Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf Bully?

When I first signed-up for Twitter, I thought about the different types of people I would follow, one of the names that came to mind was Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN news program, AC 360, his interview with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana during 2005 Katrina crisis left a deep impression. In the interview, Anderson asked Senator Landrieu, should the federal government bear responsibility for what happened. This was before the Katrina victims were evacuated from New Orleans to the Astrodome. At the time the people that chose to stay were still at the Superdome. Clearly, the Senator was so removed from what was happening on the ground thanked Presidents Clinton and Bush and a list of others for passing an unprecedented $10 billion supplemental bill to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating. Anderson was clearly incensed from her response cuts her off and said “…I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.” As Cooper said later in an interview with New York Magazine, “Yeah, I would prefer not to be emotional and I would prefer not to get upset, but it’s hard not to when you’re surrounded by brave people who are suffering and in need.”

So, it’s not surprising when AC 360 tweeted about a teen suicide on Twitter - it got people’s attention. A tragic story of a 15 year-old student who was stalked and harassed by her bullies from September until she killed herself on January 14. Phoebe Prince emigrated to the U.S. from County Clare, Ireland with her mother and three sisters on September 2009, settled in a small New England town near Springfield, Massachusetts about 95 miles west of Boston. Phoebe’s mother moved to South Hadley to be close to her side of family and Phoebe’s father stayed behind in Ireland for his job.

According to a classmate who knew Phoebe agreed to speak on TV, but fearing retribution from the same bullies and becoming a victim himself, requested his face be silhouetted. He held back tears when he said Phoebe was a kind and beautiful friend who tried very hard to fit in. She took her life after she was constantly bullied by her nine school classmates. They have threatened her in person, via internet and over text messages. Her bully started right after the school’s football quarterback stopped dating her, he then went back to his previous girlfriend, it was at that time the girlfriend enlisted others to taunt Phoebe everyday, threatened to beat her. Witnesses said at one point she was reduced to tears in Latin class. Phoebe reached out to school administrators for help telling them she was scared and wanted to go home, but she was turned away. She told her friend the administrators would do nothing, left with few options and no protection from school, she resorted to hide in school washroom to avoid being beaten and she would ask to walk between friends to avoid being surprise attacked by her bullies. On her last day, she was subject to more verbal attacks by her bullies who yelled out derogatory names at her in front of school administrators inside school library.

School officials said they didn’t know about the bullying - no warning signs. But, it turned out there were plenty of warning signs, inside the school many knew about the bullies, it was common knowledge among Phoebe’s friends, other students, and faculty members. They knew, but no one reported it. Three former students came forward after Phoebe’s death. They said the bullying inside the school was so prevalent that they had to ask for transfer to another school to avoid being bullied. Sometime, they saw good kids had to tolerate bad kids’ bullying in order to fit in.

In an interview with AC 360, South Hadley Superintendent, Gus Sayer continues to defend the school. At times, he even contradicted himself. When a school is led by a person like Superintendent Gus Sayer, who blames the victim for other students nasty behavior, is not only irresponsible but obviously lacks the sensitivity to hold such an important position. However, based on what we’ve seen in the past and if the past is any indication, Guy Sayer was simply marching to the beat of the same drum as Senator Mary Landrieu during Katrina crisis, he was as clueless as Senator Mary Landrieu – by thanking the teachers and administrators at South Hadley for doing a great job.

We don’t have to look very far to find companies or organizations that have chose “not” to address critical matters quickly. Just look at the way Vatican has handled the latest priest sex abuse scandals, as the Church comes under scrutiny over widespread pedophile priest. There are still people out there who are from a generation where they were raised to respect “not” question the people who are entrusted to uphold the highest standard of integrity and fairness in an organization - including priests, and look where it got us. There are good and nasty people in every profession. We have seen news reports covering people who behave badly in good professions. So why, is it still a “taboo” to have an opinion that is critical of teachers? When a bully sees his or her behavior bears no consequences, they take it as permission to bully some more.

