Several advocacy groups will join under the umbrella of the Stop Bullying Coalition. Our plan is to craft a commonly agreed set of goals, and then to write a bill to replace S604, for consideration by the legislature.
The Attleboro (MA) Human Rights Council is to be congratulated for their efforts to remedy the injustice affecting targets of bullying. The Attleboro City Council, if it passes an ordinance on bullying, would make history in the fight against bullying.
In a significant victory against bullying in Massachusetts, Attleboro is moving to prohibit bullying. When approved by the Council, the city ordinances would prohibit bullying or cyber-bullying.
Bullying and mobbing in schools, business, community organizations and subsidized housing are plagues that affect everyone. How can we stop, prevent, and eliminate bullying and mobbing? We need first to understand and analyze what causes bullying. One useful approach is to view the social system within which bullying takes place. Another approach might be to adopt a public health perspective. These approaches are complementary and together can be the basis to develop interventions.
Bullying and mobbing are a plague affecting many institutions and community organizations. Certainly many elderly persons are affected, and not only in subsidized housing. Common explanations are that the bullies and or their targets have psychological problems; that people who live in subsidized housing are "losers" or they wouldn't be living there. We must seek further for explanations. There is increasing evidence that bullying of and by elders in many contexts is common; there is evidence that even people of means can engage in bullying and mobbing; and that the institutional environment is a significant factor in mobbing.
If we falter in our struggle—for dignity, for respect, for education, for freedom from abuse—or we weaken in our resolve because we are so few—we can gain humility, energy, and new dedication by the example of a young woman, Malala Yousafzai. Despite being shot by the Taliban in an attempt to stop her efforts for educating girls in Pakistan, she spoke at the UN on her 16th birthday. She spoke of peace, love, non-violence, and education. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.
How can we stop bullying of elderly and/or disabled persons living in subsidized housing? I see the work of Duffy and Sperry {1} as a guide and springboard for developing solutions for a broad range of institutions, including subsidized housing for elderly and disabled. The findings and conclusions presented by Maureen Duffy and Len Sperry in their book on mobbing (an extreme form of social bullying) are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand, prevent, and remedy bullying. They analyze mobbing in schools and the workplace in a systemic way, examining the individual, the group, and the institutional context.
THE PURPOSES OF S604 are to protect elderly and/or disabled citizens living in subsidized housing from bullying; to hold landlords and management responsible and accountable for having evidence-based policies on bullying; and for the Commonwealth to support ongoing research and demonstration programs and to distribute guidelines that protect disabled and senior residents from bullying.
Bullying in subsidized housing affects all residents, including people living with a disability as well as people living with age. The Stop Bullying Coalition is proud and lucky to be working with The Cross Disability Advocacy Coalition and with Jonathan Gale, coordinator of the CDAC. Please join with us and advocate for change now.
As bad as bullying is, being homeless is far worse. Much of the housing stock for subsidized housing in the nation, including here in the Bay State, is now vulnerable to conversion to private, market rate use, thus threatening to displace elderly and disabled persons, and low income families. Please help advocate to save our homes, tell Beacon Hill to act now.