Jennifer Fraser's Blog: How I Became an Unlikely Whistleblower, page 3

Comfortable with being in the Out-Group – Whistleblower Series #15

If you have not read the other blogs in this series, How I Became an Unlikely Whistleblower, you can read them here.

I’ve learned, living in a society that enables rampant child abuse, that I’m definitely comfortable with being an outlier. Other whistleblowers talk about being ousted for speaking up about child abuse. Elizabeth Svoboda interviewed gold-medal gymnast Dominique Moceanu about how top coaches “belittled”, “harangued,” and “encouraged” athletes to “train while injured.” Svoboda was interested in Moceanu because she was a whistleblower who spoke up in the media about abuse in gymnastics and wrote a book about it entitled Off Balance.

Gymnastics has been under a spotlight for the last number of years with nine countries investigating the “culture of cruelty” in which children train.

Problem for me is those abuses, belittling, haranguing, and encouraging to play when injured were also done to the students at the school where I reported it and the sport was basketball, not gymnastics. In the research I did for my book, The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health these kinds of abuses are textbook. It really doesn’t matter what the context is, the abuser uses tried and true methods to make their targets feel objectified, worthless, under scrutiny, without agency, under the thumb of those in power. This was textbook for me. W

What struck me was when interviewed, Moceanu explained how she knew it was a risk to be a whistleblower: “They could use it against you at a later time.”

That sums up right there what’s wrong with the abuse cycle in our society. If you report someone who has committed the crime of robbery, there are unlikely higher-ups, say administrators or leaders or a board that will punish you for reporting. Harm you in the future. Retaliate for the audacity of reporting a wrong.

But in the abuse world, those who enable it and cover it up, are almost always in continuing positions of power to make you pay a price for doing the right thing.

They are not held legally accountable for their crime of complicity in abuse and so have carte blanche to harm you if you expose their corruption. I mean it’s a perfect storm of societal issues that allows abuse to run roughshod over our entire society (which is exactly what it is doing).

As I experienced first hand, Moceanu speaks about “losing friendships” and “lucrative” opportunities. She speaks about being an “outlier” where people give her “the awkward eye.” We live in a society where being a whistleblower is seen as way out there, risky, dangerous even. How did it happen that stopping abuse and corruption was such a wild rebellion?

At what point in our society did we create the dynamic whereby enabling abuse became normal and calling it out became the socially-dreaded act that would land you in the “out-group”?

The psychologist and researcher we talked about in the last blog, Zeno Franco (as quoted in Svoboda’s article) has this to say about the phenomenon. He says that with whistleblowers, “a lot of it comes down to their ability to hold on to a set of principles in the face of countervailing social information. That’s a very tough call. Most of us don’t want to be in the out-group.”

Well, I may not be a hero, but I’m definitely comfortable with being in the out-group if it means that we are a group that believes abuse is harmful and must be stopped.

If I live in a society where the “countervailing” messaging is that we must coverup abuse and enable it, I guess I’m okay with bucking the trend. For the record, it was not a very tough call for me. A lot of pain was sent my way for taking this position, but I’d still way rather be in the out-group than with those who think abuse is fine and look the other way.

The post Comfortable with being in the Out-Group – Whistleblower Series #15 appeared first on The Bullied Brain.

#15: Being in the Out-Group

Elizabeth Svoboda interviewed gold-medal gymnast Dominique Moceanu about how top coaches “belittled”, “harangued,” and “encouraged” athletes to “train while injured.” Svoboda was interested in Moceanu because she was a whistleblower who spoke up in the media about abuse in gymnastics and wrote a book about it entitled Off Balance. Gymnastics has been under a spotlight for the last number of years with nine countries investigating the “culture of cruelty” in which children train. Problem for me is those abuses, belittling, haranguing, and encouraging to play when injured were also done to the students at the school where I reported it and the sport was basketball not gymnastics. In the research I did for my book, The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health these kinds of abuses are textbook. It really doesn’t matter what the context is, the abuser uses tried and true methods to make their targets feel objectified, worthless, under scrutiny, without agency, under the thumb of those in power. While this was textbook for me, what struck me was when interviewed, Moceanu explained how she knew it was a risk to be a whistleblower: “They could use it against you at a later time.”

