tom perez, assistant secretary for civil rights, ruslyn lee. she was also nominated by president obama to serve in her role as assistant secretary of education for civil rights and she was confirmed by the senate in may of 2009. as assistant secretary, ruslyn is assistant secretary arnie's duncan's primary advisor. before she joined the department of education she was vice president of the education trust in washington, dc and was the founding executive of education trust west in oakland. in these positions she advocated for public school students in california, focusing on achievement and opportunity gaps, improving can urriculum and instructional quality and ensuring quality education for everybody. she served as an advisor on education issues on a number of private ipbs institutions, she is a teacher, a lawyer, and a very influential voice on all policy matters. she was also passionate about ending this issue of bullying and bringing everyone together to stop this disturbing trend so please welcome assistant secretary for civil rights, rusly

but, you know, with the tools that we currently have, we're doing as much as we can and i think ruslyn's point about the uptick in the number of complaints we're both receiving, i'm not sure that necessarily reflects, as ruslyn correctly pointed out, that there's an uptick in violence. the doctrine of futility often resulted in less complaints being seen. i think there's a commitment in the federal level to doing our level best on these issues. >> tom, you talk about tools. ruslyn, what kind of tools, part of this is raising awareness, looking at best practices, sharing those best practices. what kind of tools is your agency offering, what kind of tools is the federal government providing municipalities, community leaders, advocates and the like? >> i can talk about some. we need more. this is why these kind of conversations are so helpful and we no doubt learn more from you than we could ever impact. that is because there is no one size fits all to this. this is about, it is what gives rise to cultures that promote a bullying and harassment on a regular -- are about community and it's a

ruslyn, does can urriculum need to change or is that not yet where you are. >> the federal government can't -- 10th amendment. >> change it. >> that would be federal overreach. >> well stated. >> no, but, but, so we are not funding or digging into can urriculum in that way. but you certainly have seen superintendent caranza happened about what happens with the kinds of conversations that happen with the movie bully and there are can urriculum packages being developed. i had visions, gary, to think about how if folks decided -- and we don't play in this -- but if folks decided there could be a class on this, how you teach, life skills class, right? if we try to make a one-size fits all click approach that doesn't really take people from where they are and get them to where they need to go. i have seen life skills work well and i have seen students literally filling out mcdonald's applications in their life skills class. so you can't just quickly eradicate and we can't just think about this in an isolated silo the link, for example, that has been alluded to between discipline and bullyi

(applause). >> thank you so much, tom, and ruslyn and lieutenant governor, we appreciate it. let's move right into the second panel, the effects of bullying on young people, we've already made that transition and their families. what should schools do. our next panel the focus on the effects of bullying on young people. our moderator is cheryl jennings, award-winning journalist and a pioneer in children's issues and women's rights. cheryl has won emmy awards on her work for caring on aging parents and a program aimed at teenager called straight talking teens. cheryl received an emmy nomination for her 6-part series on the children of kosovo, she was selected by the league of women voters as one of the six women who could be president. ladies and gentlemen, cheryl jennings. >> i wanted to let you know that i got to see the bully movie yesterday with mr. caranza and 800 kids and melinda who was wearing her stop bullying tee shirt, so cute. it was an amazing experience and that video is in my head and the tears are in my heart for everybody that's lost a child. we're going to se

so, mike, i think as you mentioned and tom and ruslyn bullying is often fueled by bias, whether that's racial, ethnic, religious, or against the lgbq community. amina, you said bias is often fueled by misinformation. >> certainly in the muslim community that's very obvious. since 9-11 that's increased but even before 9-11 there were so many stereotypes out there, whether from hollywood, which portrayed muslim as terrorists, as womanizers, to just a host of campaigns over the last few years from the ground zero mosque to the koran burning, local and national campaigns against building mosques, all of these are obviously going to impact children and their parents and if they are at home hearing their parents talk about muslims in a certain way, they are going to take that to school with them. i have experienced this in my own growing up, which was long before 9-11, just the lack of information or the misinformation i experienced again with my own children, particularly when there's an event that happens overseas they will come to school and kids will reflect that in comments about did yo

but in the work that we have done, ruslyn and i across the country, we have seen too many school districts, quite frankly, that have been slow to respond. and that is why we have to come together like this. that is why we have to get out of our lane and understand that we've got to make house calls. we've got to move beyond the traditional paradigm that i've a federal prosecutor, i wait for the phone to ring and i respond. that's not how melinda has responded, that's not how eric holder approach their job, that's certainly not how this superintendent is approaching his job and that's not how any of us can afford to approach their jobs. i don't want to prosecute any more hate crimes cases. i want to be, for those of you over 50, remember that maytag commercial, the guy is sitting there waiting for that phone to ring? i want to be that room. i want to have nothing to do. i want to take my niece up on her offer to golf at the present side owe because i want to have time on my hands. but we see this headwind of intolerance that is a growth industry, i real estate gret to tell you. we see it ma