School Bullying Council

The schoolyard bully, like everything in education, has been modernized.

She’s 13, with long bangs and a posse, real and digital. Is it any wonder she can make a mockery of zero-tolerance policies and the bestintended protective strategies, of which there are many, inside the school system and out?

An e-mail arrived from a mother with a daughter, a victim, in Grade 8. It is a harrowing tale, probably more common than we think.

It began, apparently, as a minor spat, a slight that only adolescence could magnify by breaking a group of former friends into two camps, one hostile to the other.

Here’s how bad it got, in Mom’s own words:

“Some of the effects on my daughter are as follows:

She spends lunch time in a cubicle in the washroom (she doesn’t eat her lunch).

She often has diarrhea in the morning and doesn’t go to school.

She vomits in the morning and doesn’t go to school.

I get a call from the school mid-morning to pick her up because she is feeling sick.

She is generally anxious about school.

“She has become withdrawn and depressed.

“She usually participates in the school talent show but didn’t this year, because the bully told her partner to pull out.

“She sleeps with me most nights.” We’ve chosen not to identify the woman, or the school, in order to protect the identity of the child. But rest assured, Mom is not a flake. She is a mid-level public servant and her husband is a lawyer. And, frankly, they’re fed up.

They’ve made plans to transfer their daughter to another school, in another board, for September, though it’s cross-town and the change will no doubt come with its own growing pains.

A second parent, also the mother of a victim, confirmed she’s making similar plans. “She’s excluded and branded,” said the mother of her child, adding of the school authorities: “I don’t think they know how to handle it.”

The parents report there have been meetings with the principal and vice-principal, who have taken steps to deal with the bullies, but there has been no happy resolution.

Matters boiled over this spring when a group of 10 or so girls surrounded a table of three classmates (the targets) during the lunch-hour, intimidating them with verbal taunts. This was followed by a nasty Facebook post. The cafeteria incident was caught on video, which the school used to trigger a disciplinary process.

But it didn’t change some hard facts: the girls were still in the same classes, the same cafeteria, the same hallways. This led to the silent, more insidious form of bullying: shunning, the kind of social exclusion that is much harder to police, but likely as hurtful.

Officially, bullying is taken very seriously by school boards; of policies, they have chapter and verse, including the recent inclusion, provincewide, of bullying as a suspendable offence. But do they actually work?

The parent who contacted the Citizen pointed out the perverse outcome that uproots the victims and leaves the bully where she is.

“Nothing has changed and now my husband and I must take our child out of this school and send her to another one. Her friend’s parents are doing the same because they cannot bear to see their child deteriorate any further. This simply isn’t fair.”

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/harrowing+effects+schoolyard+bullying/4847040/story.html

A school official said Friday that local educators were “appalled” to learn that three male students were caught on video appearing to assault another boy in the bathroom of a middle school.

But School Committee members also defended the district’s anti-bullying programs while saying that bullying is not an easy problem to fix.

Bullying is an “ongoing battle,” said School Committee member Patricia Riley, one “we haven’t won, that’s for sure.”

“I wish there was a guarantee that you could do X, Y and Z, and nothing like this would ever happen,” Riley said. “If there is a formula for this, I wish I knew what it was. I think we’re appalled by the situation.”

In the video, obtained by The Enterprise, three students appear to restrain and attack another boy in a school bathroom at the Williams Intermediate School.

Superintendent of Schools Jacqueline Forbes said she has seen the video and police are working with school officials to investigate.

Bridgewater police and a school official both said Friday that the three alleged attackers in the video were suspended from school but they did not have further details.

Asked about possible criminal charges, Bridgewater police Lt. Tom Schlatz said on Friday, “No (criminal) charges have been filed as of yet. When the investigation is complete, if anybody deems it necessary, it will be done then.”

A student filmed the video about 2 p.m. Tuesday using his cell phone while concealing himself behind a urinal wall, said his mother, who provided the video and whose name The Enterprise is not publishing to protect her son’s identity.

The alleged victim is a special needs student, as is her son, the mother said.

In the video, it appears that one boy holds the alleged victim against the wall while another punches him in the head. A third boy walks up to the alleged victim and appears to punch him in the stomach area. The alleged victim then falls to the floor.

Forbes on Friday declined to answer any questions about the incident, the video or the suspensions and issued only the following statement:

“The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District is investigating a fight that took place at the Williams Intermediate School on Tuesday, May 17, at the close of the school day. The district is conducting an investigation into the allegation that this incident may be the result of bullying.

“The police have been notified and are working with us. The B-R Regional School District takes every allegation of bullying seriously. We investigate and will take appropriate disciplinary action in accordance with policy and statute.”

State law required all school districts to submit a bullying prevention and intervention plan before Dec. 31 to be reviewed by the Department of Education.

Bridgewater-Raynham met all deadlines and conditions, said Teri Williams Valentine, special projects coordinator for the Department of Education.

Bridgewater-Raynham’s 16-page plan mirrors most steps of the model produced by the state last summer, at times word for word.

But Quincy attorney Tina Smeaton, who is representing the mother and her son who recorded the incident, said while the district’s anti-bullying plan calls for zero tolerance, it hasn’t been followed.

She said the boy who filmed the alleged attack has been bullied by the same group of students for the last 18 months. Despite repeated notifications by his mother to school officials, Smeaton said, the bullying has continued and any actions by the school weren’t enough for the bullies to change their behavior.

“She didn’t feel her voice was being heard,” Smeaton said of the mother.

Smeaton said a meeting has been scheduled for May 31 between her clients, herself, Forbes and the school district’s attorney.

“The lines of communication are now open, which is great,” she said. “I’m hoping some changes come out of it.”

Pacy, the School Committee chairman, said the district has “clear policies” about bullying, which include suspension, but he added that the ages of those involved and specifics of the situation dictate what disciplinary action is taken.

Pacy said the behavior of the students in the video was “not acceptable” but they may have gotten caught up in the situation.

“I don’t condemn the students involved,” said Pacy, who as of Friday afternoon said he hadn’t seen the video. “I think it’s mostly their unawareness, reacting to the situation. But it’s not acceptable. Our parents, teachers and administrators have to make that very plain that it’s not acceptable.”

The Williams School, which includes grades 4 through 6, was the site of another bullying incident a year ago. Three students were suspended and ordered to write a report on Down syndrome after bullying a student on a school bus.

READ MORE about this issue.

http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x1078554162/Bridgewater-school-officials-appalled-by-school-bullying-video