That sums up right there what’s wrong with the abuse cycle in our society. If you report someone who has committed the crime of robbery, there are unlikely higher-ups, say administrators or leaders or a board that will punish you for reporting. Harm you in the future. Retaliate for the audacity of reporting a wrong. But in the abuse world, those who enable it and cover it up, are almost always in continuing positions of power to make you pay a price for doing the right thing. They are not held legally accountable for their crime of complicity in abuse and so have carte blanche to harm you if you expose their corruption. I mean it’s a perfect storm of societal issues that allows abuse to run roughshod over our entire society (which is exactly what it is doing).

As I experienced first hand, Moceanu speaks about “losing friendships” and “lucrative” opportunities. She speaks about being an “outlier” where people give her “the awkward eye.” We live in a society where being a whistleblower is seen as way out there, risky, dangerous even. How did it happen that stopping abuse and corruption was such a wild rebellion? At what point in our society did we create the dynamic whereby enabling abuse became normal and calling it out became the socially-dreaded act that would land you in the “out-group”? The psychologist and researcher we talked about in the last blog, Zeno Franco (as quoted in Svoboda’s article) has this to say about the phenomenon. He says that with whistleblowers, “a lot of it comes down to their ability to hold on to a set of principles in the face of countervailing social information. That’s a very tough call. Most of us don’t want to be in the out-group.”

Well, I may not be a hero, but I am definitely comfortable with being in the out-group if it means that we are a group that believes abuse is harmful and must be stopped. If I live in a society where the “countervailing” messaging is that we must coverup abuse and enable it, I guess I’m okay with bucking the trend. For the record, it was not a very tough call for me. A lot of pain was sent my way for taking this position, but I’d still way rather be in the out-group than with those who think abuse is fine and look the other way.

References

Svoboda, Elizabeth. (2017). “What makes whistleblowers speak out while others stay silent

about wrongdoing.” The Washington Post. Retrieved From:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s....

The post #15: Being in the Out-Group appeared first on Exit Bullying.

Our society normalizes abuse – Whistleblower Series #14

If you have not read the other blogs in this series, How I Became an Unlikely Whistleblower, you can read them here.

When the tragedy of 9 / 11 happened, my brother was living in Brooklyn. Roofers were working on his brownstone so after the first plane hit and the world went into panic, he went up to watch with them what was unfolding on the other side of New York city. When he saw the second plane, he thought it had been sent to save everyone. Within days, the firehouses of Brooklyn had thousands of flowers out front to honour the fallen firefighters who would never return to see them.

To my mind, those firefighters are heroes.

I feel uncomfortable with the term “social heroes” that is used in psychologist and researcher Zeno Franco’s work at the Medical College of Wisconsin in reference to whistleblowers. He defines social heroes as those “who sacrifice themselves for the greater good.” I read about his research in an article written by Elizabeth Svoboda author of What Makes a Hero: The Surprising Science of Selflessness in The Washington Post. The term “hero” applied to whistleblowers makes me very uncomfortable.

As discussed, I am the least heroic person on the planet. I am normal, but I also am a whistleblower.

I did not choose sacrifice. Like my son, I chose self-determination. It’s the whole issue of why we must self-immolate for the greater good that throws me off. Why aren’t more people, like the community, working for the greater good? How has our society developed so that speaking up about harm being done to kids is seen as a heroic act. Isn’t it normal to speak up and say this has to stop, these kids need protection and healing? Isn’t it normal to push as far as you can when you realize that those in power, who will be identified as negligent are not going to do the right thing, are going to coverup to protect themselves, victims be damned, even when the victims are children?

As I read news coverage on this issue, I’m honestly amazed at all the “normal” people who act like child abuse is okay.

Just take 10 seconds to reflect on not one university, but two in a single state in the U.S. Not only did Dr. Larry Nassar abuse hundreds of victims with the collusion of Michigan State administrators, but so did Dr. Robert Anderson at University of Michigan! Is it just me or do you find yourself shaking your head that there wasn’t a single person, not one “social hero” or whistleblower who shut it down? Not even the FBI stopped Nassar’s abuse despite being informed. We’re talking no one for thirty years who put victims first.

