(A link is included at the bottom of this story for information on what to do if your child is being bullied.)

Yolanda Padilla says her son has had to put up with a lot of abuse in school because he is in a minority and is an easy target because of who he is attracted to. Padilla says social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have amplified what used to be threats and abuse by troublemakers who targeted her son because of his sexual orientation.

"A kid in class to tell my son that 'all gay people should be put on a ship and the ship be blown up'," Padilla said in a hallway outside the cafeteria at Austin ISD's Baker Center Wednesday night. Meantime, inside the room, a video was being shown of children from pre-teen through teenage describing in sometimes profane and graphic terms the comments and derogatory names they are called regularly. In Padilla's case, "[My son] went in to talk to the principal and the principal said 'maybe you should keep these things to yourself in terms of telling people you're gay'."

That insensitivity and indifference by school administrators and police in certain situations where a student is being abused verbally and sometimes physically by other, often larger students, is what had most parents and support groups upset during a forum to address bullying.

"Kids talking about school as something to be survived is a problem," Padilla said. "I hear kids talking about school, including my son, as something to be survived."

Being bullied is embarrassing to a child and often undermines their self-confidence, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

The Austin school district's intervention coordinator said there is a procedure in the district's policy manual for teachers to follow in the event they notice one child being bullied by others for any reason. One parent said he did not know his child could be transferred out of one class and into another to get away from the bully. Another parent then asked why state law allows the victim to be transferred and does not address the child perpetrating the abuse, a question that drew rousing applause.

One parent described a situation in Round Rock ISD where her son, 15, has been victimized since March, 2008 and says the district has done absolutely nothing to end the abuse. The woman described her son as then being charged with truancy after missing more than 100 days of school since that time and says she has tried to address school administrators to explain why he is not in school, but the woman insists officials will not listen.

Another parent expressed concerns that state standardized testing, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, is forcing teachers to become so razor-focused on curriculum that they do not have time to address the human and emotional element of what's going on often under their noses.

Wednesday night's forum was co-hosted by AISD, Equality Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project.

 

Click here for information on what to do if your child is being bullied.