Fight, Flight, Protect

Walter Cannon theorized that animals in trouble act in one of two ways - fight or flight. This is in response to stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms that inhibits tears, dilates the pupils, and accelerates the lung and heart reaction.

People generally accept this two prong theory, but I submit there is a third. When faced with certain imminent danger a person has a third choice - protect. Protection does not necessarily include fighting, but it does risk the good of the one for the many.

Consider the Virginia Tech Massacre. Some people ran, some fought, and some hid from the assailant. All perfectly respectable and normal reactions to the threat of death and injury. All in line with Cannon's theory.

Others chose to protect. They barricaded themselves against doors to prevent the murderer from entering the classrooms. They risked their lives so that others could survive. Consider the story of Liviu Librescu, a professor of aeronautical engineering. When the shooter entered his room he put himself between the gunman and his students. He saved many lives. He was a Holocaust survivor and accomplished professional.

Virginia Tech Students that responded with 'fight or flight' are with honor. Those that responded with 'protect' are truly heroes. It takes a special person to give their lives willingly for another and, while recognition is never the goal, it should not go unnoticed.

Ridiculous

Rick at April 19, 2007 9:48 AM
The real problem here is that these students were able to walk right into a grocery store and buy a ham steak. Here in the state of Maine, there is no waiting period before one can purchase a ham. Maybe this is a good time to bring forth some legislation on strict ham control laws.

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'Hate incident' in city

By Bonnie Washuk , Staff Writer
Thursday, April 19, 2007

LEWISTON - One student has been suspended and more disciplinary action could follow a possible hate crime at Lewiston Middle School, Superintendent Leon Levesque said Wednesday.

On April 11, a white student placed a ham steak in a bag on a lunch table where Somali students were eating. Muslims consider pork unclean and offensive.

The act reminded students of a man who threw a pig's head into a Lewiston mosque last summer.

The school incident is being treated seriously as "a hate incident," Levesque said. Lewiston police are investigating, and the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence is working with the school to create a response plan.

"We've got some work to do to turn this around and bring the school community back together again," Levesque said.

Placing ham where Muslim students were eating was "an awful thing," said Stephen Wessler, executive director of the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence. "It's extraordinarily hurtful and degrading" to Muslims, whose religion prohibits them from being around ham. It's important to respond swiftly, Wessler said.

"Incidents like this that involve degrading language or conduct are often said by the perpetrator as a joke. I know that conduct is never static," he said. "It's part of a process of escalation."

If people think insulting Muslims with ham is OK, "More degrading acts will follow, until at some point we'll end up having violence," Wessler said.

The incident does not reflect the moral values of the school staff and students, Levesque said. "We need to take a look at this and review how a careless act is degrading and causes hurt to other people. All our students should feel welcome and safe in our schools."

He said a letter would be sent home to parents explaining what happened and outlining the school's response. Wessler will meet with students to address the school's climate, and staff will talk about how to respond to and prevent future hate incidents

'I didn't feel safe'

A 14-year-old Somali boy, whose mother asked that his name not be published, said he was eating lunch with four other Somali students on April 11. He noticed many others in the cafeteria "standing up, looking at us."

One boy came near, began laughing and threw a bag on the table while other students laughed and said, 'Good job.'"

"We didn't know what was in this bag," the boy said. "One of my friends reached inside it. It was a big ham steak. There were five of us at the table, all Somali. It was intended for us."

The boy said he looked up at students he thought were his friends. "I felt angered, offended."

He suddenly felt like he was alone. "At the school the next day, I didn't feel safe. I felt like everybody was against me. Before I felt like I fit in, and everything was normal."

He began to think white students didn't like him, and the act was their way of letting him know.

On Thursday, several students came up to him and said, "Those guys who did it were jerks. I apologize for them, and I hope you feel better."

The boy said they did make him feel better. "But for the rest of my life when I remember middle school, this will pop up right away."

He spoke out because he wants the community to know what happened, "that there is something like this going on in our schools."

Wessler and Levesque said the act happened the day before April vacation began, which prevented educators from gathering information.

"This is not done," Wessler said.

Bullying at Work

Workplace bullying can hurt company's bottom line
BY ANITA BRUZZESE | GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Here's the funny thing about bullying: It doesn't go away when you become an adult.

The not-so-funny truth is that while you may have believed you would not face bullying once you left the schoolyard, it is unfortunately alive and well in workplace cubicles everywhere.

Being a bullying target as an adult also feels much the same as it did as a kid. It's scary and humiliating.

You don't want to tell anyone because you suffer from a mixture of embarrassment, fear and shock. Eventually, you may get stomachaches, lose sleep, pull away from your family and friends and feel very angry, depressed and alone.

Fortunately, researchers like Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik are getting attention from employers worried about this problem. Her message to company brass is clear: Ignore bullies in the workplace, and it will impact your bottom line.

As anyone knows, that's a statement that can get some results.

"The turnover from bullying is horrendous," Lutgen-Sandvik says. "The most valuable employees often leave. So what you end up with is an impoverished workplace - the people who stay are the ones who have no other choice."

That's not exactly the kind of workforce a company needs to compete successfully in today's global marketplace.

That's why more managers are listening to people like Lutgen-Sandvik, an assistant professor of communication at the University of New Mexico and an expert in workplace bullying.

"The thing about workplace bullying is that it is a lot harder to describe than what happens when you're a kid," she says. "It's more politically masked, more subtle."

Many characteristics for bullies are still the same, however. In the workplace these people seek to isolate their targets, to make them ineffective by bullying them into submission.

Further, while we may have been counseled to stand up to bullies when we were younger, many adults in the workplace take just the opposite tactic and leave.

This practice is intended to send a "message" to higher-ups, to punish the organization for letting bullying take place. Lutgen-Sandvik says people quit to show their frustration and their anger at management, and those left behind hold it up as an example that there is "something very wrong in the organization."