I use “educational” institutions as an example—and sadly it could be so many other institutions—of the way in which institutional complicity, supported by sheeple, is what we have become.

We have the potential to be so much braver, wiser, more empathic. Why do we continue to allow our society to operate in this hopeless cycle of abuse? When it becomes normal to speak up when children, young people, or vulnerable people are being harmed then we can return to understanding that people like firefighters are heroes. Whistleblowers should be the average Joe.

The post Our society normalizes abuse – Whistleblower Series #14 appeared first on The Bullied Brain.

#14: Normalizing Abuse vs. Normalizing being a Whistleblower

When 9/11 happened, my brother was living in Brooklyn. Roofers were working on his brownstone so after the first plane hit and the world went into panic, he went up to watch with them what was unfolding at the other side of New York city. When he saw the second plane, he thought it had been sent to save everyone.

Within days, the firehouses of Brooklyn had thousands of flowers out front to honour the fallen firefighters who would never return to see them. In my mind, those people are heroes. I feel uncomfortable with the term “social heroes” that is used in psychologist and researcher Zeno Franco’s work at the Medical College of Wisconsin in reference to whistleblowers. He defines social heroes as those “who sacrifice themselves for the greater good.” I read about his research in an article written by Elizabeth Svoboda author of What Makes a Hero: The Surprising Science of Selflessness in The Washington Post. The term “hero” applied to whistleblowers makes me very uncomfortable.

As discussed, I am the least heroic person on the planet. I am normal, but I also am a whistleblower. I did not choose sacrifice, like my son, I chose self-determination. It’s the whole issue of why we must self-immolate for the greater good that throws me off. Why aren’t more people, like the community, working for the greater good? How has our society developed so that speaking up about harm being done to kids is seen as a heroic act. Isn’t it normal to speak up and say this has to stop, these kids need protection and healing? Isn’t it normal to push as far as you can when you realize that those in power, who will be identified as negligent are not going to do the right thing, are going to coverup to protect themselves, victims be damned, even when the victims are children?

As I read news coverage on this issue, I’m honestly amazed at all the “normal” people who act like abuse is okay. Just take 10 seconds to reflect on not one university, but two in a single state in the U.S. Not only did Dr. Larry Nassar abuse hundreds of victims with the collusion of Michigan State, but so did Dr. Robert Anderson at University of Michigan! Is it just me or do you find yourself shaking your head that there wasn’t a single person, not one “social hero” or whistleblower who shut it down? We’re talking no one for thirty years who put victims first. I am using these “educational” institutions as an example—and sadly it could be so many other institutions—of the way in which institutional complicity, supported by sheeple, is what we have become.

We have the potential to be so much braver, wiser, more empathic. Why do we continue to allow our society to operate in this hopeless cycle of abuse? When it becomes normal to speak up when children, young people, or vulnerable people are being harmed then we can return to understanding that people like firefighters are heroes. Whistleblowers should be the average Joe.

References

Elizabeth Svoboda. (2017). “What makes whistleblowers speak out while others stay silent

about wrongdoing.” The Washington Post. Retrieved From:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/s....

The post #14: Normalizing Abuse vs. Normalizing being a Whistleblower appeared first on Exit Bullying.

Whistleblowers expose the indefensible act – Whistleblower Series #13

If you have not read the other blogs in this series, How I Became an Unlikely Whistleblower, you can read them here.

One of the lessons I learned on the path of being an unlikely whistleblower was that my crime of “committing the truth” would be judged harshly while those in the wrong, either perpetrators of abuse or those enabling them, would receive hearty applause for their puppet show. When I say puppet show, what I mean is they were masters at making people believe in their innocence, in how wronged they were, in how shocked and hurt they felt, and in how brave they would be in fighting back against these unjust, unfounded allegations.

It is well-documented in the abusive individual’s playbook that when victim-reports come in, he or she must quickly shift the narrative putting themselves in the role of victim.

