Saturday, November 18, 2023

Deadlocked Jury is not about them, but a system that is hardly focused on where corruption may originate.

A jury was deadlocked in a case regarding the shooting of a person being investigated, leading to a mistrial.   It's odd to me that rules of law being questioned in nationalized courtrooms, which I thought once looked closely at the letter of and intent of law, appear to compartmentalize it. 
In the screenshot above it suggests that the fraudulent warrant fact is not included in what a jury must have been asked to decide.   The death of a person, as an accident, murder or course of criminality gone astray in a jury box mistrial, seems to be a foolish narrowed focus (probably a matter of law as well) for a mistrial to even occur.  It seems to me, that a fraudulent no knock warrant is the premiere crime that leads to every other subsequent action, on the part of those acting in that fraud.  The party who generated the fraudulent warrant, here it seems the decision about a subsequent death fully rests.  If this officer acted in good faith in an unknown fraudlent document - once again - the focus of the jury, even if so directed,  seems amiss. Maybe, taking the fraudster/s to court and charging them with murder would make more sense to a "jury of their peers." This deadlock is a travesty of justice - not for the officer, but for a jury so handtied they almost certaiy had to deadlock.  Admittedly, I know nothing of the legal ins and outs here and I'm not a legal anything - but reason says - the source of this death is in the fraudulent order and in that place murder seems simple enough to consider - not necessarily for the person who pulled the trigger/s but due and fully attributable for and to the party who instigated a fraud in the first place. 
---
 ~PsychoBabbleJabble, third options, bias....Kurt LaRose and TalkifUwant.
---
ARTICLE REFERENCE: https://news.yahoo.com/breonna-taylor-mistrial-know-jury-130527059.html

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

The brain will see it and life will change it - so hold on!

Sometimes I see the beauty. Sometimes I see the clutter....

Often it is about from where I stand - not from what actually exists.   It could be the gunk and the glory.  It could be the good and the bad. It could be the ying and the yang.  Or a blessing and a curse.   Maybe it's just awful at times - as blinded and as partial a view that is.  Maybe it's just really perfect at times - as blinded and as partial a view that also is.   


The brain has many moving parts... the psychological floor alters the human view by memory, experience, trauma and presence.  


Trauma is included as it must be; safety harmed, hindered, threatened or stolen unfortunately,  happens to all humans as life would have it.  


To exclude the horrible is a falsification of just how the brain works - falsified by preference and wanting - not by fact. 


To look at the views - there is a natural and a human made component to it all.  Which holds the most beauty?  It is in the eyes and the view of the beholder so the cliché might summarize.  


Either way - take a view (using memories,  smells, taste, touch, imagination, in all ways the psyche can dance) and hold on to it! It will change,  again,  just as life would have it.  

~K. LaRose and PsychoBabbleJabble

Friday, June 30, 2023

The Supreme Court says no to Student Loan Debt Cancellation: Stay Focussed.

The feds convinced millions of borrowers to move their loans into the Department Of Education for this loan cancellation stuff to all work. I wonder how many did so believing that their loans would be forgiven. I wonder too how many who agreed to these loan reconsolidations and refinances had to also agree to pay higher interest rates during these DOE refi's. Sadly, during a payment freeze, and sadly during a refinance to forgiven incentive a hopeful many are now very likely stuck with a higher interest rate than had they left their loans where they were (if I recall the DOE refi paperwork cautions about possible higher rates in moving loans to DOE).  I'm hesitantly aware that this whole thing will now move to the blame of conservatives and the blame of liberals and the blame of those students who should have known better. Few, interestingly enough, will blame the banks or the feds (aka: DOE). 

     PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Jordan and Unsplash

My hope would be that we citizens who are so inclined not lose sight of the issue here - making student loans less of a burden to those who cannot afford them. In that vain, if the Department of Education convinced you to refinance at a higher interest rate under the guise of forgiveness and cancellation, now that cancellation has been outlawed, the DOE should not blame the courts or the politics ... and the politics really should not blame each other - the system all of them so relied upon has dropped the gavel. Instead the DOE honorably should reverse course by ordering interest rates on student loans to be dropped to the zero prime loan rates that were evident in and before the COVID stop payment rule was effected during the prior republican administration. The DOE has been using that stop payment thing as its tool to now help the over indebted. You see this whole pub or dem thinking is a full blown miss: the solutions here are in the hands of those who lost their supreme court case - the DOE. My hope for the burdened and impoverished in student loans is that they/you do not give a pass to anyone by blaming anyone but instead ask and challenge the DOE to do the next best thing: zero the interest. 

