Sign up to get updates from us
This week on KCB, it's a double dose of how in school bullying affects you.
We start with the Student. Jay Putty is a successful and talented musician who back in his school days was bullied so badly, he ended up in the emergency room with head trauma. Jay shares his story of the bullying, the abuse and the school district neglect and how he overcame it all.
Then we follow that up with a parent's tale. Colleen Bidwell is your normal caring mother living somewhere in the Mankato Minnesota area, just trying to raise her kids. Her young daughter had caught the ire of one of her classmates, and this has led to a multi year saga of continued emotional torture that almost seems endorsed by the school.
Can you spot the running theme between the two stories?
Colleen is a private individual but she is interested in finding like minded parents going through similar situations to her and has asked us to act as an intermediary. So if you would like to contact her, email us at karatechopbullying@gmail.com & we will put you in contact to her.
Jay Putty can be found on Instagram & TikTok
On IG: JayPutty
On TikTok: @JayPutty
Jay's song closing out the episode is "The Best Days are Yet to Come." use by permission.
If you want to learn more or are subjected to either Bullying or Harassment, you can go to:
If you feel that you'd like to make your story known, email us at karatechopbullying@gmail.com
If you are dealing with dark or suicidal thoughts call The National Suicide Hotline:
Phone: 988
Opening Theme: "The Beginning and the End" by Grahf
Closing Theme: "Cute Melodies 11" by Soundtrack 4 Life
This week on karate chop Bullying.
Speaker:We have a double dose of interview.
Speaker:We start with the student who will regale us
Speaker:with his terrifying tale of bullying that got so bad
Speaker:that he ended up in the emergency room and the school did nothing.
Speaker:We follow that up with another tale of a school doing nothing.
Speaker:As we talk to a parent whose daughter is currently in school
Speaker:being bullied for years and the school doesn't help.
Speaker:Let's hit that music and let's get into it.
Speaker:Before we start our doubleheader of interviews,
Speaker:I want to bring in my co-host, my compatriot, my very own Tim Flynn.
Speaker:Tim, how are you doing today?
Speaker:I'm doing wonderful, Bruce.
Speaker:Like every weekend I get to do what I love to do, and that's to teach martial arts.
Speaker:And I get to help co-host this podcast with you and help
Speaker:break the silence of bullying.
Speaker:Well, normally we have a bunch of banter, but this week we have two interviews,
Speaker:so we're going to get right to it.
Speaker:Joining us first is the student, well, the former student.
Speaker:He's currently a working musician.
Speaker:But back in the day, he was bullied so badly, he ended up in the hospital.
Speaker:Joining us now is Jay Party to tell us his story.
Speaker:Jay, thank you for joining us.
Speaker:Bruce, Tim, thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker:Very grateful to be here on this platform.
Speaker:Thank you for everything that you both do to give voice
Speaker:to those who've been afflicted by some of the,
Speaker:you know, most common tragedies that come across those who grow up.
Speaker:So thank you for having me today.
Speaker:Sadly, as horrible as your story is,
Speaker:it's also not that uncommon, though maybe not as extreme.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When it comes down to it, the sad part about bullying as a child
Speaker:is it's almost as common as breathing at this point.
Speaker:And that can be attributed to family dynamics, insecurities, or just growing up
Speaker:that we all have something inside of us
Speaker:that we have to let out in some way, shape or form.
Speaker:Visceral or not.
Speaker:I, I kind of come from a very weird dynamic.
Speaker:You know, I grew up in a in a Catholic household,
Speaker:so my parents wanted to send me to a good Catholic school.
Speaker:And little did we know.
Speaker:When you go to a Catholic school,
Speaker:private school in general, you are going to be subjected
Speaker:to the politics of it.
Speaker:So when I was growing up, I was that nerdy kid.
Speaker:I was one of those ones who, like, loved like Adult Swim, the anime,
Speaker:any Yasha you hardcore show, you go all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:If it was on passed like midnight on Adult Swim, I was probably watching it
Speaker:because it was the only chance I got to like, digest Japanese media.
Speaker:If you can't tell from like behind me right now,
Speaker:I have like a whole plethora of funko pops.
Speaker:Were you an anomaly in your neighborhood?
Speaker:Were you like the only kid who had these interests?
Speaker:Was there a community for you or were you an outlier?
Speaker:I was definitely an outlier.
Speaker:So when I was growing up, I grew up in the same household that my parents built
Speaker:when they first got married, and it was like an older neighborhood.
Speaker:So there was not a lot of kids there.
Speaker:My two older brothers, one was really, really into baseball
Speaker:and the other was kind of like a loner.
Speaker:So when I went to Saint Teresa, which was the school
Speaker:I ended up going to, it's closed now so I can say it.
Speaker:I grew up in the same class of about 12 people.
Speaker:That's how small our classes were.
Speaker:I could probably still name every single person that went
Speaker:from like kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade when I stopped going there.
Speaker:So I was the outlier
Speaker:because I was the only person who didn't grow up with them in preschool.
Speaker:And, you know, it's private school.
Speaker:So it's it's very clique.
Speaker:It's just because I don't want to say like in a way,
Speaker:like the parents, like cause it.
Speaker:But like with them, it's like always we have to take them
Speaker:to a really great private preschool and we have thing we're really good
Speaker:private elementary school, really good private high school.
Speaker:Like every single one of the people
Speaker:that I end up going to school with all ended up going
Speaker:to like the same high school, the same private school, the same college.
Speaker:Like everything was very like, structured around like the power dynamic there.
Speaker:I was the only one except one person who ended up coming to school later.
Speaker:His name was Logan Lindauer. It was the first person I ever had.
Speaker:Like the whole like, secret handshake with great person, even to this day.
Speaker:His dad came to my grandmother's funeral back in February.
Speaker:Great human being, great family.
Speaker:But I was kind of like the loner there.
Speaker:So it was really,
Speaker:really easy to find the nerdy kid who kind of sat across the playground
Speaker:when everyone else was playing, because he was either reading the manga,
Speaker:playing with you go cards, or my fear was bay blades.
Speaker:You remember those?
Speaker:Let it rip. Yup.
Speaker:They came right after the Pogs. Oh, yes.
Speaker:Oh, my God. Yes.
Speaker:So I was sitting there against this, like, steel steel shed
Speaker:because they had this gray and I was like, Oh, this, this is my baby played arena.
Speaker:So I would literally be on the playground just like, like rip in it,
Speaker:trying to play the bay blades.