They need to deny all wrong-doing and then say they’re the subject of a “witch-hunt.” In the surreal last few years, we’ve all watched the former President of the United States pull out the old abuse playbook. So fascinating to watch all the believers who replace critical thinking and the straightforward issue of facts and evidence with blind adherence to the abusive individual. Amazing.

I realized that the teachers at the private school I resigned from did not want to believe that their employer—Headmaster or Board—had covered up child abuse for at least a year.

They wanted everything to remain safe, predictable, paycheck coming on time every two weeks, and that meant simply believing that those pulling the puppet strings were telling the truth. Improbable, but so much easier than wondering why administrators did not report abuse allegations to the Teacher Regulation Branch which is against the law. Believing was so much easier than asking to see emails, or to read student testimonies, or to hear from parents whose kids had been hurt, or to learn what the police said, or to understand why the Board was bringing in lawyer after lawyer until they got the whitewash report they needed, or why they had concerns about being found negligent. They simply did not want to know.

Dorothy Suskind writes about the work of Oxford Professor, Luciano Floridi and his study of information ethics. She explains that when whistleblowers speak up, “they are catapulting private, potentially harmful information into the public sphere for necessary examination and cleaning.” This only happens when the powers that be, such as the leaders in the school system, or the governmental agencies empowered to protect children, fail.

The more they try to contain, erase, cloud information pertaining to children reporting abuse, the more “examination and cleaning” are needed.

The whistleblower’s obligation is to expose the “indefensible act.” Suskind explains: “This exposure of information usually occurs only after the whistleblower made repeated attempts to rectify the ethical dilemma through internal channeling” as noted. What is so hard about being a whistleblower is that when you speak up, you are accused of sharing personal and private information. It’s a Catch-22 because when others are covering up harm being done to kids, exposure becomes the only way to blow the lid off the institutional and governmental manipulation.

The other Catch-22 for me hinged on whether taking the whistleblower path would be more damaging to our son, when I was doing everything I could to protect him.

The way he was treated by school administrators, some teachers, and some bullying students was nothing short of appalling and his final year at the school was traumatizing. But I know now looking back that me being a whistleblower actually saved my son. He knew without a doubt that his dad and I believed he was worth fighting for. He received confirmation from an American sport psychologist that he had been abused over and over and needed to heal. The leading Canadian authority on abuse in sport also read his and the other students’ testimonies and identified the behavior as highly abusive.

This cleansing off of the grime of child abuse is critical and the quicker it happens, the less likely abuse will lead to a lifetime of suffering.

Our family, even our younger son knew there would be terrible losses for daring to speak up, but his brother was daily confronted with our commitment to suffer the losses and put his psychological health before all else. He never entered the murky waters of believing the abuse was “the making of him” as happens to many victims in school systems. He never stepped into the moral quicksand of a hypocritical, corrupt culture that would lead him to sink with every step. He suffered like I did, like his younger brother and dad did, but we all remained with our psychology and integrity compasses intact that stopped us from believing that abuse is a necessary evil for greatness.

Abuse survivor and author of Stiff-Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes, and the Schooling of a Ruling Class, Alex Renton writes about how severely humiliated he was, repeatedly, by his school Headmaster for reporting to his mother the abuse occurring at his school. Renton was in a generation before my son, but it seems not much has changed in elite schools whether in England or Canada. Our son’s Headmaster tried to humiliate him and the other students who spoke up as well, but when asked to speak to the nation about his conduct and choices, this Headmaster could not be found (CTV’s W5 part 1 / part 2).

When asked by national media to speak up, the Headmaster offered “no comment” and neither did any of the others who enabled abuse.

It’s concerning when school leaders cannot publicly defend their conduct, but privately rule over children. It’s concerning when lawyers conduct “investigations” that hold child victims accountable and protect adult perpetrators. It’s deeply concerning when government agencies, that are tasked with ensuring schools are safe, write decisions that blame child victims for abuse, coverup what adult perpetrators did, and then tell national media they can’t speak publicly because they have to maintain privacy or confidentiality.

The post Whistleblowers expose the indefensible act – Whistleblower Series #13 appeared first on The Bullied Brain.

