Appearance on TV garners sympathy and more bullying

By Kristine GilL

kgill@vindy.com

boardman

Toni Genovese said appearing on the Dr. Phil show last week to address cyber bullying has added fuel to the fire for her daughter’s bullies.

“They told her off at Friday’s football game,” Genovese said. “Parents and police got into it. The wording would make you die.”

The result was a meeting with the superintendent and Glenwood Middle School principal, and Genovese said it resulted in her 12-year-old daughter’s having to sit out of an upcoming volleyball game along with another player.

Superintendent Frank Lazzeri did not want to comment for this story.

But Genovese said appearing on national television also has drawn praise and sympathy from other victims.

“It has helped Dara, because she no longer feels like the silent victim,” Genovese said.

Genovese said she has filed another report about Friday’s football game with the Boardman Police Department, which conducted an investigation of similar events surrounding her daughter in April.

Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols said his department used to have a program for juveniles aimed at addressing bullying, but that program was cut in February 2008 when the department had to lay off 16 of its 63 police offers along with other staff.

Two social workers used to meet with juveniles accused of bullying their peers online and in school. Since losing that program, detectives and officers now meet with juveniles when such matters are brought to the department.

Since the first story about Genovese and her daughter ran last week, two other Boardman families have contacted The Vindicator with similar complaints of bullying in the school district.