Teacher World

This will be my final blog in the series I have been reporting on regarding cyberbullying. Again, if you haven’t already done so, I would recommend that you go back and read the previous two blogs to get some background for this one which will deal with schools and what they can do to tackle this form of bullying.

I apologize that due to technical difficulties, I was unable to pull up the Cyberbullying Research Center report on what role schools should play to battle cyberbullying. However, I was able to find information from the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention which I felt would be just as helpful. If you are a teacher, I would encourage you to read the report from the Cyberbullying Research Center on your own as well.

First, it is important to note that this is a difficult form of bullying for schools to deal with since it usually takes place outside of school. Regardless, since cyberbullying has become so prevalent and the affect on its victims can be so devastating, there are actions that experts suggest schools should take to join in the effort to stop cyberbullying.

The first step according to the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention is to figure out to what degree cyberbullying is an issue in your school or in the district. It suggests surveying students regarding their level of exposure to cyberbullying using input from students, parents, school staff, and computer techs to devise the right survey for your school or district.

The center suggests establishing an anti-cyberbullying task force consisting of the principal, school board attorney, disciplinary officer, and both a parent and student representative to get a fuller understanding of the problem and to develop some anti-cyberbullying proposals.

Through the information obtained from the survey and with the help of the task force, develop an awareness campaign for teachers, school staff, students, parents, and the community at large to talk about what cyberbullying is and its different forms, as well as how it can be stopped or prevented within the authority of the school. Web sites such as Stop Bullying Now! are helpful tools for spreading the word about bullying.

Get kids actively involved in creating a policy which spells out how to appropriately use the school’s technology. The AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) should clearly state what constitutes cyberbullying, prohibit the use of the Internet for bullying, devise strategies for preventing and stopping cyberbullying, and lay out the consequences for violations of the policy. The center recommends that the policy provide consequences for cyberbullying occurring outside of school if it affects the well-being and safety of the victim while they are in school.

Teachers should educate their students to avoid, respond to, and report incidents of cyberbullying. In these discussions, it is important to explain the negative consequences of cyberbullying, which include school discipline, civil litigation, or even criminal prosecution. Students need to learn to refrain from giving out private information and to report any forms of cyberbullying that they either experience or witness firsthand.

Schools need to educate their staff in regards to cyberbullying through professional development and guidance from school counselors. Teachers should all be aware of their school’s AUP and the actions they should take if they suspect cyberbullying is taking place.

Coordinate your school’s efforts with those in the community, and invite local police and law enforcement representatives to come into your classrooms to talk and answer questions about cyberbullying. Even local Internet service providers might be willing to send a representative to explain their company’s regulations against cyberbullying.

Get parents involved by educating them about the forms cyberbullying takes and explain how their children might be affected. Have them sign an AUP along with their child, agreeing that they won’t use the computer to harass others, and ask them to be responsible and watchful at home to insure that their children are using the Internet appropriately. (This was touched on in my blog yesterday.)

The center recommends trying to coordinate consistent cyberbullying prevention education with all other schools in the district from primary to secondary schools.

Finally, the center suggests that your school system reviews state laws related to bullying. They recommend visiting the website, Bully Police USA, for a compilation of state-by-state legislation, and they suggest that you petition state legislatures to add a cyberbullying component to laws that prohibit traditional bullying if your state does not already have that component spelled out.

I’ve taken a significant amount of  time with this subject due to the prevalence of this form of bullying and its destructive results. I plan to spend much of health time at the beginning of this year addressing bullying in an attempt to get the school year started off positively. We will spend a large portion of that time discussing cyberbullying, and I plan to use some of the above suggestions as I create this unit.

Schools need to get much more proactive when it comes to dealing with all forms of bullying, and that means teaching our children that bullying is wrong and will not be tolerated in our schools. Please join me in spreading that message!

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I continue to be so incredibly touched by every article I read about the courageous citizens of Joplin, Missouri. This latest article clearly captures my heart as a teacher, because at a time when most school districts, unless they are year-round schools, are taking a little breather before plunging into the 2011-2012 school year, Joplin doesn’t have time to take a breather, as they are desperately trying to rebuild and reinvent their educational system.

Not only did last month’s destructive twister take the lives of more than 150 people, including seven students and one teacher, but it destroyed three of its school buildings, including Joplin High School, and it badly damaged seven other school buildings. With school scheduled to begin on August 17, there is much to be done.

But before decisions could be made about where to put students in the fall, the school district had to get summer school up and running. Can you imagine? Last week, only three weeks after this horrific tornado hit, this resilient community and its tenacious school district got more than 1,600 elementary school students enrolled in summer classes! That doesn’t even count middle and high school students.

Enrollment has doubled from last year, and that’s no accident. First, the district is offering free transportation, but more importantly than that, school is providing these traumatized children with a sense of stability; a normalcy, which they so desperately need. Being in school gives them hours during the day when life is pretty routine, and they don’t have to think about the problems their families are facing.