#13: Time to Clean Up

One of the lessons I learned on the path of being an unlikely whistleblower was that my crime of “committing the truth” would be judged harshly while those in the wrong, either perpetrators of abuse or those enabling them, would receive hearty applause for their puppet show. When I say puppet show, what I mean is they were masters at making people believe in their innocence, in how wronged they were, in how shocked and hurt they felt, and in how brave they would be in fighting back against these unjust, unfounded allegations. It is well-documented in the abusive individual’s playbook that when victim-reports come in, he or she must quickly shift the narrative putting themselves in the role of victim. They need to deny all wrong-doing and then say they’re the subject of a “witch-hunt.” In the surreal last few years, we’ve all watched the former President of the United States pull out the old abuse playbook. So fascinating to watch all the believers who replace critical thinking and the straightforward issue of facts and evidence with blind adherence to the abusive individual. Amazing.

I realized that the teachers at the private school I resigned from did not want to believe that their employer—Headmaster or Board—had covered up child abuse for at least a year. They wanted everything to remain safe, predictable, paycheck coming on time every two weeks, and that meant simply believing that those pulling the puppet strings were telling the truth. Improbable, but so much easier than wondering why administrators did not report abuse allegations to the Teacher Regulation Branch which is against the law. Believing was so much easier than asking to see emails, or to read student testimonies, or to hear from parents whose kids had been hurt, or to learn what the police said, or to understand why the Board was bringing in lawyer after lawyer until they got the whitewash report they needed, or why they had concerns about being found negligent. They simply did not want to know.

Dorothy Suskind writes about the work of Oxford Professor, Luciano Floridi and his study of information ethics. She explains that when whistleblowers speak up, “they are catapulting private, potentially harmful information into the public sphere for necessary examination and cleaning.” This only happens when the powers that be, such as the leaders in the school system, or the governmental agencies empowered to protect children, fail. The more they try to contain, erase, cloud information pertaining to children reporting abuse, the more “examination and cleaning” are needed. The whistleblower’s obligation then is to expose the “indefensible act.” Suskind explains: “This exposure of information usually occurs only after the whistleblower made repeated attempts to rectify the ethical dilemma through internal channeling” as noted. What is so hard about being a whistleblower is that when you speak up, you are accused of sharing personal and private information. It’s a Catch-22 because when others are covering up harm being done to kids, exposure becomes the only way to blow the lid off the institutional and governmental manipulation.

The other Catch-22 for me hinged on whether taking the whistleblower path would be more damaging to my son, when I was doing everything I could to protect him. The way he was treated by school administrators, some teachers, and some bullying students was nothing short of appalling and his final year at the school was traumatizing. But I know now looking back that me being a whistleblower actually saved my son. He knew without a doubt that his dad and I believed he was worth fighting for. He received confirmation from an American sport psychologist that he had been abused over and over and needed to heal. The leading Canadian authority on abuse in sport also read his and the other students’ testimonies and identified the behavior as highly abusive.

This cleansing off of the grime of child abuse is critical and the quicker it happens, the less likely abuse will lead to a lifetime of suffering. Our family, even our younger son knew there would be terrible losses for daring to speak up, but his brother was daily confronted with our commitment to suffer the losses and put his psychological health before all else. He never entered the murky waters of believing the abuse was “the making of him” as happens to many victims in school systems. He never stepped into the moral quicksand of a hypocritical, corrupt culture that would lead him to sink with every step. He suffered like I did, like his younger brother and dad did, but we all remained with our psychology and integrity compasses intact that stopped us from believing that abuse is a necessary evil for greatness.

Abuse survivor and author of Stiff-Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes, and the Schooling of a Ruling Class, Alex Renton writes about how severely humiliated he was, repeatedly, by his school Headmaster for reporting to his mother the abuse occurring at his school. Renton was in a generation before my son, but it seems not much has changed in elite schools whether in England or Canada. Our son’s Headmaster tried to humiliate him and the other students who spoke up as well, but when asked to speak to the nation about his conduct and choices, this Headmaster could not be found. He had “no comment” and neither did any of the others who enabled abuse. It’s concerning when school leaders cannot publicly defend their conduct, but privately rule over children. It’s concerning when lawyers conduct “investigations” that hold child victims accountable and protect adult perpetrators. It’s deeply concerning when government agencies, that are tasked with ensuring schools are safe, write decisions that blame child victims for abuse, coverup what adult perpetrators did, and then tell national media they can’t speak publicly because they have to maintain privacy or confidentiality.

