Overweight CBS Anchor Fights Back Against "Bullying"
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A CBS television news anchor in Wisconsin fought back on live TV in response to a disparaging email about her weight and accusations of being an irresponsible role model for girls.
WKBT-TV anchor Jennifer Livingston used the viewer correspondence to speak out against bullying.
Livingston said that as an adult she could handle the remarks about her being overweight, but kids are another story.
"If you are at home and you are talking about the fat news lady guess what? You're children are probably going to go to school and call someone 'fat,'" she said.
♦♦♦Click Below To Watch Livingston's Entire Commentary♦♦♦
Plano psychologist Dr. Sylvia Gearing says Livingston is right -- bullying is a learned behavior.
"Their fathers or mothers are usually intimidating, or a sibling was intimidating towards them," Dr. Gearing said. "But it is a consistent pattern of trying to inflict intentional harm on another person."
According to Dr. Gearing, while the behavior may be learned it is something that can be overcome.
"Basically kids that do better in school and you know have higher IQs and have really one remarkable person, like a great grandmother or a teacher in their life, they tend to not buy into the bullying model. Even if they're being intimidated at home."
Mental health experts say schools need to educate students about what bullying is, as well as train bullies to better understand their behavior and the impact they have on their victims.
Last week a teenage football player in Arlington tries to kill himself, because of alleged bullying by his teammates.
In September CBS 11 News devoted an entire week to addressing the topic of bulling. Click here to check out some of those stories.
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