonChristian religions: Moderate Christians such as myself who don't always agree with everything we are told by the church, and atheists, simply because they don't want to be Christian and are tired of having religious beliefs shoved down their throats. But in John Groom's article, it seems Christians would rather put their morals ahead of their own child's school safety and security. Well, if you don't want the gay agenda shoved down your child's throat, or bullied because they're Christian, then either home school them yourself or send them off to a private Christian school, where they can be bullied and harassed by their teachers and school faculty members if ever the kid decides he wants to disagree with what he is being taught and how he is being taught. Actually, Christian kids who attend public school are oftentimes singled out for unnecessary punishment just for trying to share their beliefs with others. A couple of weeks ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a news story of a 7-year-old boy who was sent to have a psychological evaluation just for drawing the Crucifix during a class project about what Christmas meant to the kids. But who's idea was it to get the kids involved in the first place? In my opinion, I think the teacher brought the whole thing on herself, and it resulted in a 7-year-old boy being punished for trying to share his beliefs with others. But on the other hand, there are two sides to every story, and John Groom was only mentioning how Christians lack love, kindness, and respect for those who either are not Christian, or they are Christians who don't agree with everyone or everything because they have a better understanding of how not to behave as Christians. Good job, John!

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Thank God it's not me, a lot of "Christian" kids think. Oh they say they love Jesus and hate evil, but most of them wouldn't dare stick up for some other kid who's being destroyed through bullying. Being bullied was enough to radicalize me and make me FIGHT this nasty social evil, as a decent person and as a Christian. If even ONE victim is saved from suicide, then how can any Jesus Lover oppose this anti-bullying movement? It's EASY to love Jesus as long as you stand for nothing and fall for everything the cool crowd does!

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