References

Robert Cribb. (2015). “‘Teachers’ Bullying Scarred Us,’ say student athletes.” Toronto Star.

Retrieved From: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/14/teachers-bullying-scarred-us-say-student-athletes.html.

Victor Malarek. (2015). “Personal Foul” Part One. CTV W5. Retrieved From:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/ctv-national-n....

Victor Malarek. (2015). “Personal Foul” Part Two. CTV W5. Retrieved From:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=56....

Alex Renton. (2017). Stiff Upper Lip: Secrets, Crimes and the Schooling of a Ruling Class.

London: Weidenfeld Nicholson.

Dorothy Suskind. (2020). “How Whistleblowers Can Speak Up for Justice.” Psychology Today.

Retrieved From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/bully-wise/202008/how-whistleblowers-can-speak-justice. 

Dorothy Suskind. (2020). “Whistleblowers Speaking Up for Justice.” Psychology Today.

Retrieved From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/bully-wise/202008/whistleblowers-speaking-justice.

The post #13: Time to Clean Up appeared first on Exit Bullying.

The importance of investigative journalists – Whistleblower Series #12

If you have not read the other blogs in this series, How I Became an Unlikely Whistleblower, you can read them here.

The village that a whistleblower needs is not only others who report abuse – and at my son’s school there were at least 12 to 14 students in that one year alone, along with their infuriated and vocal parents. In the whistleblower crisis at Amazon, there were only two courageous employees. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa took on Amazon. They organized against the corporate behemoth to shine a spotlight on climate crisis and their fellow warehouse workers’ rights.

Amazon’s response was to fire them.

As I wrote at the beginning of this blog series, one of my goals was to show people that although the whistleblower path requires a fair bit of suffering, in the long run, it’s worth it. Cunningham expresses exactly this truth when she says that her activism was a “transformative experience.” Even after she was fired, she says:

“My heart is bigger. My imagination of what’s possible when tech workers come together to push one of the largest corporations in the world [is bigger].”

Her big heart and her expanded imagination did not let her be silenced by the employer who fired her, instead, she and Maren Costa filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. They argued that Amazon fired them in retaliation for their activism. They prepared themselves for a lawsuit which is always daunting and impossibly expensive for the employee, but Amazon settled with them and agreed to put up notices throughout their warehouses stating that employees cannot be fired for activism and organizing. Sadly, I could not afford to fight the wealthy private school where our son and many other students were abused, but I can shine a spotlight on child abuse and that is my way to try and make change.

What Emily Cunningham explains in the following statement is why we all need to be whistleblowers when it comes to our broken system. “The legal system is set up to isolate you from other people, because you’re not allowed to talk about certain things,” said Cunningham. “Maren and I weren’t even allowed to talk to each other about our own testimony. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

I was told repeatedly not to speak up or share any information to protect the “integrity of the process” undertaken by the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

I had to teach at the school for a year and watch our son attend school knowing the Headmaster had exposed us both. We have an email where the Headmaster writes that he himself informed one of the teachers accused by multiple students of abuse who were the “boys” that had spoken up. Worse, I received six decisions from the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation that I was not allowed to show to any victims or their parents. I was the only one who could see that the Commissioner had done a number of shady manipulations in the decisions. Yes, it was isolating and the law failed to prioritize student safety.

The students who spoke up ended up being isolated and ostracized while the teachers accused of abuse remained on campus in positions of trust, influence, and power as if they had done nothing wrong.

Funnily enough, when investigative reporters asked the Headmaster or the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation to explain themselves, they said “no comment,” but sent in one of the decisions that was heavily redacted. It was so heavily redacted you almost couldn’t read any of it. The investigative journalists obtained copies that weren’t covered up and published them. So while the law in Canada isolates those who dare to speak up and report wrongdoing, the media brings the community together in a transparent way to actually see what’s going on. Thank goodness for the investigative journalists with integrity.

