Bullying: it's not child's play

Cape & Island coalition takes on bullying policy as a group

by Teresa Martin

Earlier this year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts signed into law what parents and educators have been saying for years: Bullying is not child's play.

It's a flat out crime. Literally.

With a few strokes of the pen, legislators made school districts ground zero and principals the principle enforcers in the war on behavior that has literally led to death for children who are on the receiving end of it.

A regional school response

In response to this mandate for action, the Cape & Island region's schools have joined forces with the District Attorney's Office and a variety of youth organizations to create a plan of attack. The goal: to work collaboratively to develop a region-wide consistent bullying prevention policy and bullying response procedure guide.

Bringing key players together

"We could spend a lot of time and not get far when doing it alone -- or we could work on the issue collectivity, drawing on experts, and make a more effective response."    
- Kevin Turner, Harwich HS Principal & Chair of the Cape and Island's K-12 Principals' Association

The group held its first meeting in early August. More than 80 attendees, representing 8 school districts, as well as law enforcement, and community youth organizations, gathered at the YMCA in Barnstable at an event organized by the Cape Cod Foundation and the Barnstable County Council for Children, Youth, and Families (BCCCYF).

Instead of working in silos in Wareham, Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, DY, Harwich, and Nauset, the schools decided to take a different approach - one that was unified and working together for the same goal.

Opportunity in new mandates

"The idea for the workshop was born at a steering committee meeting of the BCCCYF this spring," explains Kristin O'Malley, Manager of Community Investment Services for the Cape Cod Foundation and a member of the BCCCYF steering committee.

"We were in the process of planning to have Senator O'Leary's office come to our May BCCCYF general meeting to talk about the legislation, and answer questions, and in the process, realized there was an opportunity to take it beyond that.  It made sense to look at this as a region, rather than as individual districts, and really, more fully, as a community."

Very real problem

Bullying isn't new, but recent student suicides brought the life-and-death nature of it to the forefront earlier this year. The result was that legislation - which had been worked on for a number of years - was passed. Sen. Rob O'Leary was chair of the education committee that led the charge.

The goal was to remove the ambiguity over who can, should, and must deal with bullying, O'Leary said.

Clarifying the response

"This is not a new problem - it's been around for ever. We've all experienced it in our lives. It's probably not going to go away. The thrust of this was to focus attention on it, and to make it clear that it will be confronted," O'Leary explained.

"What this does is give local officials more tools and legal authority --  it was not clear who had authority to reach out and deal with the situation under existing law prior to this bill."

Highlights of Bullying Legislation

 Applies to ALL schools - The bill applies to all school districts, commonwealth charter schools, collaborative and approved private day and residential schools.

Bullying = harm/fear of harm/hostile environment.  It defines bullying as repeated actions that cause physical or mental harm to another -- or fear of harm.

Includes all forms. It includes both real and cyber actions, both at school and outside of school

Prevention is first goal. It pushes for education to prevent bullying - education for students parents, teachers, staff, and children who are themselves targets.

Don't hide it. It mandates reporting of bullying.

Have a policy and plan. It says guidelines will be developed that describe how schools respond to bullying - aka " a bullying prevention and intervention plan."

Bullying is a crime. It states that all - and that includes cyberbullying - is criminal.

Not allowed. Bullying is explicitly prohibited.

Buck stops at the front office. School principals are responsible for implementing the bullying plan.

Principals are point person

What the new law makes clear is that school principals have both the responsibility and the authority to address bullying problems. In addition, bullying is a crime, and can be referred to law enforcement for action.

What this means is that every school must have a "bullying prevention and intervention plan," by December 31. In other words, by the end of this calendar year, schools must have examined the issue and have a policy in place for dealing with bullies and bullying in all its forms.

That's no small effort.

Power of the group

Which is where the collaboration comes in. Instead of figuring it out district by district and ending up with variations on the theme, the region is joining together to create one theme, standard and predictable.

"We could spend a lot of time and not get far when doing it alone -- or we could work on the issue collectivity, drawing on experts, and make a more effective response," said Kevin Turner, principal of Harwich High School and chair of the Cape and Island's K-12 Principals' Association.

Clear message: No Bullies

One statement that comes through loud and clear from the planning is that bullying is not acceptable. Period.

The policy ideas start with creating a positive respectful school environment. In other words, creating an environment that strives to prevent bullying before it happens.  This includes explicit teaching about respect in Pre-K and kindergarten.

Community part of the process

The plan goes beyond schools, integrating community organizations and reaching out to coaches on sports teams and to other out-of-school programs with a goal of mirroring and modeling the message of respect there, as well.

The school may have the responsibility for dealing with bullying - but everyone who works with students has a responsibility for preventing bullying. 

By taking a regional approach and by bringing law enforcement and a range of youth organizations into the process at the beginning, the BCCCYF hopes that all parties share the same vision.

Cyberbullies banned too

The regional approach also includes teaching appropriate use of electronic tools. It doesn't advocate banning cell phones or other technology.

"We can't bury heads in sand - this is how kids communicate today," stated Turner unequivocally. "we need to meet them where they are and if we don't teach them how to use it appropriately, they will just use it inappropriately."

Cyberbullying has been problematic because it often takes place outside of school and some schools were uncertain how they could or should be involved in handling it.

It is now clear that no matter whose computer or cellphone was involved - the school has authority to crack down on the actions and work with the law enforcement community to take appropriate action.

Concrete plan is next step

The outcome of this August day-long meeting is working groups moving forward to turn ideas into a plan. The plan will also include a templated series of response steps to guide schools in a consistent response to bullying situations.

Of course, the best part of the plan may well be that it wasn't created in a vacuum; rather, is is being created by all of the players who will have a role in implementing it.

And, it won't be created eight different times, duplicating efforts over and over.

"Because of this connection, it can have the same reaction collectively in all districts," noted Turner. "We're all in this together."

Teresa Martin is a well-known Cape Cod technology leader who has served as  C.E.O. of the Cape Cod Technology Council and currently is Vice Chairwoman of OpenCape which is dedicated to fixing the Cape's dropped cell calls and upload issues. Read Teresa's tech blog, Cape Eyes here.