Speaker:And that's kind of like when it started because the bully was just
Speaker:he was a bully and you were easy pickings.
Speaker:So easy like dude who is always away
Speaker:from the crowd, man.
Speaker:He would just like, come up and just be like,
Speaker:Oh, if you want to be friends and all that and just slap me in the face.
Speaker:So the violence started right away.
Speaker:Not like right away, but it was like, you know how like a bully would like,
Speaker:you know, I see over here, man, how are you doing
Speaker:when you won't be friends and you're like a friend?
Speaker:Yeah, I would love that.
Speaker:To, like, couple of recesses, he would, like, be really nice
Speaker:and then, like, you know, look back at his friends, like, hi.
Speaker:And you're just like, Oh, cool. Like, I have someone to talk to me.
Speaker:And then eventually you would kind of like, go to, like the whole, like,
Speaker:you know, punch foggy, and then it escalates to, like, the slap
Speaker:in the face, all for the jokes because as well as therefore,
Speaker:I was the punch line and it went on for about a year or two.
Speaker:You know, it didn't start until I was like like fifth grade
Speaker:in sixth grade was when it started being really bad.
Speaker:This same dude, his sister was also a menace.
Speaker:My mom was the special education assistant.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:She taught Marian Day. That's what we called it.
Speaker:And his sister would, like, bully the special needs kids.
Speaker:That's the kind of people we're talking about right there.
Speaker:So when he came to it, I was on the basket.
Speaker:It was a blacktop.
Speaker:We called it the parking lot, all that kind of stuff,
Speaker:playing basketball and shooting with my boy Logan,
Speaker:who was like the only friend I had during there, him or Alex Dillman.
Speaker:It was ended up being a special needs one.
Speaker:I didn't know growing up, but getting to a circle.
Speaker:And essentially he's like, okay, we're going to play basketball
Speaker:now, like just a whole, like quintessential, like bully thing.
Speaker:Like what I say in the in that story that I have like my Instagram or tik-tok,
Speaker:like when he acted like he was like a bully from like the eighties.
Speaker:I've watched every John Hughes movie.
Speaker:This dude wanted to be a John Hughes bully so bad,
Speaker:but did
Speaker:the whole like, Oh, let's play basketball and then does that.
Speaker:So we're playing.
Speaker:And he takes the ball for me. He goes, Oh, cool.
Speaker:What about this?
Speaker:Just straight up headbutts me and like, shatters
Speaker:this part of my nose, my cheekbones and all that.
Speaker:I'm going back like blood's going.
Speaker:And his friends are like, okay, we're going to go.
Speaker:We're going to go to strike Teacher and all that.
Speaker:They keep me up there, okay?
Speaker:I get like wiping blood from my nose, like,
Speaker:you're good, right?
Speaker:This is an accent, right? And I'm like,
Speaker:just an accident.
Speaker:So that incident goes
Speaker:by the time I get home, my mom was like, Oh, your nose is sideways.
Speaker:You can kind of see it.
Speaker:It's a little big right here.
Speaker:It's it went down since if you saw some pictures when I, like,
Speaker:finally went to, like, high school, I looked like I had a pregnancy nose.
Speaker:I don't know what that was.
Speaker:For the longest time until my friend Chanel got pregnant
Speaker:and her nose went from like this to, like that.
Speaker:But noses swelled.
Speaker:But it also was like, right here.
Speaker:It was like that.
Speaker:And my mom was like, We should probably go to the hospital.
Speaker:And they're like, Yeah, like, dude, everything right here is shattered,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Finally talk to the doctor. And I was like,
Speaker:And they're like, What happened was like, it was an accident.
Speaker:And the doctor immediately goes, Okay, cool.
Speaker:I heard it's an accident.
Speaker:What actually happened to you?
Speaker:So told the story couple days later after,
Speaker:like God, like the original, like it's like a cast kind of.
Speaker:It's just basically like a hard piece of plastic.
Speaker:Like, put your nose, end up getting something called a green stick fracture
Speaker:for the first one.
Speaker:Basically takes like a nose.
Speaker:It's like, like this in extreme.
Speaker:So like that had huge tampons in my nose.
Speaker:Like, literally like that long just straight back in the nasal cavity.
Speaker:I ended up having
Speaker:about four of them like that.
Speaker:I still remember I think it was like a second or third time
Speaker:my wife would know this one, but we just started dating another time.
Speaker:She's like, Oh,
Speaker:my boyfriend has had surgery and he's like, out of it and all that.
Speaker:So here I am laying in bed.
Speaker:I was like 1415 at the time was a couple years afterwards,
Speaker:first time meeting my now mother in law
Speaker:and my wife comes in checking on me, turns around, and they slap.
Speaker:RAZ Great introduction to my future mother in law, but that's a side side tangent.
Speaker:So when the doctor asked you, like, how this happened, you told him,
Speaker:and was that when your mom found out that some kid shattered your face?
Speaker:Oh, no. She she knew because she worked at the school.
Speaker:She knew exactly what happened.
Speaker:And it's it's one of those ones where it's like you bring him
Speaker:brain to the doctor, you strike, try and go through through the motion.
Speaker:Boy, The doctor here.
Speaker:It's an accident from the child.
Speaker:They look at the parents.
Speaker:So go through the whole story about everything like that.
Speaker:And so the doctor, it's like we should probably, like, talk to somebody.
Speaker:And that's when we finally bring in which are probably in the please,
Speaker:we should probably talk into the principal and all that.
Speaker:And about a week or so passes.
Speaker:Like I literally had to have someone walk with me to class.
Speaker:Her name was Madeline DeWeese. She's a sweetheart.
Speaker:She walked me to class to make sure that this dude
Speaker:wouldn't, like, put me up for this.
Speaker:So we're sitting there with the principal.
Speaker:We have my parents, we have their parents and police officer.
Speaker:Looking back on it, I'm just like, Who ever thought that it would be wise
Speaker:to have not only the bully there giving your statement,
Speaker:but the parents and a police officer is stupid.
Speaker:Talk about intimidation.
Speaker:So I'm sitting there, I see what happens.
Speaker:I say what's been happening, and they go insert
Speaker:name here that I'm not going to drop what they had to say about this.
Speaker:And he goes, Yeah, I did it.
Speaker:And they're like, Why did you do it?
Speaker:I can get away with it.
Speaker:My parents donate a lot of money.
Speaker:Your school, what are you going to do, kick me out?
Speaker:Kick all that money? They'll take out my sister.
