School Bullying Council

The Palm Beach County School District reported thousands more incidents of bullying and harassment of students between 2007 and 2010 than any other school district in Florida.

But district officials say the numbers are not indicative of a growing bullying problem here. Rather, that they show district officials are taking the issue seriously.

“We’re knee deep in it and we’re trying our best,” said Kim Mazauskas, a resource teacher with the district’s Office of Safe Schools. “The numbers will go up when you address something.”

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Palm Beach County schools, which teach about 172,000 students, reported more than 5,600 incidents of bullying between 2007 and 2010, according to data provided by the state Department of Education.

David Benson, the assistant director for safe schools for the district, said one of the reasons the numbers of incidents are high is that the district is following the state’s guidelines, including reporting all incidents of bullying even if the claim is unsubstantiated.

State Department of Education spokeswoman Cheryl Etters said the state sends schools guidance, but how the numbers are reported varies greatly. She said some districts might be reporting bullying as other crimes, such as battery or fighting.

For example Miami-Dade County Public Schools, which has about 345,000 students, only reported one bullying incident in the 2007-2008 school year and seven incidents in the 2008-2009 school year before increasing to more than 800 incidents in 2009-2010.

Calls to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Safe Schools were referred to School Police Chief Charles Hurley, who did not return calls seeking comment.

Etters said that when the state Office of Safe Schools sees statistics that seem incorrect, they point out the issue and give the district a chance to change the numbers. But she said districts do not face any penalty for incorrect reporting.

Benson said there are nearly 200 schools, including all the charter schools in Palm Beach County, and there were about 2,000 incidents in 2009-2010, which works out to about 10 incidents of bullying per school.

“Our numbers seem much more realistic,” Benson said.

Mazauskas said the district has a website full of resources for students and teachers, such as scripts that guide teachers through how to respond to incidents such as cyber bullying.

Craig Goldenfarb is a West Palm Beach attorney who represents the parents of two students who are threatening to sue the Palm Beach County School District, alleging the district didn’t do enough to stop the bullying endured by those students at Jeaga Middle School and Seminole Trails Elementary School.

“At least they are reporting it here, which is good,” Goldenfarb said.

Jeaga Principal Kevin Gatlin said the district has made it easier for students to report bullying, such as creating “bullying boxes” where students can drop off anonymous complaints, as well as separate hotlines for each school.

Boca Raton Middle School consistently was among the Palm Beach County schools with the highest number of incidents. Benson, who used to be an assistant principal at Boca Raton Middle, said what that shows is that teachers and administrators had a good pulse of what was happening in the school and documented every incident.

Benson said the unofficial numbers being reported by schools for the 2010-2011 school year show a drop to 1,849 incidents.

“We are making progress,” Benson said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/pb-palm-school-bullying-20110724,0,1062484.story

Workplace bullying complaints have doubled in the past year. Photo: Getty Images

THE number of Victorians claiming to have been bullied at work has skyrocketed, with complaints to WorkSafe Victoria more than doubling to 6000 in the past year.

But no action was taken on the vast majority of complaints, as most fell well short of what constitutes workplace bullying under the law. People complained of bullying after being sacked for assaulting a manager, missing out on a pay rise or not being invited to a work party.

WorkSafe’s executive director of health and safety, Ian Forsyth, believes the huge surge in complaints can largely be attributed to greater awareness about bullying and, in particular, to the case of 19-year-old waitress Brodie Panlock, who committed suicide in 2006 after being relentlessly bullied by four colleagues at a Hawthorn cafe.

Illustration: Matt Golding

Mr Forsyth says the most significant spike in bullying complaints to WorkSafe came immediately after Ms Panlock’s former colleagues and the owner of Cafe Vamp were found guilty and fined a total of $335,000 in February last year. A month earlier it received 150 complaints. In February 2010 it rose to 550 calls and in March 2010 to 750.

Of the 6000 bullying complaints made to WorkSafe, only 10 per cent were referred to the bullying response unit. Of those referrals, one in 10 resulted in an inspector visiting a workplace to conduct further inquiries.

Many of the complaints have been referred to other organisations such as Fair Work Australia, which deals with issues relating to industrial disputes, unfair dismissal and employment conditions, and the Australian Human Rights Commission, which deals with issues such as equal opportunity and discrimination.

”I think what we are seeing is that the term bullying is being used quite loosely in the community now in many instances to describe something that has ‘gone against me’ or ‘that I haven’t liked’ or something that ‘I haven’t wanted to do’,” says Mr Forsyth.

”As a result, we are seeing a mismatch between what is being labelled bullying and what would really constitute bullying under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

”We’re certainly not saying that these people aren’t suffering from some form of ill treatment or some form of injustice or that they’re not genuinely feeling that they’ve been disadvantaged or put under pressure. But in the vast majority of incidents these types of behaviours which they might describe as bullying are not going to meet the criteria for us to investigate or prosecute.”

The Occupational Health and Safety Act defines bullying as ”repeated unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety”. Under a new bill passed last month, called Brodie’s Law, bullying now carries a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.

Kevin Jones, an occupational health and safety consultant and the editor of SafetyAtWorkBlog, says the increase in complaints could also be attributed to a shift in attitudes about what is deemed acceptable behaviour.

”I think workplaces have improved the management of personnel substantially.”

Mr Forsyth said anyone worried about mistreatment or bullying at work should immediately raise the issue with the appropriate person in their workplace.

”If it’s not adequately addressed in the workplace then they need to look at what are the best avenues to get the issues addressed, whether it be through Fair Work Australia, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission or WorkSafe.”

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/most-workplace-bullying-claims-fall-short-20110723-1hub7.html