Why? Any government student loan at over the current prime is a government approved rip off (and is predatory). Any government approved loan from the COVID era at over a point above the zero prime (the 0 rate during the pandemic) is also a government approved rip off (and predatory). This suggests the pubs and the dems and the DOE are culprits in predatory student loan regs.  The DOE can still act - somehow. 

On a personal note I've worked in rural ESE school counseling programs many many years (2004-2018) and because I was self employed, am not eligible for the give to the good loan forgiveness program. I've never missed a single loan payment from 2005 to 2023 (and I still have many years to go): at a rather low loan rate I've paid in over $120,000. Whatever you call a 6 years Masters Degree - it is/was very very expensive. I would love forgiveness and cancellation - I've been fortunate to be able to pay the bill every single month (and I've paid out $15.00 extra a month since 2005-with no early pay off evident - an oddity of its own).

The banks fee's, processing and the interest - as well as the government's two party role in this is unacceptable. Blame of one party or another will not help here for a soluition. Asking the DOE to drop the fees and interest would take a big part of $70,000 to $700,000 >student< loans reduce much more quickly with every payment.  

#dosomething #nevergiveup #sharethisfreely


https://www.msn.com/en-US/news/politics/supreme-court-strikes-down-bidens-plan-to-forgive-millions-of-student-loans/ar-AA1dgjsM?ocid=sapphireappshare

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Beware of Bag Snatchers?


Increasingly as I see the "narratives" from progressives, liberals and conservatives (and their various media bull horns) I am frustrated.  Student loans are not the burden of the US government.  Banks, contracted by and for the US government have already made billions and billions off of student loans.  
PHOTO CREDIT: Markus Winkler and Unsplash

And don't forget that besides the interest over the life of PAID and unpaid LOANS are many many fees.   We are continuing to be fed a line of bull about the costs of education (and healthcare, and Medicaid... and ....).  Non tax paying "not for profits" - companies working on behalf of the feds (education, healthcare and Medicaid) are raking it in.  Drive to any city and pass the colleges, pass the banks, pass the insurance carriers.... none of them are hurting.  Stop jacking the poor or the average citizen and start making the billionaire non profit companies (churches are included, political action companies ... and on and on I could go) pay their fair share.  Stop making criminals out of corporations (for profit as well) who use a 70,000 page tax code to legally get out paying a friggin dime in taxes.  Most of this cost crap would be entirely resolved if we quit jumping on band wagons and started looking at the source of the laws and of who is getting paid (and who is paying).  Things have got to change. 

Article Reference:  https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-student-debt-cancellation-republican-democrat-proposals-1807037

Sunday, May 28, 2023

We do not have a mental health crisis in the US

We do not have a ..."mental health crisis" in the United States.   We have an abhorrent health insurance crisis that dictates care based upon "criteria".  
       Photo credit: Sydney Sims and Unsplash

Inmates are not eligible for benefits while in an institution because they are receiving "benefits."  Yahoo news and other medias, really need to stop taking about the healthcare crisis and talk honestly about the health insurance industry (both profit and not for profit).  

https://news.yahoo.com/criminalizing-the-most-vulnerable-should-the-mentally-ill-be-behind-bars-090026453.html

Sunday, May 21, 2023

Targeted population laws 'to protect' are not equal in motivations: take a look at pharmacy and insurance for example

Another thought, by Kurt LaRose...

An article by The Missouri Independent prompts me to wander (and wonder) more into the details of 'the need to protect...'

This sentence is not only a reality for current residents and patients in the state (and other states in the US who are operating under similar political winds and paradigms) but too, for providers of mental health:

Patients need to be protected - adults and minors. Malpractice and neglect by providers is already protected in every state in the US. Doctors, therapists, teams of providers must be able to care for the idiosyncratic needs of patients. These laws likely are harming many people: patients and providers. This point is true not only in transgender discussions but in other medical protection scenarios as well. Equal actions of lawmakers to protect citizens is not apparent in the premise of what defines healthcare or populations in need of protection: take pharmacy regulations as an example of protection laws that are not equally applied (and are not nationally targeted).