Whistleblower Emily Cunningham has this to say: “it was so satisfying to win against Amazon, especially because winning against Amazon was a win for all workers.”

That’s the truth people want to coverup about being a whistleblower. Your heart gets bigger; your imagination expands; and you achieve a “win” not for yourself but for “all.” In the village that gathers around whistleblowers, you cannot underestimate the importance of investigative journalism whose work is built on transparency and facts.

The post The importance of investigative journalists – Whistleblower Series #12 appeared first on The Bullied Brain.

#12: It takes a village to be a whistleblower

            The village that a whistleblower needs is not only others who report abuse – and at my son’s school there were at least 12 to 14 students in that one year alone, along with their infuriated and vocal parents. In the whistleblower crisis at Amazon, there were two courageous employees. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa took on Amazon. They organized against the corporate behemoth to shine a spotlight on climate crisis and their fellow warehouse workers’ rights. Amazon’s response was to fire them. As I wrote at the beginning of this blog series, one of my goals was to show people that although the whistleblower path requires a fair bit of suffering, in the long run, it’s worth it. Cunningham expresses exactly this truth when she says that her activism was a “transformative experience.” Even after she was fired, she says: “My heart is bigger. My imagination of what’s possible when tech workers come together to push one of the largest corporations in the world [is bigger].” Her big heart and her expanded imagination did not let her be silenced by the employer who fired her, instead, she and Maren Costa filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. They argued that Amazon fired them in retaliation for their activism. They prepared themselves for a lawsuit which is always daunting and impossibly expensive for the employee, but Amazon settled with them and agreed to put up notices throughout their warehouses stating that employees cannot be fired for activism and organizing. 

            What Emily Cunningham explains in the following statement is why we all need to be whistleblowers when it comes to our broken system. “The legal system is set up to isolate you from other people, because you’re not allowed to talk about certain things,” said Cunningham. “Maren and I weren’t even allowed to talk to each other about our own testimony. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” I was told repeatedly not to speak up or share any information to protect the “integrity of the process” undertaken by the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation. That meant attending school for a year and watching my son attend school knowing the Headmaster had exposed us both. We have an email where the Headmaster writes that he himself informed one of the teacher accused by multiple students of abuse which “boys” had spoken up. That meant receiving six decisions from the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation that I was not allowed to show to any victims or their parents. That meant I was the only one who could see that the Commissioner had done a number of shady manipulations in the decisions.

            Yes, it was isolating and the law failed to prioritize student safety. The students who spoke up ended up being isolated and ostracized while the teachers accused of abuse remained on campus in positions of trust, influence, and power as if they had done nothing wrong. Funnily enough, when investigative reporters asked the Headmaster or the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation to explain themselves, they said “no comment,” but sent in one of the decisions that was heavily redacted. It was so heavily redacted you almost couldn’t read any of it. The investigative reporters obtained copies that weren’t covered up and published it. So while the law in Canada isolates those who dare to speak up and report wrongdoing, the media brings the community together in a transparent way to actually see what’s going on. Thank goodness for the investigative journalists with integrity.

            Whistleblower Emily Cunningham has this to say: “it was so satisfying to win against Amazon, especially because winning against Amazon was a win for all workers.” That’s the truth people want to coverup about being a whistleblower. Your heart gets bigger; your imagination expands; and you achieve a “win” not for yourself but for “all.” In the village that gathers around whistleblowers it is critical to have investigative journalism and media that is built on transparency and facts.

References

Johana Bhuiyan. (2021). “‘Welcome to the Party’: Five Past Tech Whistleblowers on the Pitfalls

of Speaking Out.” The Guardian. Retrieved From: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/08/tech-whistleblowers-facebook-frances-haugen-amazon-google-pinterest.

Robert Cribb. (2015). “‘Teachers’ Bullying Scarred Us,’ say student athletes.” Toronto Star.

Retrieved From: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/03/14/teachers-bullying-scarred-us-say-student-athletes.html.