Speaker:What are you going to do, Joy?
Speaker:The duke who got fired after this,
Speaker:I'm always going to drop in her name because she sucked.
Speaker:She was not a nice person at all to anybody.
Speaker:She got fired. That was a principal.
Speaker:So I saw that happen.
Speaker:My parents were like, okay, everything's out in the open now.
Speaker:We need to press charges
Speaker:because we can't afford the medical bills that are coming now from the surgery.
Speaker:So we threatened to sue that same summer.
Speaker:They blew up our mailbox a couple of times.
Speaker:They put like firecrackers and all that, like that and like M-80 threes.
Speaker:The kids or did the parents because in this town you never know.
Speaker:It was the kids who get it. So did that.
Speaker:And that's what led us to go cool.
Speaker:We'll just settle out of court like nothing crazy.
Speaker:We just said Any of these surgeries that come up over the next 5 to 10 years
Speaker:you guys want to pay for and they're like, Cool, yeah, we'll do that.
Speaker:And we won't press charges, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And after that got settled,
Speaker:you realize that at 11 years old you're always thinking to you, you're
Speaker:you're the reason.
Speaker:Like when you're that young,
Speaker:if someone really, like, goes through all this lengths, it's your fault, Right?
Speaker:Why else would anybody, when you're that young, do anything else but bully you?
Speaker:Because you are the exact reason.
Speaker:So after I did my first green suit fracture, that was when we found
Speaker:on the table twice that I am allergic to all painkillers.
Speaker:Every single one you can think of.
Speaker:It sounds hyperbolic, but Demerol, codeine, Lord have oxycodone,
Speaker:Toradol, Vicodin, you name it, it'll stop my heart.
Speaker:Even NSAIDs, even Advil, acetaminophen.
Speaker:I can take those.
Speaker:I can take like ibuprofen, acetaminophen, Excedrin.
Speaker:So you can't take narcotics of any kind, Not even a little bit.
Speaker:So I can't even have like, being a musician.
Speaker:I can't remember, like, the fun drug addiction.
Speaker:It's only fun at the start.
Speaker:Yeah, my my mom was the same way, so she can't take any painkillers either.
Speaker:We found that out that I had that was on the table.
Speaker:Heart stopped twice because of anaphylaxis.
Speaker:And so after all that goes on, you've basically spent the last month
Speaker:of your life running, hiding your mailboxes, blown up.
Speaker:You have surgery, then you almost die.
Speaker:You're like, Cool, I am the problem.
Speaker:All of this bad stuff is happening.
Speaker:I am the problem.
Speaker:So I take some of the long painkillers.
Speaker:I can take care. Remember what it was?
Speaker:What was the medication that Michael Jackson took?
Speaker:Propofol.
Speaker:The only reason why I remember this
Speaker:is because when I got this medicine was the same year that he passed away.
Speaker:That showed my age a little bit, but I tried to overdose on that.
Speaker:And my mom was like, we're not having this.
Speaker:She's like, almost ask you twice on the table now.
Speaker:Throw a third time in there by you actually trying to overdose on
Speaker:like pain meds.
Speaker:They scrounged together $50.
Speaker:I just remember $50 being in my head and my mom was like going to go to a Wal-Mart.
Speaker:The first thing we did, we saw Garfield Tale of Two Kids
Speaker:movie Sucked, by the way, East Side of the Green River.
Speaker:And my mom takes me to Mart and she goes, Yeah, $50.
Speaker:You can get whatever you want, whatever video game, whatever toy, whatever
Speaker:or whatever it is, you have to play with it in the family room.
Speaker:Do you remember when you used to be able to walk in like Walmart?
Speaker:Target was like, first
Speaker:I guitar's like those really, really cheap guitars for like 40 bucks.
Speaker:I don't.
Speaker:I don't think I've seen them, dude.
Speaker:Back in like the early 2000, they were everywhere.
Speaker:First act, the Adam Levine one I had the Adam Levine
Speaker:acoustic guitar 3995 and my mom was like, You know what?
Speaker:No, you're not going to get your guitar.
Speaker:The older brother tried to do it a couple of years ago.
Speaker:He tried to play like all the Jonas Brothers songs from Johnny Tsunami.
Speaker:You're not doing it.
Speaker:I'm just like, Mom, you said I can get anything I wanted.
Speaker:So her fear was I was going to pick up this guitar
Speaker:and I was going to put it down.
Speaker:Now her fear is that I picked up this guitar and I've never put it down.
Speaker:I basically went home that day and I didn't know how to play guitar.
Speaker:I did the whole, like classic,
Speaker:like couldn't play chords or whatever, but I did like the whole, like, strum it.
Speaker:But I'm one of the really rare lucky ones that can say like,
Speaker:music saved me in a way that isn't like music saved me.
Speaker:It really did.
Speaker:I started writing songs that day.
Speaker:They were all shit, but having an outlet that allowed me to express
Speaker:all these emotions, like all this anger I had inside myself was a game changer.
Speaker:And I say, This is why I ended up being emo kid growing up,
Speaker:because my first band I was in was like emo metal,
Speaker:like a hot topic in early 2006.
Speaker:We all know exactly what we're talking about.
Speaker:My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights.
Speaker:That was me.
Speaker:Think about a kid that looked like that. That was me.
Speaker:Before we get too far away from it,
Speaker:I want to ask a couple of questions about back in the school day
Speaker:before the big incident, had you told anybody you were being bullied?
Speaker:Had you tried to get any kind of assistance with the situation
Speaker:from what would it be considered the proper authorities?
Speaker:Honestly, knowing, too scared to like legitimately when you're
Speaker:when you're that alone, everything you do, you blame yourself.
Speaker:You're like, cool.
Speaker:Like if if I'm getting picked on, it's because of me.
Speaker:So I never went to the authorities or anyone really,
Speaker:because I always believed it was my fault.
Speaker:I still have like I feel like I still internalize a lot of that Now,
Speaker:any time anyone has anything bad to say about me, it's because of my own doing
Speaker:and it's my fault.
Speaker:I wish I did. Like I really do.
Speaker:Like even now, like part of me is like
Speaker:how much would have been different if I actually would have just said it?
Speaker:If you could go back and talk to 11 year old you, what advice would you give them?
Speaker:Oh, I would
Speaker:tell him that it's not your fault.
Speaker:I would tell him that you're going to learn one day
Speaker:that some people are just bad and they just mean that's you.
Speaker:You are going to be surrounded by people who love you and it's going to be tough.