These (gender based care) targeted group fear based laws, these political seeking laws or maybe even more cynically these separatist intended laws (aka: 'yeah, you can just go ahead and leave our state') hurt the masses, and overlook the majority of the masses. It's possible these laws are guided by paradigms of religion and some suppositions in faith - but the point here is that protection as a rationale is void, in actuality. 

The assumptions in these kinds of medical restrictive laws is that the very same states where systems to protect patients already exist in mammouth, their enforcing agencies are not competent to protect. Worse, these same states who license and credential providers to treat patients, suggest by outlawing individual patient care scenarios, that the states own standards are defunct. Further, these laws underestimate the intelligence of the average US American consumer of healthcare. These patient/provider restricting care laws make us collectively, look incompetent - from the top (where laws are passed) down (where one to one care occurs in practice offices everywhere).  

Here's an omitted or neglected majority scenario:

Everyday in the US millions and millions of patients get life changing prescriptions with known side effects, some of which are permanent. From causing diabetes, seizures, addiction, sleep deprivation, cancer, cognitive impairment, reduced mobility and loss of the ability to walk correctly, pee or even have sex. And the legislatures of the US are not racing to 'protect' its citizenry in these regards. Why not? Isn't the permanent debilitating side effects of certain treatments for all people (children and adults) in need of protecting in the doling out of meds?

We also underestimate the impact of insurance companies in all of this "healthcare debate" stuff. Did you know that most insurance companies will not cover a comprehensive, psychometrically valid, psychological evaluation (except in very specific and often repetitive request/appeal scenarios)? What does this mean in the overall need to legislate the protection of the citizenry? Why not pass laws that require insurance carriers to pay for valid diagnostics - wouldn't this protect the people?

I think this is worth quoting from the article once more, with the above context included as an alternative consideration to what is happening to patients, providers and state agencies all across this nation:

"...and even his mental well being could no longer be guaranteed..."

Here is the link to the referenced article: 

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Religion, Nudity, Education and P*rn?

       Photo credit: BBC article: educator resigns

Religion and nudity in the same famous 1500's sculpture leads to an educator's termination.   Shame and fear and guilt created this snafu ... a snafu that leads to punishing a leader and teacher.  I'm not sure when adults and children can talk, honestly,  openly and safely in this day and age. #TalkifUwant

"It's beautiful," said the educator, who was forced to resign after students were shown the masterpiece.

 https://news.yahoo.com/principal-forced-resign-over-michelangelos-233037932.html

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

The 5 most emotional moments ...

These folks were "broken-hearted" by some prejudice and they overcome.   The judges at too many times can be seen and heard saying "I hope s/he is good" maybe blinded a bit by prejudice as well.   In the end,  something like the miraculous appears.

https://youtu.be/xaltQQjcNkg

Saturday, April 1, 2023

Make up, Costumes and Courtrooms



PHOTO CREDIT: Austin Lowman and Unsplash

States all across the US are spending hundreds and hundreds of hours to discuss and argue about men and women dressing up in outfits and makeup that is, by some  standard, extravagant, exaggerated or maybe even extreme.  They are elected to serve the people and these lawmakers are asking secretaries, interns, assistants and large numbers of support staff to assist in legislating make-up and costume wearing by people who do so for shows.   They do not however legislate similarly, things as alarming as the mardi gras, halloween and  theatres that bring about shows like Freddie Kruger and the Exorcist; social media is full of freely accessed gore and death of significant disgust uninhibited by our country.  Our governments do this,  all the while knowing and seemingly being okay with, the next phases of what will be going to court to tie up judges, lawyers, and multiple paid members of other "ancillary teams of people" to engage the next legal battlegrounds where juris doctorates, licensed agents of the court and expert witnesses postulate their stances over makeup and costume wearing people. This all costs millions and in time maybe even billions of dollars.  We do not have health insurance in this country.  Our food supply is made with ingredients that many countries outlaw.  Our social security system is not funded beyond a few more years.  Medicare has an accepted "donut hole" where folks have to choose what meds to skip with each new year.  Our state and national budgets are in chaos (many auditors cannot balance the books in some cases).  Childcare workers are paid below poverty wages.   Teachers are training kindergarten children about lockdown, intruder alerts, bomb threats.  Banks are taking fees of various kinds off of every dollar exchanged - and big big ones are insolvent.  Poverty is everywhere.  The leading cause of bankruptcy in the US is healthcare.  Education is legally charging college students $200 and $300 for one college hour, plus books,  plus room,  plus board and an 8% interest rate on the loans to make the "learning" possible.  Churces are empty 4 or 5 days a week and they generate huge amounts of money that can be used for good - also tax free.   Non-profits pay no taxes and they continue to build new buildings for causes such as the right to have a drag show.  The newest holiday that the feds spent weeks recently enacting, as wonderful as it is, is also likely another paid day off from "the peoples work" for a select few in the US - our Federal employees.  I'm sorry, but in a collective and systemic view of things - you absolutely have got to be kidding me.  It is not an exaggeration to say this, although many will minimize the statement to bolster the side taking perpetuation: as people are literally dying the lawmakers of our country, the many arms of our government are tying up and funneling billions of dollars to make up, costumes,  drag shows.  I'll say it again,  you have got to be kidding me. 

