first-ever bullying summit. experts can t agree how to define bullying. is it physical, electronic, psychological, nonverbal in or all of the above? when might the federal government act and say, these are the guidelines we want to put in place. do it. i think that it s taken us a long time to develop a bullying problem and it s going to take us some time to solve it. reporter: it s why there are no federal guidelines schools must follow to deal with bullying. they re on their own. in smally s home state of oklahoma, each school district deals with bullying in different ways. it s something else that infewer ates smally. a lot of schools around the country, their answer to bullying is they let the victim leave a little bit early and let them go home early to get a head start on the bully. you re singling this child out. this child has been picked on and you re singling him out now. reporter: real solutions will come too late for ty, but kirk
grade, i refused to go back to school because i simply wasn t going to go back to a place where i got bullied every day. reporter: jennings organized the nation s first ever bullying summit. but he admits it s a baby step. experts can t agree on how to define bullying. is it physical, electronic, psychological, nonverbal, or all of the above? when might something happen? when might the federal government act and say these are the guidelines we want to put in place, do it? i think that it s taken us a long time to develop a bullying problem and it s going to take us some time to solve it. reporter: it s why there are no federal guidelines schools must follow to deal with bullying. they re on their own. in smalley s home state of oklahoma, each school deals with bullying in different ways. it s something else that infuriates smalley. a lot of schools answer to bullying, they let the victim leave a little bit early. they let them go home early to
taken their own lives after being relentlessly bullied. you may remember carl joseph walker-hoover. he s there on the left. he was in the sixth grade. students taunted him, saying he acted gay. he hanged himself. he was just 11 years old. jaheem herrera, also age 11, same kind of taunts. he also hanged himself. so did ryan halligan, bullied, taunted by the girls, called a loser. eric mohat bullied again and again until one day he took a gun from his father s dresser drawer and turned it on himself. all too often as we have seen parents of kids who ve been bullied find that schools don t take the problem seriously enough. here s what carl s mother said recently on capitol hill. i did everything that a parent is supposed to do. i chose a good school. i joined the pto. i went to every parent-teacher conference. i called the school regularly and i brought the bullying problem to their staff s attention. the school did not act. the teachers did not know how to respond.
jaheem herrera, same kind of taunts. he also hanged himself. so did ryan halligan, taunted by girls, called a loser. eric mohat took a gun from his fath father s dresser drawer and turned it on himself after being bullied again and again. all too often parents of kids who have been bullied find the schools don t take the problem serious enough. here is what carl s mother said on capitol hill. i did everything that a parent is supposed to do. i chose a good school. i joined the pto. i went to every parent-teacher conference. i called the school regularly and i brought the bullying problem to their staff s attention. the school did not act. the teachers did not know how to respond. right now, there s legislation making its way through congress, safe schools improvement act, defining bullying of conduct placing students in reasonable fear of physical harm, based on race, color, national origin,
program about bullying in schools. we covered the deaths of a number of kids who have actually taken their lives after being relentlessly bullied. you remember carl walker-hoover, he was just 11 years old. students taunted him, saying he acted gay. he hanged himself. jaheem herrera, same kind of taunts. he also hanged himself. so did ryan halligan, taunted by girls, called a loser. eric mohat, bullied again and again until one day he took a gun from his father s dresser drawer and turned it on himself. all too often parents of kids who have been bullied find the schools don t take the problem serious enough. here is what carl s mother said on capitol hill. i did everything that a parent is supposed to do. i chose a good school. i joined the pto. i went to every parent-teacher conference. i called the school regularly and i brought the bullying problem to their staff s attention. the school did not act. the teachers did not know how to