Christine Clarke

Recent Activity

• 

  Christine signed the petition | 9 months ago

  Do not allow NC Judge to take Alaina Giordano's children just because she has cancer!
• 

  Christine signed the petition | over 1 year ago

  Commit to End Child Deaths from Malnutrition
• 

  Christine signed the petition | over 1 year ago

  Mandatory Reporting of Students Who Abuse Animals
• 

  Christine commented on the article | over 1 year ago

  Changing the Status Quo in Our Schools

  It would help if 223,000 children had not been beaten cruelly and to injury with wooden boards called paddles in 20' states schools.  There are decades of studies corroborating the idea that corporal punishment is completely detrimental to healthy development and to children's learning.  

  
  

  This Equity and Excellence Commission should make passage of H.R. 5628 their top priority.

  
  

  H.R.5628, the "End Corporal Punishment in Schools Act," NEEDS TO PASS.  After we take care of the barbaric maltreatment still legally permitted in U.S. schools - sometimes to the point of severe injury and even death, without repercussions or dismissals - and with minorities and boys the most frequent victims -- then maybe we can have a better conversation about how to improve academic success.    Nobody learns well when in fear of personal injury, and until we ban school beatings we won't stand a fair chance of bringing up those low international rankings on educational points in our U.S. schools.  

  
  

  Schools need to be safe grounds for all of our students, not just 60 percent of our students.

  
  

   

• 

  Christine signed the petition | over 1 year ago

  Tell Hilton to Prevent Child Prostitution in Their Hotels
• 

  Christine commented on the article | over 1 year ago

  It's Not Just Bullying, It's Slut-Shaming: The Case Of Phoebe Prince

  Why do you think young girls do things that appear immoral or attention-seeking?   Look to the home environment; they are still children, they are still developing, and they imitate the behaviors they see.   Remember that kids do what they see more often than they do what they are told.   Very little attention has been given to Phoebe Prince's parents and home environment through all of this and I'll give you that much, that she probably had some difficult emotional vulnerabilities and misconceptions about how to gain others' approval or love that needed redirection.   However, when a kid is looking to gain love and approval from others by doing things that cause anger, upset and hurt feelings -- there's a big red flag there.  Somewhere in her life, she has learned to act in ways that don't line up with common sense behavior.   She didn't deserve to be bullied, maybe she just needed someone to pay more attention to her and set her on a better path.

  
  

  None of that, however, excuses how the mean girls behaved.   They too believed in the moment that what they were doing to Phoebe was an acceptable reaction to provocation.   Again, there's something very wrong there and it stems back to cycles of bullying.   Bullies aren't born that way, they're made that way.   They TOO needed redirection and better examples.

  
  

  This in my opinion speaks to why it's so critical that we start teaching social health to children as part of their public school education.   Few things matter so much in life as how people treat other people.   We HAVE to consider it part of raising our young people to provide them with an education in healthy coping mechanisms for stress, healthy conflict management skills so that they learn to work through their problems without demonstrative behavior or violent words/actions, and healthy anger management skills so that if they do feel like attacking somebody, they have other ways to release those feelings without inflicting deliberate harm on someone, physically, emotionally or otherwise.

• 

  Christine commented on the article | over 1 year ago

  Women and Children: Oppressed Citizens

  Thank you for writing this.
  
  Children absolutely are citizens, and how they are treated in their childhood environments shapes everything we encounter with them as adults.  They absolutely deserve safe schools that are free of assault and terror, safe homes that are free of assault and terror, and respect for their cognitive capabilities toward logic at any given age.   Cruelty, retaliation and vengeance not only represent terrible parenting strategies but also shape little minds to become tolerant of others' bullying and/or to grow into repeat bullies themselves.   No wonder our domestic violence, familial violence and child abuse rates are what they are -- the U.S. still hasn't joined the ranks of nearly 30 other nations that have banned all corporal punishment of children as a violation of their most basic human rights.   We're allowing bullies to bully children and giving them free passes to do so based on motive, victim's age, relationship, dependency and inability to defend themselves or file legal charges themselves.

  
  

  Please lend your full support to Rep. McCarthy's critical bill H.R.5628, the End Corporal Punishment in Schools Act.   Call your House representatives (http://www.house.gov, use the zip code finder, get the name/number) and ask them to sign on to H.R.5628 as cosponsors.    Ahead of this bill's passage, assuming it passes, 20 states still assault children with weapons on school grounds every year.  The weapons are thick wooden boards called paddles, and they inflict serious injuries upon students as young as 4 and 5 years old for minor infractions like speaking out of turn, being late to class or not knowing answers to class questions.   223,000 children were beaten with boards in 2009.   Minorities and boys are targeted for these beatings most often.  The beatings carry no repercussions, even in cases of severe injuries or use of positions for beatings that affect and damage reproductive organs.   This has to stop.   Our kids deserve safe schools.

  
  

  Please, help support H.R.5628 in any way you can.  Please also give some consideration to what more we can do together to stop child abuse in children's homes.  Let's bring our politicians to have that conversation too.   3 kids die every day from abuse in the meantime, and millions more are suffering.   Thanks in advance.

• 

  Christine commented on the article | over 1 year ago

  It's Not Just Bullying, It's Slut-Shaming: The Case Of Phoebe Prince

  When are more parents going to realize that bullies are created, not born that way?  When are we going to take the sting of punishment out of discipline and teach children naturally, kindly, and with patience and respect for our common humanity?  How parents treat their children becomes how their children treat other people, including their children too someday.  It's all cyclical.   Just as much as Phoebe's bullies killed her, Phoebe's bullies parents killed her as well.

  
  

  It's not just the views on slut shaming that are to the account of the mean girls' parents and home environments, but the violent words and violent behaviors that the girls engaged in as well.   Cruelty isn't natural, nobody is born cruel.  It's taught.   Lashing out when displeased with a person isn't natural, it's taught.  When babies are hurt, they cry, they don't retaliate.  Retaliation as a reaction is taught, and it's taught early, by parents who discipline in ways that 'get kids back' for causing displeasure instead of providing peaceful guidance toward better behaviors, through instruction and example.

  
  

  We aren't going to end bullying until we take bullying out of what some people consider 'parenting' or 'discipline.'  Until then more bullies will be raised up to be bullies by bullies, and more innocent people outside of these familial cycles will suffer.  The cycle has to stop at its root:  the early home environment.

  
  

  I vote that if the mean girls are prosecuted, their parents should be as well.

• 

  Christine commented on the article | over 1 year ago

  The New Harlem Renaissance

  Thank you for posting this, it was an uplifting and inspirational read.    May everyone involved in raising up the community enjoy swift and lasting success. 

• 

  Christine signed the petition | over 1 year ago

  ACT NOW: Demand that Bill O’Reilly & FOX News Apologize for Comparing Gay People to al Qaeda