“These children don’t have a home to live in,” said Irving Elementary School Principal Debbie Fort, whose school was one of those destroyed. “Parents know they need to get a routine back. Their lives have been turned upside-down.” (Principal Fort spent her time after the storm searching for teachers who were missing.  She has opened her arms and her home to two families who were displaced, one of whom is a faculty member.)

Isaiah Basye, a teacher, said, “The kids are just relieved to be back at something peaceful. It gives them hope, to see that we’re not letting the tornado change us. We’re still here with open arms. This place is a haven.”

So, what will it take to get kids back in classrooms in the fall? It’s a pretty intimidating list: buildings which escaped destruction will have to be turned into schools with classrooms, computers and furniture need to be replaced, teacher’s treasured resources that were bought or created over the years will need to be saved or reinvented,  and water-logged and dirt filled books will need to be salvaged.

Decisions have already been made concerning where some students will go to school next year: many middle school students will go to an empty warehouse in a distant industrial park while half of the high school students will go to an empty big-box store.

Joplin’s football team has already started practicing, in spite of the fact that their practice field and weight room were destroyed in the tornado and one of their members is still in the hospital. Even though their numbers are down, some players returned even though they have been living in temporary housing or with friends or relatives far away.

The team is feeling the need to represent Joplin this fall, but their new coach, Chris Shields, who lost his rental home as well as some of his belongings in the tornado said, “We don’t really feel like we need to say, `Win for Joplin.’ We know inside that Joplin is helping us. It’s time for us to help Joplin.”

With all the chaos and misery the people of Joplin have experienced and continue to face, it would not be surprising to find them simply demoralized and beaten. But the reality is the people of Joplin refuse to give up. And right now, they seem to be rallying around the resurrecting of their schools.

The sign outside where their high school used to stand, once read JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL. After the storm, it read OP HIGH SCHOOL. Someone used duct tape to change the OP to HOPE! If that doesn’t bring goose bumps, I don’t know what would!

Three wooden eagles, Joplin’s school mascot, stand proudly in front of this sign, and someone spray-painted a sign that says, “Her feathers are ruffled, but she’s not dead.”

The best part of this story, is the hope that Joplin has for the future, because they are not content to simple rebuild their schools. They have a vision of a state-of-the-art building which would be a testimonial to their innovation and tenacious spirit, rather than one that reminds them of their losses.

“We need to let ourselves be free to dream,” Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer said. “It’s really hard. We’re living with the reality of what happened. You almost have to give yourself permission to move past the really horrible, horrific things.”

Teacher-World's Blog Joplin, Missouri, schools, tornado

Hey all you Glee fans out there, what do you think about the latest story line with Kurt and the bullying football player? I personally am thrilled to see such a popular television series attacking this sensitive subject in a realistic and sometimes sadly humorous manner.

Hollywood is taking on the prevalent and pervasive problem we face in schools everywhere; the issue of bullying. In these episodes of Glee, the harassment is centered on the only gay student who has “come out” publically. The timeliness of these shows and the letter from the ORC to the Department of Education which specifically identifies bullying someone because of their sexual orientation as a violation of their civil rights was clearly unplanned but perfect. In this television show, Kurt is being bullied by a football player who apparently is struggling with his own sexuality. Every time he runs into Kurt he bullies him either verbally, physically, or both. He has even threatened to kill the timid Kurt if he reveals that he is also battling sexual issues. As a result, Kurt, always wary of the next attack, loses weight, loses focus on his work, and is increasingly afraid to come to school.

When Kurt’s friends in the Glee Club find out what is happening, they rally together and confront the bully. Their attempt to stop the bullying turns into a general brawl, and finally things come to a head when Kurt’s father discovers what has been happening and demands that the principal does something to protect his son. Initially, the principal expels the bully, but later changes her mind and lets him return to school. Another confrontation and threat aimed at Kurt finally convinces Kurt to enroll in another school leaving Glee Club, his friends, and all he knows in order to regain his sense of safety and peace.

Okay, so it’s just a television show, but isn’t it so much more than that? It has become a reality and a living nightmare to so many young people. I applaud the writers and producers of Glee for tackling such a sensitive issue with honesty and candor. We cannot hear the message enough! Bullying is not acceptable, it is devastating to those who are bullied, and it literally is threatening the very lives of our young people. Young people everywhere face the kind of attacks we are seeing in this television show. And, just like Kurt, many students feel the need to enroll elsewhere to ensure their safety. The news is also full of the sad tales of students who opt out in other ways. Suicide and other violent responses to bullying riddle our society. Watch the show! Read the news! It is television mimicking life. And just as the writers and producers of Glee are doing, we need to deliver a clear and consistent message that it will not be tolerated in our schools anymore!

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In the letter from the Department of Education regarding bullying, it defines bullying that violates the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Basically these additions to the Civil Rights Act specifically prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability. The letter goes on to state that: “School districts may violate these civil rights statutes and the Department’s implementing regulations when peer harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees.”