Speaker:You're going to feel like you're not going to get through it, but
Speaker:by the skin of your teeth, you'll get through it and it'll be okay.
Speaker:No great advice.
Speaker:Just take the punches.
Speaker:You had mentioned that you have internalized
Speaker:and you still to some degree feel that if something goes wrong
Speaker:somehow it's on you, it's your fault.
Speaker:And in some way, shape or form,
Speaker:what other long term ramifications have there been from the bullying?
Speaker:I mean, yes, men,
Speaker:if anyone asked me at any given time to do anything at all,
Speaker:I have this complex where I literally cannot say no.
Speaker:If you ask me to be there, I will be there.
Speaker:If a friend asked me if they would help with anything monetarily,
Speaker:energy, time wise I'm there.
Speaker:But also if we're talking like things that have lasted,
Speaker:I do content and in artist development now for our clients,
Speaker:one of the biggest things
Speaker:that stuck with me is I assume, called post-concussion syndrome.
Speaker:Now it looks different for a lot of people because the brain is just very weird.
Speaker:I have I have a really bad stutter
Speaker:and I will tend to forget things in the middle of my sentence.
Speaker:So like, for example,
Speaker:like I'll be talking to a client and I'll be like, All right, so here is
Speaker:what I'm going to say next, because I have to think about it really, really hard.
Speaker:Because if not, I'm a porky pig.
Speaker:And what I mean by I'll be like this is that
Speaker:this, that bullshit.
Speaker:That's how also I'm I'm, I always say I really am one of the lucky ones
Speaker:that I was really, really lucky that I had an incredible support system.
Speaker:My mom, my two older brothers are incredible human beings.
Speaker:My dad, God rest his soul, was even better for me.
Speaker:I didn't have that lasting too long.
Speaker:I know finding music and the transfer me real quick
Speaker:at a private school in the public school,
Speaker:which I ended up finding some people that are still friends to this day.
Speaker:Some of the first people I met when I moved to public school
Speaker:Jacob Blue, Josh Bertram.
Speaker:I ended up writing my first K-Pop number one for a band back in 2019 with.
Speaker:So I really am one of the lucky ones that the lasting effects didn't last too long.
Speaker:I had some like issues that I work through, but I'm not
Speaker:one of the ones that you probably work with that sadly have had to go through it.
Speaker:And I never want to trivialize anyone else that has to go through some
Speaker:of these things.
Speaker:It's it's horrible that it's one one of those things that,
Speaker:like I said at the beginning of the call, it's almost as common as breathing
Speaker:at this point. And it sucks.
Speaker:It really does.
Speaker:When I posted that same video that that I saw and contacted you over
Speaker:the amount of parents in the comments, but even worse in the DMS that basically
Speaker:were sending out Hail Marys of my son's going through this right now.
Speaker:I don't know what to do
Speaker:and to know that there's a possibility that one of them went to bed
Speaker:without one of their their child because of it scares me up
Speaker:because I wish that kindness was a little more free than the letter.
Speaker:But it's not what is becoming a recurring theme on the show for me
Speaker:certainly is a general disappointment in the school system's handling of children.
Speaker:What's your opinion of how schools,
Speaker:principals, social workers treat bullying?
Speaker:I'll be honest, I'm not equipped to be able to answer that
Speaker:at a high level because it's such a nuanced question
Speaker:and such a profound one that you guys are asking for that.
Speaker:But I just feel like teachers are very under-equipped to be able to handle these
Speaker:just because when you get down to it, when you ask for like the real response to
Speaker:you want to get, they do that.
Speaker:They're damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Speaker:I think the reason why is because schools
Speaker:don't have a system in place to something comes up.
Speaker:I don't know how to handle it.
Speaker:I want to do this way, but that's not what's approved by the school board.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:So I think the lack of systems, I think schools and they're confused too.
Speaker:We don't know what to do because bullying can be there's
Speaker:so many different levels of bullying, it's hard to care to each case.
Speaker:But what I think would be a good start is kid who was bullied.
Speaker:There should be someone at school appointed
Speaker:just to listen and let them get it out.
Speaker:They only go talk to a bully.
Speaker:But the kid needs to know that there's someone at school
Speaker:that believes them and supports them.
Speaker:So at least they're not feeling lonely like you did at school.
Speaker:That's what sucks too,
Speaker:because you bring that up and it's like, Cool, let's regulate that.
Speaker:I went to private school. They don't have to do that.
Speaker:And if they do, like, it's one of those ones where I wish
Speaker:it was just more common practice just to go cool.
Speaker:Just come to me. This is a safe place to listen.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:I just want to listen to you because sometimes, like, that's all you need.
Speaker:Even if it was just catching breadcrumbs of like, okay, cool.
Speaker:Like this has been going on for a year.
Speaker:Jae Younger Jae, they started, like, making fun of you,
Speaker:and now you started, like, noticing that it was escalating a little bit more.
Speaker:I'm going to start, like, keeping tabs on that.
Speaker:So that way I step in naturally versus and I think that goes back to what you
Speaker:were saying, Tim, Like more of like a system in place.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:like it's such a nuanced conversation and it's one of those ones
Speaker:that if you would have seen some of the comments on that post of like
Speaker:if it was my son,
Speaker:I would have told him to come in there or like I would shut up the school.
Speaker:It just shows how like nuanced everything is that, you know, on
Speaker:one side, parents are like, Cool, if you're getting bullied,
Speaker:I want you to like, be the aggressor back or, Hey, this is happening to you.
Speaker:I want you to be the one who ends it.
Speaker:And I don't care how you do it does not necessarily the kids fault.
Speaker:That's the parent's upbringing, too.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what the kid hears.
Speaker:They don't know any better.
Speaker:Yeah, I think this needs to be taken.
Speaker:Not just like a school level, but it needs to be like a government level.
Speaker:I know the CDC has stuff out there, but you don't know unless you search it.
Speaker:My kids go to private school.
Speaker:I have students that go to private school, and one kid just got suspended
Speaker:because he fought back against a so called bully.
Speaker:I know this kid pretty well.
Speaker:This kid would not hurt a fly.
Speaker:He's so little fragile and he's been suspended for fighting back at his bully.
Speaker:And I get it.
Speaker:They're in a tough spot, too.
Speaker:This person gives us a lot of money.
Speaker:How do we handle it if we're really going to, like, change this conversation?
Speaker:It starts to end with giving kids a safe place because we can't Overarching parent
Speaker:people are going to parent their kids because a lot of times when that happens,
Speaker:it's never the outcome you want.