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Teen Mental Health Crisis by Multiple Perspectives

"The teen mental health crisis is in many ways a natural response to loneliness, isolation, social media, prejudice and oppression" [paraphrased in the opening remarks of day two #PNS2023). Zack Taylor, Director Psychotherapy Networker, March 17, 2023.PHOTO CREDIT: "Me in DC!"

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Missouri and Florida: A mental health precedent heading to court and talk therapists have allot to consider

Missouri is becoming a bit of hot seat for transgender affirming care and mental health providers.  I often talk about and post about alternative views and options also with clients - particularly when right/wrong, all/nothing, good/bad binds emerge, creating severe mental stess.  This topic is certainly turning heads and creating whirlwinds of stress.  It's not really limited to lgbtq mental healthcare services. It's not really limited to providers, parents, religion, rights, laws or even biases.  Besides, there are solutions - where children (what all of this is supposedly about - and I emphasize this point - the children is what this is about) and families and care and laws could refocus a bit.  Getting better.
         Photo credit: Randy Fath and Unsplash.

In this emerging hot seat state, where major university hospital centers and "queer" identifying providers are in federal and state legal/investigation/whistleblower trajectories - from criminal to civil courtrooms and where legislative "battle lines" are increasingly being clearly marked I have to offer this to the rest of us.... there is a third option being overlooked in the provision of mental health care services across the entire United States.  Gender affirming care is only one area - but frankly in all lifelong mental illness care provision, severe and often life long permanent disorders are generated everyday in our country, by diagnosis.  Everday, masters level providers (I am in this category) not doctor level providers, in initial appointments lasting 60 minutes (maybe 75 or 90) label (by clinical and now legal documentation) people, children and adults - lgbtq and straight - with permanent mental disorders - to effect care.  That is to say almost every severe disorder (and oftentimes permanent ones) diagnosed in the mental illness category can be documented, and then billed to insurance payors by a licensed provider in minutes...very very few of these diagnoses' are made with labs, scans, genetics, and valid testing instruments.  Minutes to permanence for billing - often.

Forget the hotbed gender affirming topic for a moment and let that sink in - for both children and adults - a lifelong disorder can be made in a one hour conversation.  And outside of the specialty topic of gender, it is noteworthy to say that very few diagnostics, particularly lifelong ones are withheld from family members under the guise of privacy and confidentiality.  And, if safety (suicide, homicide, self injury, self harm, abuse) is at risk, mandated reporting of some kind and duty to warn laws and or ethics of some kind will require disclosure to caregivers (or other providers) who can generate a higher level of care.

Going back to the hotseat of Missouri and controversies over gender affirming care I would take the above variables (notice there are not only two) and summarize a treatment consideration that would be ethical, legal and reasonable: permanent or near lifelong diagnostics of children should not be done without a disclosure to the parents/caregivers - and - where abuse concerns exist mandated reports are required such that those other systems need to be activated.    Anything else may lead to the perpetuation of increased risks of harm to all involved.  This case is, if nothing else, proving the point of perpetual harm by omitting necessary party involvement where permanent illness, lifelong care and safety risks must be equally and adequately treated.

I've written about treating children for many  years and most providers know that to be critical for overall improved outcomes in treating children families must be treated. Family treatment is needed in children's services, and it is more medically necessary in serious mental illness diagnostics (and rule outs) where lifelong and life threatening variables exist (particularly with a child and his/her/their families). 