Herein lies the crux of the problem. I believe that we have a tendency to almost expect that people and students in general will be teased if they are of a different race, sexual persuasion, or are slower either mentally or physically. It has become acceptable to poke fun at people who are different. Come on, admit it. You’ve heard the racial jokes, the short bus jokes, the gay and lesbian comments. You may have even told a few in your time. As a result, we are guilty of allowing such behavior to become acceptable. Therefore, when we hear students tease other students in this way, we may not take it as seriously as we should.

Whatever causes us to be so insensitive to others must change. In light of the serious repercussions such teasing and bullying has created, we have no alternative but to readjust our own attitudes if we expect to change the attitudes of bullies. The time has come to take these racial, sexual, and disabled comments, teasing, and bullying seriously. As school employees there is no wiggle room here. We need to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. We violate not only the Civil Rights Act by not doing so, but we violate innocent children who have a right to expect our support and our protection.

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Awhile ago, we received an email from our superintendent which included a link to the Department of Education website. The letter, written from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Ohio Civil Rights,  is both a dissertation regarding what constitutes bullying, what form of bullying specifically violates one’s civil rights, and a strong warning to school systems everywhere to tighten up their anti-bullying policies. In light of all the recent lawsuits against school systems, it is a timely letter to all of us. Since it is such a critical topic which concerns each of us, either as students, parents, teachers, or administrators, I thought I should break it down over the next few blogs and take some real time with this sensitive issue.

The letter begins by defining bullying as behavior that “fosters a climate of fear and disrespect that can seriously impair the physical and psychological health of its victims and create conditions that negatively affect learning, thereby undermining the ability of students to achieve their full potential.”

Sadly, we have all seen it. Maybe we have felt it. Maybe there was something different about you, something that stood out and caused you to be noticed. And the teasing started, and it hurt. But then the teasing got more brutal, and you didn’t want to go to school and face it one more day. Maybe it wasn’t you; maybe it was a friend, and you wanted to stand up for them when the bullying began, but you were afraid it would turn on you so you stood silently by and then hated yourself afterward for not defending someone you care about. Maybe you were the one doing the bullying, and you felt some power that had previously escaped you but somehow took away some hidden pain of your own as you inflicted pain on someone else. And perhaps even as you felt that burn of power, you also felt a deep sense of disappointment in the person you were becoming.

Yes, we’ve all experienced it in some form. We were either the one hurt, the one powerless to help the one who was hurting, or the one doing the hurting. Either way, we were all powerfully affected by what we experienced. And for that very reason, we all need to take a stand when it comes to bullying. We can no longer sit back and say that bullying has always been around. Too many have been damaged or worse because of this malignant meanness. It is time to stand up to the cancer that threatens us, our children, or our grandchildren. It is time to say no more. We owe it to all those who have been hurt to say, NO MORE!!!!!!

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We all know that bullying has been around forever, but suddenly, due to the frightening increase in violence resulting from bullying, it is receiving national attention. And schools are going to be in a perilous position if they don’t find more effective ways to deal with these situations as they occur in school.

In an age when everyone seems sue-crazy, it seems logical that schools might face litigation if drastic efforts are not made on their part to deal with both bullies and their victims. I am sure that most school systems, like ours, have a policy in place which dictates how bullying is to be reported and dealt with. And yet, let’s not kid ourselves! Our efforts do not seem to be very effective, as bullying continues in schools everywhere, and incidences often go unreported.

It is imperative that administrators sit down with counselors, school psychologists, and teachers to develop a plan that will both penalize bullying while at the same time working to change the attitudes and behaviors of those who are bullying others. Principals, teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, librarians, and recess and cafeteria monitors need to be thoroughly trained to uniformly and systematically handle each and every situation as they occur. Counselors need to be available to work with those who are bullying in an attempt to discover the motivation or reason for the bullying and offer alternatives to these behaviors. Punitive solutions are not enough. Until we basically rehabilitate bullies, they will continue to find people to terrorize. Studies show that bullies often threaten others because they have been bullied themselves. These kids need help learning strategies to cope with bullying and to cope with anger and their own feelings of helplessness.

The other aspect of any plan must be teaching students who are being bullied how to deal with bullies in general. These coping methods need to be taught at an early age and continually taught each year. There are a variety of interactive resources on the internet to reinforce how to deal with bullies. The earlier we start educating, disciplining, and redirecting students, the fewer problems we will have in our schools.

It has been so easy to look the other way or to handle this issue nonchalantly, but those days are gone. All it will take is for one family to sue a school for not stopping behavior that its employees were aware of or should have been aware of for the whole house of cards to fall down. It is our responsibility to do all that we can to create a safe environment for our students. And if we allow even one student to be bullied, we let all of our students down because we are forcing them to learn in a potentially hostile environment. No more excuses, and no more procrastinating. Let’s get this done together! Let’s take a united stand against bullying in our schools before it is too late!

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