Speaker:So giving them a safe place to actually go
Speaker:where they feel like they can actually be kids,
Speaker:that's where it needs to go and that's where it needs
Speaker:to stay on a more positive note, you found music.
Speaker:Can you talk a little bit about how that has changed your life?
Speaker:I am so grateful that I found that first guitar
Speaker:because I learned to channel all that inner
Speaker:angst into songwriting and lyrics.
Speaker:And even though it sounds so bad because it sounds like a plug,
Speaker:you know, after about 18 years, I've been finally able to talk about it.
Speaker:After losing my dad and losing my friend Brendan, I've been able
Speaker:to write songs that kind of talk about how life does suck sometimes.
Speaker:But what's great about life is every valley
Speaker:as deep as it goes, there is a mountaintop
Speaker:that is just as beautiful and grandiose as you think it is.
Speaker:If you feel like you're in the middle of a valley,
Speaker:the best days are yet to come.
Speaker:You know, that's why I write music now.
Speaker:It's not for anything else besides trying to overcome life
Speaker:in all of its obstacles because I believe that with every dark day,
Speaker:there really is an absolutely beautiful beginning.
Speaker:Somewhere down the line,
Speaker:we can ask ourselves a million questions as to why things happened.
Speaker:One of the things I have learned over the last couple of years
Speaker:is that there are just some questions we will never find the answer to.
Speaker:And where can our listeners find your music?
Speaker:Grocery stores near you, Busch Gardens commercials
Speaker:and anyone in Iowa who has a mom.
Speaker:Because I have a running joke that my music sounds
Speaker:like what dads in Georgia in white new balances look like.
Speaker:We all know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker:But no, if if anyone is curious,
Speaker:my music can be found at on Spotify.
Speaker:Jay Party G-A-Y Party. Why?
Speaker:How do you like the silly kind?
Speaker:If anything, I'd rather people listen to a podcast
Speaker:like this and hear stories from better individuals than I am
Speaker:whenever they need to, because the world needs more people
Speaker:that give voice to the voiceless, then some dude who has a guitar.
Speaker:So that's my thoughts.
Speaker:Well, thank you for that.
Speaker:Moving on from the experience of the student, let's now talk to a parent
Speaker:who had her own experiences with the bullying of her child.
Speaker:Joining us now is Colleen Bidwell.
Speaker:Colleen, how are you doing tonight?
Speaker:Hi, I'm doing well tonight, Thank you.
Speaker:I've had the pleasure to work with Colleen's children for the past
Speaker:two and a half, three years.
Speaker:Say, Colleen's about right.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Coming up at the end of this year will be four years that my two kids have
Speaker:had the pleasure of coming with
Speaker:karate, and we've love it.
Speaker:So, Colleen, tell us about yourself and your family.
Speaker:Well, as you said, I am Colleen Bidwell.
Speaker:We are from a small town right outside of Mankato, Minnesota.
Speaker:My husband and I have three kids total.
Speaker:One is already out of the house and two of them
Speaker:have a junior high and an elementary age student.
Speaker:Both of them are students at K2 Karate and students
Speaker:here in the district, and only for a few years now.
Speaker:And you've brought up to me a few times that your kids are being bullied.
Speaker:What can I do for resources?
Speaker:And that's kind of one of the reasons why I told Bruce about why we're doing this
Speaker:podcast, is because we're trying to reach as many people as possible
Speaker:and try to cover these topics that I can't necessarily cover in class.
Speaker:Can you tell us what's going on
Speaker:with your kids in school and their experience with bullying? Yes.
Speaker:So our youngest is about to turn 11 soon.
Speaker:See, she's definitely had a really, really hard time with other classmates
Speaker:in other areas of life that she's just been severely bullied in.
Speaker:When did it start?
Speaker:I mean, right away.
Speaker:Young life before she was in grade school.
Speaker:It's it's been her whole life.
Speaker:I would say the same background on her.
Speaker:She is adopted.
Speaker:My husband and I got to adopt her going on almost four years ago.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:But she is a family member.
Speaker:So it's called a kinship adoptive.
Speaker:So obviously, I've got to know her almost her whole life.
Speaker:And she comes along with that.
Speaker:Some mental disabilities plus severe, severe trauma,
Speaker:which then goes to the classroom.
Speaker:And that creates just a lot of areas that she is very vulnerable
Speaker:to being bullied in just many areas.
Speaker:I mean, sometimes it's even adults who just don't understand
Speaker:kids with special needs or kids that just need a little.
Speaker:We always say it's a little extra love in their day, a little extra patience, but
Speaker:most definitely in the classroom, things that she struggles hard with for ADHD.
Speaker:So that just creates how it is that she creates
Speaker:extra noise that she creates from herself.
Speaker:Is she on the spectrum?
Speaker:Does she have something like Tourette's?
Speaker:What specifically are her differences?
Speaker:Her primary diagnosis is SD, which is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder,
Speaker:and under that is an umbrella of many, many things.
Speaker:Added with that is trauma from the license,
Speaker:her past and things like that.
Speaker:So with FSD it can look there is no direct road map of all that it is.
Speaker:It affects everyone differently in your body, shows it differently to each person.
Speaker:And then the way that you're also raised through that from birth on, obviously.
Speaker:So looking at her, she looks totally normal.
Speaker:You would never expect that even when she's adopted because she is
Speaker:also a good family or two, that she even has any form of disability at all.
Speaker:She just looks like a normal right now.
Speaker:Ten year old girl loves her hair done in her bones and her skirts and dresses
Speaker:and all that stuff, but loves mud puddles on the other side of that, too.
Speaker:And like I said, you wouldn't know she had an issue with.
Speaker:So then when other students see her and she is being triggered in some form
Speaker:and then that trigger comes out in a verbal aggression,
Speaker:sometimes it's been a physical aggression, but not so much on that, I guess.
Speaker:But then she receives things differently when a student might say something like,
Speaker:Oh, I like your dress today, she immediately goes to a defense mode.
Speaker:Students understand that, you know, she's in fourth grade right now.
Speaker:Fourth graders understand or I thought I was giving you a compliment,
Speaker:but you received it in a negative way or even small things
Speaker:as a somebody is tapping their pencil in the classroom.
Speaker:Those outside noises really trigger her,
Speaker:and it's really hard for her to focus in the classroom.
Speaker:So if she might be trying to internalize and trying to calm herself in the moment,
Speaker:but then all of a sudden
Speaker:she can't hold it in anymore type of thing and just explodes.
