YOU TUBE BULLIES EXPELLED why was the thread removed ?

[mamadadawahwah]

Thanks to moms all over the world who saw the youtube videos of a young autistic man at Bournemouth and Poole college being taunted and baited by bullies, the videos were removed and the perpetrators have been expelled. There is talk of legal action and action taken with respect to the "rights of the child" and of course disability discrimination.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/6311477.stm www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/display.var.1155346.0.disgust_over_phone_clips_of_taunted_autistic_boy.php

I dont understand why the link i originally posted regarding the videos was removed, nor, as a parent of an autistic child, do i understand the comments that were made about not wanting them posted here. Having spoken about the links being removed to friends in the USA, they are at a loss, and chalked it up to being "in denial".

Here of ALL places was appropriate for the videos to be posted. As a parent, i want to know what is going on in our schools and I for one, made a huge stink about this incident as did hundreds of other parents who saw the videos and worried about this young man's emotional and physical safety.

Increasingly, i am coming to the conclusion that mumsnet must be a clique of the few vs the many, the few who seem to have sway over content and who have sway over the direction of threads. Maybe there is bullying going on in mumsnet? I know i have had some "choice" comments, that havent had much forethought, thrown at me, comments which were intentionally rude on a personal basis.

Whoever complained to mumsnet about the videos being posted here, they should think about WHY they were posted, so that parents could make complaints, get the videos off of the air and ensure that the perpetrators paid for what they did.

Turns out it was the americans who originally found these videos and it was the americans who were quoted in one of the newspaper reports as being in full support of this young lad and his family. The americans were talking about these videos well before we were in the UK.

Come on mumsnetters, get your head out of the sand. If that child had been my child, i would have expected better from fellow parents, i would have expected you to tackle this issue and do all you could to get the videos off the net and to make your voices heard.

Mumsnetters who use this board for most of their information would have been at a loss of even knowing the videos existed, seeing as they were removed from here.

If a mumsnetter found it painful to watch these videos, imagine how painful it must have been for the boy, much less his parents.

If parents dont stick together who will?? No one is going to change anything for our kids except parents and in this instance, it was parent power who brought these videos to a head and who had them removed and who got the kids expelled, possibly facing prosecution. On behalf of my own son who is autistic, i say thank you to those parents who used their voice and didnt put their head in the sand.

But do you think it was right to remove the videos from youtube?

If you don't care why MNHQ removed them then why start a thread asking that very question in the title?

precisely Coppertop

""Do you feel it is right that the videos were removed from Youtube? ""

I do think it was right to remove them from youtube. Luckily someone doing an autism search on youtube found the videos, posted the link on threads asking if anyone has info on who to contact to get them removed, someone responded "hey that's at Poole College", then people started flooding Poole College's inbox with emails. Poole college contacted youtube to have the videos removed.

in the process of all this there is an american parent of an autistic child who was able to download the videos to her computer from youtube and give them to BeatBullies for prosecution.

Like I said had the link never been posted justice would not have a chance to be served.

It's just that IMO if you think it's right to have them removed from youtube then it was right to remove the links to them, maybe before the videos were deleted, for the same reasons.

I think it's right to remove them from youtube and I think it was right to make it more difficult to find them (by deleting the link) before they were actually removed. Yes, the link/videos served a purpose and got justice, but after that they are inappropriate and it would be simply ghoulish to go and watch them.

Interested as to what the OP thinks.

MN could have deleted the link instead of the thread, or asked the person who posted the thread to repost without the link. It is important that we come together when things like this happen so make a difference for our childrens rights.

"""Yes, the link/videos served a purpose and got justice, but after that they are inappropriate and it would be simply ghoulish to go and watch them. """

The justice was not served until after the original thread on here was deleted. Point being, MN did not help get awareness out, they did not help the autistic child get the justice he deserves, and they did not help the autism community come together so that we could contact the people who needed to be contacted ..... all because they felt the need to delete it.

Once it was deleted from youtube it would have been deleted from here anyway, but the point is that MN didn't give everyone a chance to voice their opinion to officials b/c they took the info away.

Who cares if other people around the world voiced THEIR opinon to the officials. What about us? We count too and we need to be heard.

OK, so when was the Youtube video deleted and when was the Mumsnet link/thread deleted?

I am glad that the original poster of the thread bought mine and others attention to these horrific videos, without it, i would have been blissfully unaware and unable to do anything about it. I was surprised to find the thread had been deleted but there must have been good reason.

When i saw the thread, i immediately wrote to the NAS and to YouTube in the strongest terms and received this from the NAS. To date, i have received nothing from YouTube.