So, why and how does any of this (short term  diagnostics with lifelong and often permanent outcomes) happen?  Because of something else I've also written and spoke about: the third party payor system, health insurance and standards of care that are shaped by timed billing related to short and long term diagnostics to facilitate "medically necessary" care and payment.  There is much room for improvement right here...in insurance.  To focus on providers, patients, politics, gender, hospitals, educational systems,  mental illness, laws, religion, parents, children, and healthcare as a whole - and NOT on the payors - to me is the biggest travesty of the conflicts between them that keep us all in court sadly off the treatment focus.  Another complex consideration: insurance payors may be hurting us all ... and they too do not intentionally do so - even if we want to blame them as well.  Money cannot be omitted from costs of care, even by an idealist who wishes it, "rightly" so.

While this article does a wonderful job of identifying the moving parts in gender affirming practices and concerns, labeling affiliations and biases of the players who are making the ruckus - in gender laws and education of children and parental rights - (including identifying another hotseat place I've lived and worked - Tallahassee - oh and where DeSantis also sits) - the drama of winning over the politic aside - too many  variables are overly generalized.  A good problem identification article it is indeed - but the focus of generalizing omits context.  The children AND their families is the context.

You see each child and family scenario can be considered via a clinical and peer review lens (something that is not well/often funded by third party payors either).  And in the whole "don't say gay" drama - I've said it this way ... "but the children" ... we are talking about need to be talked to and included (patients are supposed to be asked what they want in treatment and in treatment outcomes - this is in fact often an insurance mandate, if not an ethical and professional one).

You see, children need treatment - big time in the US.  And if the children do - so do their parents. To exercise confidentiality as a mechanism to engage a child in keeping secrets from their parents may be a misstep in the provision of care.  And to say that "privacy" between child/patient/provider/professional (excluding parents/family) is being done to ensure the child is not abused, suggests collusion out of fear with suspected abusers whereby mandated reporting is being avoided. That is, in my estimation a significant clinical error in the diagnosis and treatment trajectory that occurs when both the patient and the family are not included.  This is phenomenally true in the case of children.  Lgbtq and otherwise.

Why do treatment trajectory errors of this magnitude (lifelong, often life threatening mental health treatment processes) also happen?  It goes back to providers who work in 45 minute sessions, limited by federal, state and private payors where care is limited by time and diagnosis related to "need" and reducing costs in "effecting care".... aka insurance.

I do not believe these topics are solved in the blue or red, right or wrong, all or nothing, evil or good paradigms. Nor do I believe class action lawsuits where members are compensated in ten's of dollars while tens of millions/billions only go to to or stay with a few.  The scenarios highlighted in this one example of a mental healthcare system in some disarray - and child welfare too (I've written about this topic as well) -  are not limited to any group of children and parents and schools and gender and mental healthcare workers and laws and insurance ... but these many variables are what mental health providers must navigate everyday.  Often in 45 minute windows with multiple suicidal and risk of harm scenarios and with as many as 6 to 10 patients in an 8 hour day mental health providers must conclude many impactful stories of people - well - quickly. Add lifelong disorders, if accurately diagnosed with or without gender affirming issues - these same kinds of case scenarios (highlighted directly and indirectly in the gender affirming care article referenced) also occurs with drug use, bipolar, schizophrenia,  autism, ptsd, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, domestic violence, bullying ..... on and on I could go....in 45 minute sessions a provider has allot to consider.

"But the children."

Clinicial assessments of children must include families and family systems.  Risk of harm does not strengthen confidentiality it mandates reporting for safety sake. Secrecy for safety is secrecy that will increase a child's bind and increase risk of negative acting out and self injurious behaviors.  Moms,  dads, guardians, systems to prevent child abuse and mental health providers cannot operate in secrecy - and in health.  Lgbtq or otherwise - secrecy in severity, lifelong disorders and safety risks require involving others in the family (and larger) systems.

Lifelong,  lifethreatening, permanent disorders and treatment needs are not going to be resolved in generalized legal and political hotbeds (Florida, Missouri, The United States).  They are going to be resolved one case at a time. Somehow.

Informed consent, neurobiological training, education, cultural inclusion, cultural reframing and comprehensive care is possible.  These variables are already in place in our mammouth systems of "care."  Accessing them is largely provider dependent, patient navigated, and funded in some way - whether there is sufficient time to do so or not.

Now children, families, providers, institutions, politicians are going to fight it out for some next big change?