Speaker:And again, that creates opportunities in moments
Speaker:that students are like, oh, well, she she can't handle herself.
Speaker:She's just mean because she, you know, she's acting this way.
Speaker:Then it just adds after that.
Speaker:What kind of bullying is she experiencing?
Speaker:Is she getting pushed? Is she a name called?
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Lots of verbal aggression from other students.
Speaker:There was actually just an incident
Speaker:about a week ago that there's a girl in her class
Speaker:particular that she really struggles with that seems to target her often.
Speaker:And they were leaving the lunch line in this girl she described to me.
Speaker:And I could just like it seemed like it was a like a silly like movie scene to me.
Speaker:But this girl ended up dumping her milk carton down the front of her
Speaker:new dress that she had gotten.
Speaker:She got this new dress for something and she was excited.
Speaker:And, you know, she was talking to her friends at school about it.
Speaker:Oh, look at my cute new dress.
Speaker:And then this girl after lunch dumped milk all over her
Speaker:and said, Oh, I guess your dress is in cute anymore, is it?
Speaker:And that just obviously wrecked her day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Was that the first incident with this particular girl?
Speaker:Oh, no,
Speaker:no. So this is the established bully of your daughter?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:This girl creates lots of isolation in the classroom, on the playground.
Speaker:If any other student, boy or girl is trying to play with my daughter,
Speaker:this other bully will make them stop playing with her
Speaker:or will also bully that student and till they basically stop.
Speaker:That's what a four year long bully incident that we've been dealing with.
Speaker:The milk pouring incident.
Speaker:How did the school respond to that?
Speaker:Well, not good.
Speaker:There was really no response.
Speaker:I contacted her teacher about it and then also the social worker at the school.
Speaker:And it came back to just be, oh, it was an accident.
Speaker:The student didn't mean to do that.
Speaker:And so I said, well, was did you talk to either one of the girls?
Speaker:Well, no, we really didn't talk to them.
Speaker:But, you know, we're going to make her say sorry to her into it.
Speaker:I never got a follow up that it actually happened.
Speaker:Is that a standard response when something happens to your daughter?
Speaker:Often.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I feel sometimes that because of her special needs and she can be a difficult
Speaker:child in the classroom, that she is just shoved aside all the time.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if she has a bad day in the classroom and I try
Speaker:to respond to the teacher about it, the teacher just turns it around
Speaker:and saying, well, she needs to figure it out
Speaker:and she needs to do this immediately in the classroom where she doesn't
Speaker:have that brain capacity to even do those things.
Speaker:You know, she takes our normal children can
Speaker:almost automatically say, okay, I'm not going to do
Speaker:whatever it is I'm doing that's upsetting the teacher or the classroom for her.
Speaker:It could take a week or two weeks to kind of regulate herself and teach her
Speaker:that those things are, you know, that's the teacher's asking me this thing.
Speaker:So I need to learn to do that stuff.
Speaker:Does the school know that she's being targeted for bullying
Speaker:or do they even think she's being bullied at all?
Speaker:Yes, they do know.
Speaker:Yes. I have talked with, again, the Social worker at the school
Speaker:multiple times a week.
Speaker:We are on a almost I would say two or three times a week.
Speaker:We have a phone call.
Speaker:Oh, she is wonderful.
Speaker:She's a great resource that I'm able to just help
Speaker:communicate with the teacher to the principal and things like that.
Speaker:But I have contacted the principal, who again, is a really wonderful man.
Speaker:He does a great job.
Speaker:But the
Speaker:I would say like that individual care is kind of lacking at times.
Speaker:And so maybe I'm appearing as an annoying parent
Speaker:who is constantly calling, constantly complaining.
Speaker:But when my child is constantly coming home with milk covered all over her body
Speaker:or, you know, torn clothes or whatever,
Speaker:you know, coming home crying because, mom,
Speaker:this girl did it again to me or mom, I don't want to go to school today.
Speaker:Please let me stay home today.
Speaker:Or can I please switch schools right now because I can't stand going to school
Speaker:to see this person or the group of people that sometimes it can be.
Speaker:Has your daughter brought her concerns to her teacher?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if so, if so, what did the teacher say to her?
Speaker:And each year that has happened, each teacher is different in their responses.
Speaker:In the past, she's had some seasoned teachers and they are very sweet
Speaker:and kind and are able to work through it in the classroom.
Speaker:This is the first year that I've ever had to take it to the principal
Speaker:because it's gotten so bad.
Speaker:The current teacher is a little less seasoned
Speaker:and a little more stern in her classroom,
Speaker:which if that's how she wants to run her classroom, I'm fine with it.
Speaker:But don't ignore the problems that are happening.
Speaker:What could the school do better to help address these issues? The
Speaker:accountability is I feel huge,
Speaker:not just from the bullying, but from the, you know, the recipient of it as well.
Speaker:Yes. My daughter needs to learn how to react appropriately to this bully.
Speaker:You know, we don't want her to retaliate in a negative way, of course.
Speaker:But accountability for this bully
Speaker:and then communicating between parents I think is huge.
Speaker:This one particular student that we have the issue with.
Speaker:I've never spoke to her parents, but there's some days that I
Speaker:I want to just get on the phone and say, you know, your daughter's so mean
Speaker:and your daughter is this and obviously, I know that that's not
Speaker:the most appropriate, constructive way to do so,
Speaker:but definitely have an accountability of if this is happening in the classroom
Speaker:or the school or whatever age is happening, that, you know,
Speaker:this is your consequence for your action and we're going to hold it to you.
Speaker:And, you know, starting young apologies, apologies are hard.
Speaker:No matter if you're in kindergarten or you're an adult, it's hard to apologize.
Speaker:So if you just work on that sincere apology,
Speaker:I feel that it definitely can make an impact.
Speaker:Do you feel that having the school arrange a meeting between you
Speaker:and the parent of this particular child who for four years
Speaker:has been torturing your child, would that not be a useful thing?
Speaker:Are they unwilling to do that?
Speaker:I brought it up one time to have a that parents
Speaker:a parent meeting and I was kind of shut down immediately.
Speaker:No, we don't want to create any any troubles.
Speaker:We don't want any hurt feelings.
Speaker:So we want to just take care of it internally.
Speaker:I would like to do that.
Speaker:What trouble would come?
Speaker:What trouble are they expecting? I don't know.
Speaker:I don't. Yeah.
