Bullying

It’s funny how issues on local and national levels coincide. For example, we in Utah and the nation are all talking about gays and bullying.

The coincidences:

A couple of weeks ago we saw a huge rally in Ogden against bullying. The rally was spurred by the suicide of several teens and the sad fact that some of those dead teens happened to be gay.

Just last week Mitt Romney, Utah’s de facto favorite son presidential candidate, was revealed to have been a high school tormentor of at least one gay student.

NEW YORK -- When Mitt Romney was a good-looking teen in the buttoned-up '60s, corporal punishment was the norm and bullying had a different, more acceptable name: hijinks.

Yet in today's zero-tolerance world when it comes to, well, just about everything, things haven't changed all that much for young victims of bullies. Definitions have tightened, become law, but bullying is far from over.

OGDEN -- Ogden OUTreach, a program for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered teens, is hosting a community rally: "A Community Stands up -- Northern Utah Addresses LGBT Bullying and Suicide" to fight the continuing number of teen suicides, especially among gay teens.

The rally will be at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, at the Ogden Amphitheater, 343 25th St., Ogden.

Davis School District officials have learned through the years that every effort -- both big and small -- helps in the fight to stop bullying in schools.

One of the district's recent efforts includes a live play performed by students from the Theatre Arts Conservatory in Salt Lake City, which is working to bring the message about bullying to nearly 30 schools in Davis School District.

The play, titled "Amukis and the Donkleberry Suitcase," is no ordinary play. It has a beginning and middle, but no ending -- a first for the group, which has been creating different plays for schools for several years.

LAYTON — “If one person goes out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction.”

These words by Rachel Scott, the first victim in the Columbine High School disaster, were the theme for the seventh annual Davis Youth Summit held Saturday at Northridge High School.

SEATTLE -- As people grow older and look back at years spent in high school, they can often find pleasant memories lurking there -- of lifelong friends they made, or of fun times they had.

When Russell Dickerson III looks back, there's none of that -- just mostly sadness.

The 20-year-old black student, who said he endured relentless bullying and harassment by fellow students from the time he entered junior high until he graduated from high school, has reached a $100,000 settlement with the Aberdeen School District, where it happened.