(.....Just to let you know, i wrote to the NAS in response to the thread about the material on YouTube last night (which appears to have been deleted) and received this response

Choc -

Many thanks for letting us know about this. Please read our response on the front page of our website at www.autism.org.uk.

I'm pleased to confirm that the material has been removed. As you may be aware, our current and successful "make school make sense" campaign highlighted the issue of bullying during anti-bullying week last
November: the web pages feature collected resources on the subject which will be of use to both parents and teachers. This dreadful case has only served to re-emphasise what we have said and I have linked to them at the bottom of the article.

I am very sorry you had to write to us about this but very glad that you did.

With many thanks

This is what it says on the home page of the NAS website:

The National Autistic Society has today contacted YouTube to demand immediate action be taken after videos apparently showing a boy with autism being bullied appeared on the web site. We can confirm that the video clips from have been removed and that the college is acting to protect the student concerned.

I've just contacted MNHQ to ask why the link/thread was deleted. Personally I trust their judgement on this but hope that this will put an end to the idea that they operate a Nannynet.

Cross-posted with Fio.

MN don't delete stuff for the hell of it. Either a lot of people complained, something hugely inappropriate/offensive was posted or the thread went tits up. The point is that unless you ask you won't know and accusing them of not supporting something or being a Nanny State is rather unfair.

FWIW, I've reported the original post with the message "you might like to comment on this thread as to why the original thread was deleted"

Not you, Fio! Someone further down said this was Nannynet. (MMDDWWW?)

I'm still of the opinion that if the videos existance on youtube is inappropriate then posting a link to them is wrong too. Describe them, debate why it's appalling etc but encourage people to view them...? No, I don't like that, it just sits wrong with me. But I understand how viewing them meant people worked out where they were taken and contact the college so I guess it's not black and white.

i complained about the link.

I can understand why someone would want to let people know that a child was being bullied who couldnt stand up for himself, but to post a link and to get the site more hits and effectively the bullies more time on the net? dont understand that.

you say you are worried about that one day happening to your son, well guess what, it already has happened to my son.

over 2 years ago a group of boys pinned my son to the railings and took it in turns to repeatedly kick him between the legs, he has had a mental health breakdown and has been out of school for 2 years, have you no consideration for mums who have children with ASD or other SN or indeed without SN that have had their child bullied?

do you really think we need to see a video like that?

It makes me feel sick thinking that people are watching bullying happening to a child/adolescent who doesnt know how to defend himself, thats my opinion and im entitled to it.

Jenk

I've just had a reply from Abby to say that she wasn't on MN duty when the thread was deleted but has passed on the question to the rest of the team. The reply will probably be sometime tomorrow.

Jenk, I am so sorry to hear about your ds. Bullying is rife in schools. A week ago today, my ds jumped from a two storey window at school. The reason, because the children in his class told him they would like him if he did and would not like him if he did not. AS children want to be sociable. He desperately wants friends, so he jumped.. We are lucky that he was not seriously injured. It's not the first incident and it will not be the last, that is the most hurtful thing. Every day I watch my ds go into school and every day I wonder what will happen.

Jenk, you are entitled to your opinions and i dont want to engage in a personal discussion of "your" opinion.

This incident is indeed a personal one for many parents and their children.

Not only the link to the videos was removed, but the discussion was removed as well. Bullies thrive on fear, and silencing their victims.

Clearly this young man was vulnerable, and needed someone to speak up for him. I was screaming at him in the videos, "hit back, kick the "f'ers", tell the teachers. But sure, werent there teachers in the videos???

Whether or not your complaint to mumsnet had any sway in their decision to remove the thread, the thread should have remained even without the link to discuss this all pervasive issue of bullying, much less this incident.

Incidents like this will be going on all over the world, right under our noses. Our kids come home with scrapes, pocket money missing, depressed. They are terrified, depressed, angry and sometimes suicidal.

I want TO TALK ABOUT THIS. I DO NOT WANT MY SON to suffer what your child suffered.

My son can't talk. I speak for him, he is only 3. I now know a little more about how bereft of humanity, some people's kids are (the bullies in the video) and i feel that much more "prepared" for what i have to look out for to protect my son.

Roundthebend im so sorry to hear about your son thats so , i once found DS lying on the grass around the corner from our house while 6 or 7 boys kicked and hit him and i screamed at him "why do you let them do that" (this was before we knew he was AS)

he said "they are my friends, they ask me to do it they are just being friendly"

Oh the rage i felt...........

He doesnt play out on our street now without one of us watching him.

Im so glad your son was ok.

MMDDWW i do actually agree with you on one thing, it is right to have a debate/discussion about our children being vulnerable to bullying/exploitation, its the link to the video i complained about.