Speaker:And also hurt feelings.
Speaker:Is there not already hurt feelings?
Speaker:Is your daughter not coming home crying almost daily.
Speaker:So what hurt feelings are we sparing here?
Speaker:Right. Yeah. I was not given a clear answer.
Speaker:It was just basically a no.
Speaker:Let it go. Kind of a response.
Speaker:You know, a week before this podcast, I put a poll out there to various
Speaker:Facebook groups,
Speaker:including our own Outcry Parents Group and then other anti-bullying groups.
Speaker:And the question was, do you feel the schools are doing enough
Speaker:to prevent bullying?
Speaker:One person said yes, but out of that 40 responses, they all said
Speaker:no, except for, well, there's two that said, they add something to it.
Speaker:But majority of people said no.
Speaker:But this one guy made a comment and this falls.
Speaker:And I love this comment.
Speaker:The schools need to believe the ones who come seeking help.
Speaker:Nothing makes a child lose trust and respect for those in positions
Speaker:of authority who say if I didn't see it, it doesn't happen.
Speaker:Well, you know, I kind of feel that's what's happening here with your daughter.
Speaker:Oh, she didn't mean to spilled milk. What?
Speaker:Did you see it?
Speaker:I mean, your daughter's going to tell her a different story.
Speaker:Younger girls doesn't want in trouble.
Speaker:She's going to say, Oh, that was by accident.
Speaker:Yeah, well, whoever wrote that, I mean, amen to that.
Speaker:That's. Look, I'm an adult example of that.
Speaker:The schools.
Speaker:So drop the ball on me that I do have a natural distrust of authority
Speaker:that goes to this day because I generally assume
Speaker:much like the school district that dealt with me, that incompetence
Speaker:and a general lack of actually caring is the norm.
Speaker:So that is how I view all of authority at this point.
Speaker:That's a good point for us,
Speaker:because look at the kids right now getting out of high school.
Speaker:Hold out with older folks like these kids have no respect for authority.
Speaker:But then you kind of look back, well, how were they treated in school
Speaker:when they turned to authority and they're getting ignored?
Speaker:Because I don't
Speaker:remember seeing a bunch of riots back when I was in high school.
Speaker:People getting upset.
Speaker:I mean, it seems like people today have lost trust of authority.
Speaker:And we have elementary schools already kind of showing this to young kids.
Speaker:Oh, I didn't see it or it was just by accident.
Speaker:They pretty much shut down.
Speaker:That person's like, your daughter's just shut her down.
Speaker:It's no big deal.
Speaker:I mean, if I had a new clothes,
Speaker:someone spilled stuff on me and I know they did it on purpose.
Speaker:I want more than apology, You know,
Speaker:I want something else.
Speaker:I don't know what that it's going to be.
Speaker:Forget the clothes and all of that. What you want.
Speaker:If this is a recurring theme for the teacher to not pay attention,
Speaker:that means the teacher, whether they're saying it out loud or not, simply either
Speaker:doesn't believe the child or doesn't care whether it's happening or not.
Speaker:Yeah, and my experience led me to believe they didn't care
Speaker:whether it was happening or not
Speaker:because that was just an annoying to them and it wasn't happening to them.
Speaker:So you have these teachers and this principal,
Speaker:Oh, I didn't want to hurt the other kids feelings.
Speaker:Okay, well, in the balance
Speaker:that this kid is hurting my feelings, my child's feelings.
Speaker:And that's okay, because that's the damage done.
Speaker:But if we tried to address it, that's going to hurt their feelings
Speaker:or their parents feelings.
Speaker:And it's just very wrong minded, to be honest with you,
Speaker:as much as you said that this sounds like this principal's this wonderful person,
Speaker:he sounds incompetent to me.
Speaker:And I will call that out because if we're talking for years,
Speaker:something should be done because you don't accidentally
Speaker:you don't have instantly commit the same act over and over for four years.
Speaker:That's a willful act of ignoring.
Speaker:And how do you handle that emotionally?
Speaker:How do you deal with this on a day to day basis?
Speaker:Because this poor girl and this is your daughter
Speaker:in our household, her therapy,
Speaker:which is wonderful.
Speaker:We do a lot of journaling together to,
Speaker:you know, have a healthy way to release all those feelings
Speaker:that we're having from school and just at school or at home.
Speaker:I'm just reminding her that, you know, she's not,
Speaker:you know, those positive things that I tell her at home.
Speaker:She's not the things that these girls in school are telling her or,
Speaker:you know, she has support and she has love at home, regardless
Speaker:of what she's not feeling in school.
Speaker:I would say my husband a saint because and my daughter comes home
Speaker:and she has these feelings that I as mom in the moment.
Speaker:I'm trying to keep my cool
Speaker:and trying to remind her that, you know, no, it's not fair.
Speaker:You know, this is the right thing to do and so on.
Speaker:Then he'll come home later in the day.
Speaker:And typically I end up releasing all of my emotions to my husband
Speaker:and usually a crying puddle of of a mess
Speaker:at that time of yeah, that's it's hard.
Speaker:It's definitely not an easy thing to handle because like you
Speaker:said, I just don't feel like there's any way to resolve it because we're just
Speaker:kind of told forget about it and let it go type of situation all the time.
Speaker:Is your daughter in therapy because of the bullying?
Speaker:Is that kind of what she mostly needs help with?
Speaker:No, it definitely is a huge, huge part of our therapy.
Speaker:But it she was in therapy to begin with her past trauma stuff.
Speaker:That was the beginning of therapy.
Speaker:And now it has become, you know, now it's become
Speaker:because of the bullying and the stuff that's continued with that.
Speaker:Also at their school, they have a lot of little outbreak
Speaker:groups with the social workers there,
Speaker:and they try to create just social groups between my daughter
Speaker:and and this bully and these other girls that she's with in class.
Speaker:And that group particular did not help.
Speaker:It made things almost worse.
Speaker:I feel like what kind of idiot would take your daughter?
Speaker:Here are the people that are torching her.
Speaker:We're going to stick her with them so that she can be alone with them, right?
Speaker:Yeah. When I found out that was happening.
Speaker:Yeah, I feel. Yeah, I feel the same way.
Speaker:When I found out what was happening, I said no.
Speaker:I said, That's not healthy.
Speaker:You know, like you said, you're not going to put her in a room.
Speaker:Yes, there is a social worker,
Speaker:a teacher there, you know, it's a small group of girls,
Speaker:but you're not going to put her in a room to be shoved in the corner and tortured
Speaker:for 15 minutes of my little French hip group. Hi.
