DAILY LOBO new mexico
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April 29, 2013
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Forum on bullying: Don’t just put up with it by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com
Uliana Sisombath, a master’s student at Albuquerque’s Webster University, said bullying has always been a problem in schools. She said she was bullied growing up in the 1960s. “My first language was not English; it was German. At that time, people thought that if you were German, you must be a Nazi,” Sisombath said. “There was this abrasive attitude that they would call you that, and it was very bad.” Sisombath said although bullying hurt her as a young child, she learned how to fend for herself. “I guess I had enough sense to realize that I’ve had enough of being bullied,” she said. “So by the time that I was in eighth grade, I chose to stand up for myself against the bullies.” Sisombath, who has volunteered with UNM’s Agora Crisis Center, was one of the participants in the Bullying Prevention Symposium held at the SUB Friday. About 100 people attended the event. At the symposium, anti-bullying advocates from all over the state conducted workshops on how to prevent bullying in schools effectively with educators and students in the state. The symposium was organized by Albuquerque Public Schools and UNM’s LGBTQ Resource Center. APS Program Manager May Sagbakken said that with support from the Bernalillo County government, APS and UNM have been cooperating to prevent bullying in schools for three years. She said the event was the state’s first antibullying symposium. “This is becoming more and more identified and it’s an ongoing issue,” Sagbakken said. “It’s not only about now. It’s about now and continuing
Aaron Sweet / Daily Lobo John Linney, left, shakes the hand of New Mexico state Rep. Rick Miera after Miera introduced Linney as the keynote speaker for the state’s first Bullying Prevention Symposium held in the SUB Friday. Educators and students participated in the symposium, which was organized by Albuquerque Public Schools and UNM’s LGBTQ Center, to talk about the causes of bullying and to discuss ways to end bullying in schools around the state. doing it to prevent bullying and make sure kids can go to school and go home safely.” Sagbakken said that according to a survey conducted by APS, 46 percent of middle school and 19 percent of high school students in Bernalillo County experience bullying in
school. The survey polled 39 middle and high schools around New Mexico, totaling 5,875 students. She said about 160,000 students nationwide are scared to go to school because they are being bullied. “It’s tragic that we live in a world where bullying is so prevalent.
DE COLORES
Personally, I think we all need to figure out how we can take a stand, whether it’s to support children and schools or go to trainings like this,” she said. Sagbakken said APS has begun initiatives to prevent bullying in schools, such as the Safe Schools
Ambassadors program. She said the program has hired an anti-bullying coordinator and has trained staff in bullying prevention. She said APS contacted UNM’s LGBTQ Resource Center in order to
by Rosario Marroquin-Flores
Winning Coffee, said she supports the increase and has already been paying her employees $8.50 an hour. She said paying her employees more than the minimum makes it easier for her business to run smoothly. “I think about this place more as kind of a community so I’ve always paid my employees above minimum wage, plus they get tips, plus they get to eat for free, plus they get free coffee,” she said. “The plus side for me, as the owner, is that I have very little turnover. I have people who have worked here seven to eight years. Hardly anybody quits.” Timmerman said she advocates for workers’ rights, and that business owners should deal with inflation in a way that does not hurt employees. “Inflation is inflation and if you try to deal with inflation by not paying your employees, you’re not really dealing with it,” she said. “If people want to deal with it, then they should deal with inflation and not take it out on the backs of the workers.”
County raises minimum wage news@dailylobo.com
UNM alumnus Japji Hundal, center, along with others, celebrates Holi on Johnson Field Saturday afternoon. Also known as the Festival of Colors, the Hindu event is primarily observed in India and Nepal. While the entire spring festival season lasts up to sixteen days, the main day is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other.
Local business owners have released a flurry of mixed reactions regarding the Bernalillo County commissioners’ narrow decision to increase the county’s minimum wage. On Tuesday night, county commissioners voted to approve a countywide minimum wage increase from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour. The ordinance passed 3-2 by a strict party-line vote, with Democrats in favor of and Republicans against the wage increase. The increase will take place in two installments, rising to $8 on July 1 and rising to $8.50 on January 1, 2014. The ordinance also says that any future minimum wage increases need to be tied in to inflation figures. The county states that it cannot get legally involved in lawsuits unless employers comply. The minimum wage of tipped workers will not increase, staying at $2.13 an hour plus tips. Sandy Timmerman, owner of
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Inside the
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Daily Lobo volume 117
issue 148
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