This gorgeous 14 yr old little girl was another victim of bullying. The
article explains it all. Sherokee lived 2 houses from me. As a mother of
two, It is ripping my heart apart to see the anguish and pain this
family is going through. In honor of Sherokee and the countless children
who are bullied everyday I would like to get the required signatures to
make "Sherokee's Law" pass making it illegal to bully anyone in School
or off school grounds. Zero tolerance policies are in place, but, they
are not correctly utilized. As parents in our communities we feel enough
is enough, and we are ready for big changes f. Children who are
relentlessly tormented and who are to scared to say a word should not
have to live in fear. Passing this law will give bullied children the
relief they need and extra protection from bullies. Retaliation and be
ganged upon by the bullies friends will also be included. This Law will
also help clarify and set the rules and consequences in plain sight and
on paper. Let children who bully know this behavior is not and will not
be tolerated. This will create a more stable and non-violent environment
for ALL school children across the country. If a child does not have to
worry about who is going to attack them on a daily basis in a place
that should be safe they are able to focus and do much better in school
academically and socially. We as a
Parents/Guardians/Aunts/Uncles/Advocates have the opportunity to set a
precedence for everyone. It is time to put "what if's" aside, put this
together and protect our children, grandchildren, nieces & nephews.
We as adults have the power to fix this and no one else.
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Recently people woke up to heart-breaking images
of a lifeless Syrian toddler who had drowned along with 11 others as
the group tried to make its way to Greece. The images were a stark
reminder of the massive tragedy that is unfolding on the shores of
Europe as thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Africans undertake
an extremely hazardous journey to seek asylum in the West. The mass
migration has been described as the largest refugee crisis since World
War II. What has compounded matters further is that Europe itself is
dealing with an economic downturn and high levels of unemployment.
In such a scenario, Europe is facing a huge dilemma. The civil war in
Syria and Iraq, the increasing violence in Afghanistan and the chaos in
African nations like Libya have created millions of refugees who are
trying to escape theatres of war and conflict. However, at the same time
thousands of economic migrants are also tagging along in search of a
better life.
Take the refugees from the African nation of Eritrea. Eritreans form
the second largest group of refugees seeking asylum in Europe after
Syrians. However, at present there’s no conflict in Eritrea. Yet people
are leaving this small African nation because of a highly repressive
government that has created a totalitarian regime. This presents a
tricky situation for European countries. It’s one thing to accept asylum
seekers fleeing conflict zones on humanitarian grounds. But accepting
economic migrants at a time when many European countries are grappling
with their own economic problems may be simply unfeasible.
This is precisely why many European countries such as Greece and
Italy that have seen waves of refugees land on their shores are either
waving them through to Germany and other northern European countries or
blocking their journey further into Europe. What has added to the
confusion is that under the Dublin Regulation refugees should be
screened and their asylum applications processed in the countries where
they arrive first. However, given the mass of humanity arriving on
European shores many countries have stopped following the rules. Add to
this the fact that countries like Germany and Sweden have opened their
doors to refugees, especially from Syria, even though they aren’t the
migrants’ first port of call.
In the midst of this chaos, many countries are even considering
re-imposing border controls, reversing the open borders policy under the
Schengen system for travel among 22 European Union countries. Plus, the
ongoing influx of refugees is bound to provide a fillip to
anti-immigration right-wing political groups in different parts of
Europe. After all, assimilating such large numbers of people from
diverse ethno-religious backgrounds, all at one go, is extremely
difficult. Besides, there’s also the security risk of Islamic State
terrorists/ sympathisers smuggling themselves into Europe among the
refugees to carry out terrorist attacks.
All of this has given rise to calls for a common asylum policy for
Europe to better manage and distribute the burden of incoming refugees.
How Europe does this remains to be seen. Surely, it has to address the
root of the problem – the ongoing civil war in Syria and Iraq as well as
the genuine aspirations of the people in the Middle East and Africa. In
fact, the two aren’t entirely unrelated. Fighting poverty in Africa,
for example, would not only stem the outflow of economic migrants but
also ensure that extremist groups like the Islamic State and its
affiliates are unable to make inroads into vulnerable countries.
The North African nation of Morocco was able to grasp this reality
quite early. As a result, it has initiated a series of economic
cooperation programmes to boost development in the African countries of
the Sahara and Sahel. Plus, Morocco has been actively pushing for
international cooperation in fighting trans-national terrorism with
special focus on the issue of foreign fighters. Against this backdrop,
there’s a strong case for European nations to boost their cooperation
with Morocco and jointly work on development programmes that seek to
mitigate the economic, political and developmental distortions that are
fuelling both conflicts and the mass migration to Europe.