Speaker:You know, we want we want her to have positive friendships.
Speaker:You know, obviously, this bully is not going away.
Speaker:And this bully most likely will go through junior high in high school.
Speaker:And when she's an adult with her own children, hopefully
Speaker:someday that she's going, Oh, yes, I remember how it feels,
Speaker:because this girl did it to me to back when I was in fourth grade.
Speaker:So like I said, I stopped that group and I said, no way.
Speaker:She is in very good, positive, structured groups
Speaker:with some other people who have become really good friends with her
Speaker:and those ones I obviously support and love those.
Speaker:Have you considered
Speaker:talking to somebody higher up at the school district?
Speaker:I have considered it.
Speaker:I just I don't even know where to start.
Speaker:I've thought about it, but where to start is the struggle.
Speaker:Are you afraid of retaliation?
Speaker:Some of it's like, you know, if I went to say, the higher up,
Speaker:would it come back down on the teacher and then the teacher who already seems to
Speaker:sometimes have an issue with my daughter or not wanting to give that, you know,
Speaker:make her feel welcome in the classroom is she going to retaliate on my daughter
Speaker:more sugar to retaliate to me or, you know, different stuff like that.
Speaker:So that's kind of a fear
Speaker:is if I keep pushing the issue, what's going to happen to my daughter?
Speaker:Is it going to get worse?
Speaker:It sounds like the school systems need to try to prevent bullying.
Speaker:They need to put somebody in charge.
Speaker:They have a small committee because obviously
Speaker:you're not the only one experiencing this.
Speaker:I hear from a lot my parents in the school.
Speaker:Maybe you hear it from them, too, but it seems to be a common theme where it's
Speaker:not their problem or they didn't mean it or your kid did this.
Speaker:Your kids said this
Speaker:first, which started the whole thing, which, you know, was a straight lie,
Speaker:because I know some of these kids did know they wouldn't say stuff like this.
Speaker:Yeah, you know, maybe I'm being biased a little bit.
Speaker:But no, I know these kids.
Speaker:It seems like the schools are really good at deflecting their responsibility away.
Speaker:Yes. It's like we said earlier, it's not helping these kids build trust
Speaker:with authority, which will cause a problem later on in life.
Speaker:Yeah, you're you're right.
Speaker:Do you have any advice for other parents
Speaker:in a similar situation to you
Speaker:who I would say first,
Speaker:if you are a parent of a special needs child,
Speaker:wherever they are on the spectrum or not, find
Speaker:supports within like minded parents,
Speaker:you know, find supports in your school or your community,
Speaker:wherever that may be, with other parents of other special needs children.
Speaker:That's huge.
Speaker:That is, as a parent, other parents in my community,
Speaker:what I'm struggling and I'm going, oh, I'm just having a tough day
Speaker:with my daughter or this happened with her.
Speaker:And I don't know how to respond to it from the school.
Speaker:And those people are definitely wonderful and a lot of help.
Speaker:And then also, like, never, never think that you're the annoying parents.
Speaker:Never, never stop arguing with the school that if it feels like it's
Speaker:just a never ending thing and you're never going to win, never stop,
Speaker:you know, you you are your child, your child's first defense.
Speaker:So defend them at all costs no matter what.
Speaker:Just make sure that they know that you've got their back.
Speaker:That's super important.
Speaker:Also, other programs that they could get involved in such,
Speaker:you know, such as ghetto karate and other programs like that, that
Speaker:they can also find friendship and support and feel loved in those areas as well.
Speaker:Find somewhere for yourself, for them, and just never stop.
Speaker:Never stop fighting for them.
Speaker:My heart breaks for you.
Speaker:I'm angry for you.
Speaker:The school should be doing so much more for your family.
Speaker:And I can only hope that through finding other parents going through this,
Speaker:through reaching out as a collective, through programs like this podcast,
Speaker:through other anti-bullying programs, that a difference can be made.
Speaker:But thank you for coming on to talk with us, to share your story with us.
Speaker:You know, we're here to help as much as we can.
Speaker:However we can.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, thank you, Kelly, for sharing your story.
Speaker:I think the more we can tell you stories from people,
Speaker:someone's got to listen and start taking action.
Speaker:And that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker:I mean, other parents in the Greater Mankato area, if you
Speaker:you feel that you need support or you feel you just need
Speaker:need another parent to just love you through this whole situation that you're
Speaker:struggling with your own child, I'd love for you to reach out to me.
Speaker:I'd love to connect with you.
Speaker:I'd love to have that community in partnership with you
Speaker:and to help support you.
Speaker:And maybe together we can also just make small differences in our community,
Speaker:maybe even grand large differences in our community to to stop this.
Speaker:Our kids don't deserve it.
Speaker:Your kid does not deserve it.
Speaker:So, yeah, reach out to the program and I'd be happy to partner with you.
Speaker:Anybody who wants to reach out to Colleen, you send us an email at Karate Chop
Speaker:bullying at gmail.com, and we will put you in contact with her.
Speaker:Find strength in numbers. She's there for you.
Speaker:We're here for you and we will connect you.
Speaker:Well, was great to be on here.
Speaker:I appreciate all that and I appreciate everyone that is making a difference.
Speaker:Again, thank you for coming on.
Speaker:So I'll keep chasing you
Speaker:since I'm not giving up.
Speaker:The best days are yet to come.
Speaker:Playing us out this week is the best
Speaker:days are yet to come by Jay Puddy,
Speaker:who you can find on TikTok and Instagram at putty.
Speaker:Exactly as it sounds.
Speaker:And if you would like to reach out and be put in contact with Colleen,
Speaker:all you need to do is send us an email
Speaker:and do that and karate chop bullying at gmail.com.
Speaker:There is strength in numbers and she's looking forward to talking to you.
Speaker:If you yourself are the victim of bullying or, you know, somebody
Speaker:who is, you can reach out for more information and advice
Speaker:and you can do that at the government's own anti-bullying website.
Speaker:Stop bullying dot gov.
Speaker:In addition to that, there is another resource which is
Speaker:WW dot pacer dot org backslash bullying.
Speaker:And if you feel like you can't go on, there's no hope.
Speaker:Please feel free to reach out to the national suicide hotline at 988.
Speaker:This is Tim Flynn with Bruce Noxon
Speaker:right here to break his silence on bullying addressed next week.
Speaker:As we will continue this conversation.
Speaker:So you
Speaker:can see
