State, local leaders bad-mouth bullying at town hall in Youngstown

State, local leaders bad-mouth bullying at town hall in Youngstown

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

School administrators and elected officials must fulfill their responsibility to make sure that bullying doesn’t interfere with any student’s education and ambitions, a Warren city councilman told an anti-bullying town- hall meeting.

“We’ve invested in you, and we’re not going to let something as silly and as stupid as bullying interfere with where you’re going in the future, and that’s our promise to you,” said Bob Dean, D-at large, and Warren council president-elect.

Dean was addressing his remarks to bullying victims, including a victim of one of the recent assaults that was reported at Warren’s Willard K-8 School and members of the victim’s family, who were in the audience.

The victim in attendance was a victim of “organized bullying,” having been beaten by four students in the school’s locker room. “Now, it’s a village that has to take care of this problem,” Dean said.

Dean spoke to an audience of about three dozen people at the Sunday meeting in First Unitarian Church on Youngstown’s North Side.

To address bullying in a broader context, State Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-33rd, of Canfield, said he is sponsoring Senate Bill 127, which would authorize school administrators to discipline students for bullying that occurs off the school premises.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.