The post #12: It takes a village to be a whistleblower appeared first on Exit Bullying.

#11: Erin Brockoviching

It’s one thing to know the definition of the whistleblower, but it’s another to examine what exactly they do. I mean what does the job actually entail? No matter what context whistleblowing occurs in—from exposing corporate poisoning of the environment to reporting that children are being abused and the government is covering it up—the job requires you to be persuasive. That might mean you have to convince high-level national journalists that you are credible. It might require a dangerous gathering of information. Oftentimes it demands a platform to leak the corruption or abuses you know about. In my case, I had to convince award-winning investigative journalists to believe me and invest significantly in telling the story of child abuse and cover up. The significant authority of the Headmaster’s Office and the Board that supported him was far bigger than me, a single teacher. Plus, they had significant financial resources and I had a teacher’s salary. On a low day, one of the student-victims said to me “Thanks for Erin Brockoviching this” and that’s when I knew that regardless of what the Headmaster or Board said or did, I would not stop working to demand child protection.

If you have not seen the Hollywood film (2000) starring Julia Roberts or read the many articles and books about American hero and whistleblower Erin Brockovich, you will find her story and battle against the odds inspiring. Brockovich is not an unlikely whistleblower; she’s the real deal.

            The student-victim was one of the eight who gave her testimony to me (the others including my son reported to a lawyer). I sat across the table from her. She is an incredibly smart, empathic, hard-working young woman who is also a talented athlete. She earned a position in one of America’s most sought-after universities to do her BA. As I was head bowed, writing down her testimony, I noticed that she had stopped speaking and looked up to see what was wrong. Tears were rolling down her face. She was telling me that after months of being humiliated, held back, surrounded by swearing and putdowns, she had fallen to the gym floor in a practice. Turns out she had damaged her ACL and she was in so much pain she could not get up. She was a star athlete on the basketball court and on the rowing team. She was a player that was devoted to training and tough as nails, but in this moment of collapse, this moment of agony, not a single student on the team came to her aid as she lay sobbing on the floor. Gives you an idea of the atmosphere on the team and the culture in which they practiced. The teacher walked over and instead of saying, “Are you okay? Can I help you? Do you need a doctor?” The teacher issued the command: “Get up.” As this student recounted her testimony to me, the trauma came rushing back up, as it does, and she started to cry. I was so intent on writing everything down as accurately as possible, I hadn’t notice. It was like being punched in the face.

            So when this student said to me “thank you for Erin Brockoviching this” it reminded me that my suffering and misery were not all that important. Not only was Brockovich an exceptional negotiator, smart, and tireless in her pursuit of justice, she also had such sex appeal that she literally seduced others into supporting her on the whistleblower’s path. While I shared her work ethic and relentless pursuit of justice, I wasn’t able to unleash the irresistible Brockovich-attraction to encourage others into helping me, so I had to drum up something else and that something was neuroscientific research. Not as sexy, but convincing nonetheless. Nothing like evidence on brain-scans to get people to wake up and understand that when a child is crying in pain on the floor, and you treat her like she’s pathetic or weak, her brain suffers a scarring blow, far more serious than the agonizing injury of ACL overuse. These invisible brain-scars are the driving force behind the forthcoming The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health. Hopefully, they change the way we normalize and enable child abuse in all forms in our society. 

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Parent Review of Teaching Bullies

This isn’t your average parent. This father has launched a Federal Lawsuit against the football coach who abused his son and so many other student-athletes. This father has unusual courage. He is a former Marine and his son has graduated and is now in the military following his father’s footsteps. They are family that believes in serving before living. They are a family that does not sit back and allow an adult to brutalize children in his power even if it is on a sports field.

New 5 Star Amazon Review of Teaching Bullies:

A book for all parents.

By Josh Chisholm on May 8, 2016

Teaching Bullies is as much a textbook look at the corruption that hides in our school systems and the lagging laws to protect students, as it is a deeply personal insight into a family’s plight. The prose is both technical and painfully emotional.

We all want to believe that we are sending out kids to a safe place in our schools. Sometimes evil hides in the most inconspicuous places. Every parent needs to read this book!