We read about more cases of bullying and cyberbullying everyday. The tragic story of the Rutgers Student who killed himself after two people videotaped him having sex and posted it on line.
Today another very disturbing story. A Mt. Airy 13 year old was stripped by two 17 year olds. They took video of him and put it on line. I spoke with Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams who prosecuted the teens and he says “the victim and the mother were victimized over and over again because it was posted on line where people could see it and mock.” Hundreds of people did mock the poor boy. They were charged and sentenced to probation, drug testing and monitoring. Some say they got off too easy. So I asked Williams do stricter penalties need to be put in place? Williams responded “my office is now considering lobbying lawmakers, it’s more than just a simple assault, bullying on line threats…we need to keep up with the technology.” Williams added this is a growing crime and every child has the right to be safe. The Philadelphia School District has set up a hotline number to call 215-400-SAFE . I think if the kids and teens knew they would get more than a slap on the wrist they might think twice about this type of violence. It has to stop so children can feel safe.
Foreclosure Fiasco
Some of the nations biggest banks admit serious problems in how foreclosure cases are reviewed. First it was JP morgan, now Bank of America says employees signed foreclosure documents without even reading them. The bank is now delaying foreclosures in 23 states while the cases are examined. One Wells Fargo executive admits he only checked the date on the hundreds he signed daily. Wells Fargo has no plans to delay foreclosures. This will certainly affect homeowners and it will have a greater economic impact. It could cause thousands of homeowners to contest foreclosures dragging the foreclosure crisis on for years. Also today President Obama met with his economic advisors. The President announced a plan to partner business with community colleges. I asked Financial Expert Todd Schoenberger is this a good move especially since President Obama has alienated the business community. “It’s the best thing he ever did, implementing a 12 billion dollar college initiative which offers tuition assistance to those looking to enroll. The problem is, he also manufactured an entitled an unemployed group, with continued jobless benefits, health insurance and food stamps,” says Schoenberger. As for alienating the business community, Schoenberger says this about the President. “His actions against business has done nothing to help job creation and improve confidence for consumers. ”
A Lesson In Civility
Rutgers, New Jersey State University is launching a new program called “Project Civility”. It’s designed to promote good manners, politeness, and caring on campus. We talked about this topic today on Fox29 News at 5pm . Etiquette expert Keri White joined me to weigh in on the program.”It’s great Rutgers is setting this type of trend,” says White. The campus program is targeting rude behavior like students taking calls while in class or surfing the web on their laptops during instruction. But we see this everywhere. People on their mobile devices having loud conversations in restaurants, health clubs, airplanes and we don’t want to hear it. White told me a story of when she was on a train and a woman was having a loud conversation with her significant other on her mobile phone.White says she looked at her and the woman said “this is a private conversation”, “well it really isn’t..” replied White. Plus what about our political views.? “We can’t simply disagree in a civil way, we have to evicerate eachother. We need to move away from that,”says White. “Rudeness begets rudeness and we all need to take a step back and be nice and that also spreads.”