NEW YORK – Next fall, when millions of kids tune into Cartoon Network to watch Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and other favorites, they'll encounter something new — an ambitious campaign to enlist them as foot soldiers in the fight against bullying. Unlike many bullying programs, this one is geared toward middle school, where experts say bullying is most common. It also targets not bullies nor the bullied, but kids who witness bullying, giving them appropriate techniques to intervene. "There are specific strategies young people can learn to make a difference in their schools and communities," said Alice Cahn, Cartoon Network's vice president of ...

A 14-year-old boy in Concord, N.H., claims he was bullied into getting a tattoo on his buttocks May 10. His father tells the local paper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, that bullies at Concord High School threatened to beat the boy if he didn't submit to the tattoo. According to the father, the boy has attention deficit disorder and has been habitually bullied by older students. The bullies allegedly told him they would quit harassing him if he got a tattoo showing the outline of a male sex organ and offensive terms. If he refused to get the tattoo, the father tells the ...

THAT kid who turned your son’s second grade year into a tear- and bruise-ridden ordeal. The anonymous twit who sullied your daughter’s name on Formspring. Your own fifth-grade tormentor, circa 1979, gone but never well enough forgotten. Bad seeds, all? Or perhaps just anxious? Eager to win approval and affection? Two studies out this spring look at bullies’ motivations, inner workings and, yes, feelings. The first, “The Darker Side of Social Anxiety: When Aggressive Impulsivity Prevails Over Shy Inhibition,” finds bullies in a surprisingly sympathetic place. According to the authors, Todd Kashdan and Patrick E. McKnight, psychologists at George Mason University, ...

Bullies beware. Step foot on La Mesa Junior High School’s campus, and you’ll have to deal with guidance counselor Steve Paterson. For the last five years, Paterson has been the bully prevention coordinator. He’s launched a series of efforts that teach kids ways to identify bullying and, ultimately, help them to stop it. “(Students) can just feel free and know that people are here who will help them,” eighth-grader Emily Schroth said. Students like eighth-grader Schuylar Permann, the school’s difference-maker, is part of the school’s Safe School Ambassadors program, which trains kids on how to safely intervene during instances of bullying. Students sign a bully prevention ...

Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson has spent the past seven months in a self-imposed solitary confinement of sorts. For 210 days, the avid sailor skippered her 34-foot yacht, the Pink Lady, around the world, a feat few others, let alone teenagers, have accomplished. But on Saturday afternoon, her solo trip ended in dramatic fashion as tens of thousands of cheering spectators and hundreds of boats turned out to welcome her home to Australia's Sydney Harbor, according to CNN affiliate Nine News. "I haven't seen a person for almost seven months and suddenly there's just people everywhere -- you know, faces, so much color, so much ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - With the confidence of a coach and the passion of a preacher, Zach Lipson has spent much of his teenage years telling anyone he meets about his plans to join one of the nation's elite college basketball programs. It didn't matter to him that he'd never played a minute of organized hoops. Or that he stood little chance of ever being more than 4 feet tall. He still gave the same speech to just about everyone he met, whether he was chatting at a dinner table full of strangers ...

1/3 of parents give primary schools an "A;" less than 1/4 give secondary schools an "A" ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- School psychologists, counselors and social workers are often the first line of support for children with behavioral, emotional or family problems. Problems can range from attention deficit disorder and homelessness to depression and bullying all of which can make academic success a challenge. The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health asked nearly 1,100 parents across the United States to grade their children's public schools on how well they support children with behavioral, emotional or family problems. Thirty-seven ...

A schoolboy taunted for being 'chubby' told yesterday how he became anorexic at the age of 11 and lost so much weight he was left on the verge of death. Taylor Kerkham, now 12, became obsessed about his calorie intake, and on some days would eat as little as half a pot of diet yoghurt and a slice of cherry tomato. His anxious parents tried everything to make him eat more, but the previously healthy and active youngster would become hysterical and threaten to throw his dinner plate on the floor. Eventually Taylor collapsed ...

Twinkies. Fat slob. Gordita. It didn't stop with the nicknames. "Eat only half." "Stop eating so much." For Claudia Garza, these taunts didn't come from schoolyard peers -- they came from her family. Obese children are 65 percent more likely to be bullied than their peers of normal weight, according to a study published in Pediatrics this month. But teasing about weight is not confined to schools-- it can also occur within the home, according to childhood obesity experts. Major public health efforts are under way to lower childhood obesity rates as one in three U.S. ...

Dr. Leonard Sax is a family physician and founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, who lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and daughter. The author of two previous books concerning the effects of gender differences on learning, Sax argues in his new book, Girls on the Edge, that today’s teens and tweens look confident on the outside but have a dangerously fragile sense of self. Q: When we spoke two years ago, it was about how poorly boys are doing relative to girls in terms of both motivation ...