Colorado anti-bullying program, fueled by pot tax dollars, considered one of the best in the country
By MONTE WHALEY, The Denver Post
Colorado’s newest anti-bullying program is being fueled by proceeds from legal marijuana sales and earning local and national praise from students, teachers and watchdog groups for its effectiveness.
“People can tell the difference when they walk in here,” said Allison Horton, a teacher at Denver’s Skinner Middle School and one of the overseers of the school’s restorative justice program. That effort has been credited with helping solve hallway and schoolroom conflicts and improving grades. “It seems like a safe place.”
Skinner is among 71 schools across the state last year that got money from the Colorado Department of Education’s Bullying Prevention Grant program that began in 2016. As many as 34,423 students have been impacted in some way by the grant, which became possible after voters approved spending marijuana tax dollars on school construction and other efforts aimed at improving school health and safety.
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People who are bullied at work have an increased risk of heart attacks, study finds
By Oscar Quine, The Telegraph
People who are bullied at work have an increased risk of heart attacks, a new study has found.
The research found that those who experience violence in the workplace are also subject to the risk – which includes a heightened likelihood of strokes and other cardiovascular problems.
The study is the largest ever to investigate such a link.
The authors of the study, published today in the European Heart Journal, said that their findings could have important implications for employers and national governments.
Ms Tianwei Xu, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who led the study, drew attention to the possible decrease in heart attacks and other cardiovascular issues that could be achieved if action was taken on the report’s findings.
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Bullying Killed His Best Friend, So He Launched an Organisation to Fight Against it in Egypt
By MIRNA ABDULAAL, Egyptian Streets
“Nine years ago, my best friend committed suicide from bullying,” Mostafa Ashraf, founder of Advice Seekers, says to Egyptian Streets, “and since then, I felt like I should create something to help people to be the person that stands beside others that do not have anyone standing beside them.”
When he was just 15 years old, Mostafa Ashraf created the Facebook page ‘Advice Seekers’ to help both himself and others to combat bullying. It was just slowly beginning to develop until a university in Egypt, Modern Academy, gave him a call to do a campaign at their campus.
“I was not really confident in speaking in front of others and had no communication skills, so I started to do a lot of research and contacted a psychologist to help me in all of that,” he says.
Following that, the Facebook page created by a young and determined kid turned into a large campaign with many people seeking to join it, appearing on TV shows like “Masah DMC” with Eman El Hosary and featured in an article on Sky Arabia.