Obamas focus on antibullying efforts

03-11-2011

By Jackie Calmes/New York Times

President Obama poked fun at his own big ears and funny name on Thursday, but all in the service of a serious subject as he and Michelle Obama opened a White House conference to spur antibullying efforts in schools and communities nationwide. “If there’s one goal of this conference, it’s to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up,” Mr. Obama told about 150 students, parents, teachers and advocates of prevention measures gathered in the East Room. “With big ears and the name that I have, I wasn’t immune,” he added. “I didn’t emerge unscathed.” While Mr. Obama elicited chuckles with that memory, he and other participants also recalled examples from more recent and tragic stories of young people who killed themselves rather than endure further abuse from classmates, often for being gay or for being thought to be gay. (more...)

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