The bullies at South Hadley High School thought they can get away with bullying good kids should absolutely be punished. The way I see it, if you arrest the bullies, then the teachers must bear responsibility. Our children are in school to learn from their teachers not the other way around. So, if a teacher can’t find a way to protect and prevent a kid from bullies, then they are not fit to teach. Bystanders who stood and watched others being bullied are just as guilty as those who bullies. When Haiti’s most devastating earthquake erupted on January 12, no one outside of South Hadley knew in just two more days an eruption of a different kind was about to put South Hadley on the map. The school bullies never thought they would be arrested, generating sympathy for Phoebe, and made her name synonymous to anti-bullying. Her death has brought calls for more stringent anti-bullying laws in Massachusetts and a state anti-bullying task force was set up as a result of her death. Phoebe was still wearing her school cloths when she was found hanging from a stairwell at her home by her younger sister. I hope she didn’t die in vain.

Last year, a university student from Ireland drowned after going for a swim with friends. Paraic McKeown was in a group of 10 friends who had camped overnight at Toronto Island’s Hanlan's Point, one of the two nudist beach in Canada, (the other in Vancouver) He and two friends went for a swim in an unsupervised area near the observation pier in the morning at 7am. According to the police the water was about 30 to 50 feet deep at side of the pier, they camped overnight on the island and decided to cool off with a dip in the lake. Paraic was found in about eight feet of water and was in the water close to 45 minutes to an hour before he drowned. Three men were all friends but two of the men made it back to shore and then realized their friend was missing. They were about 32 feet from the shore when Mckeown failed to surface. Lifeguards wouldn’t be on duty until 11am. His father in an interview said his son was a "strong swimmer" and he didn't know what caused his son to drown. Police investigation revealed nothing suspicious about the drowning but was (at the time) still investigating the circumstances.

Pat McKeown 57, said his son had never been to Canada before arriving in June in Toronto, on a SWAP Working Holidays, known as the Student Work Abroad Program (period ranging 3 -6 months) working as security guard at a popular patio bar Splash near the lake on Queens Quay area. Studying law, economics and politics at Dublin City University, McKeown 20, was about to enter his final year. Heartbroken and devastated, Pat, in a telephone interview from his home near Dundalk, Ireland, where Paraic grew up said "Journalism was something he had in mind, and writing, that was always a strong point," Paraic was scheduled to return to Ireland on Aug. 25th less than a week from the day of his fateful swim.

Though empty beer cans were clearly visible at the camp site, police say they don't believe alcohol played a factor in the drowning. Splash is owned and operated by one of Canada’s top nightlife and entertainment companies in the industry. Founded in 1987, Liberty Entertainment Group has been in the food service industry for over 20 years, a stable of most exclusive nightclubs, restaurants and banquet hall in Toronto. Their restaurants and clubs are located in some of Toronto’s prime business and tourist area, including Splash. Their patrons on Bay Street (equivalent of Wall St.) are listed in the who’s who among top executives. After McKeown’s death, Liberty and other businesses including Molson Coors made a one-time $85,000 corporate donation to support Toronto Transit Commission 2009 New Year’s Celebrations, a fare-free service to those who wanted to make the responsible choice and arrive home safely by using public transit after ringing in the New Year.

To most people, Paraic was just a security guard at Splash, but to his family, Paraic was a treasure. Just three weeks before his unfortunate death, Pat McKeown visited his son in Toronto and spent 10 days with him, treating his son to dinners every night and checking out Niagara Falls with him. "He loved it here," said a friend, who declined to provide his name. "He loved Canada."

Late 1995, Lehman Brother’s top two deputies had a major fallen out, a hot-tempered fixed-income head, Joseph Gregory, and a devout Roman Catholic president, Christopher Pettit. The fallout begins when Pettit, who has championed moral values to the senior executives with words like “our word is our honor”, began an affair with a woman at the firm. It didn’t sit well with Gregory, who distanced himself from Pettit, holds secret meetings with senior staff behind Pettit’s back, then conspired with others to oust him. At the end, his closest allies at the firm deserted him including Tom Tucker (head of sales), his best friend since kindergarten. On November 1996, without company CEO Dick Fuld’s support, he left Lehman.