If you're reading this, and you've made it this far - I think you must care ...  so if you have time,  give a long read to the entire article linked below and then also give a long read to my website Talkifuwant.comSearch child welfare, children and mental illness, types of providers, lgbtq, nutrition, couples, anxiety, stress, school counseling, adult welfare,  -  all of this "stuff" is covered  there ... problems and solutions.

If you're a parent or guardian or a social services caregiver, a child too (these folks have voices and opinions too by the way) or if you're in law enforcement and politics  - you are a part of the system. All of us are.  Know that what you do with the person sitting across from you matters.  And keep trying.

You/we/they can help - as exhausting and frustrating and maybe even as impossible as it is - one person at a time.

More talking.  More bias training.  More education.  More time with people.  More time with systems.  More inherently healthy focussed advocates ... you/we/they/I can do and get better.

Monday, January 30, 2023

CRISPR Re-programs DNA Mutations: In 10 years this has worked reportedly 100% of the time - Wow!

CRISPR, in ten years, is transforming how the body works and corrects itself. Sickle cell, lymphoma and other formerly impossible to stop conditions are learning anew - thanks to science like CRISPR.
-
The system is not found in the drawers of the refrigerator,  it is nothing less than a scientific wonder!  For more than 10 years this bio-technological system has been gaining ground in the reprogramming of DNA to interfere with mutations.  The mutations, heritable as many are, exist in the body leading to thousands of illnesses, cancers and diseases. With CRISPR (the article explains the acronym) lifelong diseases, terminal illness, and cancers appear to prevent premature deaths.  
PHOTO CREDIT: American Cancer Institute, Unsplash
I'm aware that the word "re-programming" conjures up a bit of a scare, but it's jargon, more than reality, as I see it. In my non-scientific summary it is probably more accurate to say that CRISPR finds the bad stuff, pulls it out, and then supplants it with the corrective action needed - and a better working immune system fixes the problem.  This is just cool....
-
"CRISPR has the ability to find a specific spot in a strand of DNA and make a cut, add or swap a genetic "letter" or even a word." ~USA Today, Jan. 30, 2023
-
Link Reference: https://news.yahoo.com/decade-crispr-gene-editing-revolution-100015757.html

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Guns and horrific things correlate to stress and poverty...

       PHOTO CREDIT: Christian Erfurt, Unsplash

"Nearly all attackers experienced one or more significant stressors within five years of the attack.

Roughly 93% of attackers dealt with personal issues ranging from health problems to divorce, domestic abuse, car accidents, school expulsions, disciplinary actions at work and cyber bullying, among a slew of other challenges.

For 139 attackers — 77% — the stressor(s) occurred within one year of the mass-casualty incident. Seventy-two percent of attackers specifically experienced a financial stressor sometime prior to their attack." - Yahoo news, 1/25/23

~ Here's my take ...

I often speak to clients about the impact of stress.  Not necessarily how to manage it better ... most already know that this is needed. As mental health continues to be stoked as in need of more funding - there is a societal thing to consider too.  Our culture applauds productivity and then attempts to call productivity happiness.  And when productivity is low the "non-productive" are blamed for their "need to do better."  To look at guns,  to look at mental illness and overlook the impact of stress and poverty is a bias of assumption.  Poverty and stress correlate to mental illness and violence.  Psychotic breaks (nervous breakdowns), double binds and the demands of a culture must all be addressed systemically. This article takes a comprehensive look at correlations to gun violence... where stress and money appear to be a major influence to horrific and dangerous things. 

Friday, January 13, 2023

Bullying at a school nicknamed "Suicide High" ...

      PHOTO CREDIT: Morgan Basham, Unsplash

Bullying of this kind is, sadly, not unique to any school, town or city in the US.  From the micro to the macro aspects of what is called "bullying" the pecking order dynamic must be addressed.   Our schools cannot untrain a system that makes this phenomenon occur and schools cannot also then retrain it - by themselves. Adults bully each other online daily by the masses - verbal assaults by grown ups are the communication model that is seen daily by children  with hours and hours of screen time.  A 1:1 teacher student ratio is what would be required to stop bullying.  Education and psycho-education of parents is what is needed too.  Why?  In this article, the one school named, has a nickname that could be making our grown up hearts ache.  Bullying costs lives.  In my work,  in my book, and in my life - bullying is a theme for adults, couples, families, children - at home,  at school, at work and online. ~Kurt LaRose