Three months after he was pushed out, Pettit who had been drinking, took a snowmobile onto a frozen lake in Maine hit a stump and was thrown out of his seat. On February 15, 1997, a day after Valentine’s Day, he died en route to the hospital from trauma wounds to his head. Pettit, a decorated Vietnam War hero and West Point graduate was adored by the Lehman rank and file. In April’s issue of Vanity Fair promoting her first book, Devil’s Casino, Vicky Ward, journalist and author described Lehman’s top executives, especially, Fuld’s longtime deputies have paid a high price to live a life of isolation, backstabbing, and hypocrisy. Most Lehman insiders wouldn’t talk on record until CEO Richard Fuld is out. Some would say Pettit was the real captain not Fuld, others would say he died intoxicated in despair not alcohol, but Ward said the firm was both a fishbowl and a shark tank - they own you.

When ever I read about leaders who are morally challenged and integrity deficient, I am reminded of Dorothy Parker’s quote: "Whenever I want to know what God thinks of money, I just look at the people he gave it to." Well, I think she pretty much sums-up everything for us.

This month’s ‘A-must-read' is on the failure of Lehman Brothers A Colossal Failure of Common Sense by insider, Lawrence McDonald.  He said it takes just one phrase to understand the failure of Lehman Brothers "24,992 people striving hard, making money, and about eight guys losing it" in a interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep.  McDonald, a Vice President traded high yield bonds for Lehman Brothers from 2004 to early 2008.  During the time he was there McDonald never met CEO Dick Fuld, nor have his bosses. He left Lehman, shortly after his mentor, Larry McCarthy had resigned in March 2008.  The Quants, written by Scott Patterson of WSJ details the near collapse of the financial system a year before the one in September 2008, and why the mathematical formulas written by the Quants didn't anticipated the collapse of Wall Street. Third book, Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower written by Dr Shiv Chopra recounts events where he and two other Scientists were pressured by their bosses at Health Canada, who were bribed by multinational manufacturer to approve cattle drug in 1998.  They accused Monsanto of bribery in bid to OK questionable product, including Bovine Growth Hormone.  Prior to the mad cow disease crisis in Canada, Chopra warned the government that the current handling of feed to cows was inadequate. He was one of the first Whistleblowers in Canadian public service.  Within a week of Paul Martin (former PM) narrowly winning the 2004 general election, Dr. Chopra and two other Health Canada colleagues, Dr. Margaret Haydon and Dr. Gerard Lambert, were fired after decades of opposing the use of antibiotics and hormones in food production. He has written Corrupt to the Core as the result. [A must read]

Last week, I saw two great documentary films - Food, Inc. and The world according to Monsanto. In Food, Inc., a film by Robert Kenner, it examines a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad. The documentary is narrated by experts, Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma). You will look at food differently after you watch Food, Inc. In The world according to Monsanto a film by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin, originally aired on French television that you won’t see on American television. It looks at the devastating cost of Monsanto’s race over the last decade to genetically engineer and patent the world’s crops. It captures the human toll of Monsanto’s drive for GMO market domination. [What's up, Doc.]

In January, a Swiss research firm Covalence released a list of  the world’s least ethical companies, not surprising these  companies are all big multi-billion dollar (mostly) oil and mining  corporations.  The list got me thinking, why are these companies  continues to show-up on the list, year after year? Shouldn’t somebody be  knocking on their doors asking questions?  Then again, maybe not, maybe we'll  wait - until an irreversible tragedy happens - like what South Hadley  teachers and administrators did. [Did you know]

On a lighter note, I welcome people like Chef Peter X Kelly, who walk the talk.  In a recently interview with The Valley Table, he spoke openly and passionately about his philosophy for success, he shares his views on hospitality, service, staff training, and how a customer in his restaurant should be served.  He said, the customer is always right.  He quotes from Danny Meyer:  “The road to success is paved by mistakes well handled.”  For some, one measure of successful hospitality is how well the disasters are managed.  I couldn’t agree with him more.  If you are in NYC neighborhood, try Freelance in Piemont, NY. [My picks]