Breaking Down Bullying

The unfortunate suicide of South Hadley teen, Phoebe Prince has brought about a renewed sense of purpose for school officials, legislators, those in law enforcement, parents, teachers, and students. Events such as those that recently took place in South Hadley, MA have a way of setting off a chain of events that forever change the landscape of the day to day operation of schools in America. I can compare the anti-bullying vigilance of recent days to the exponential increase in lockdown drills and implementation of Emergency Planning that took place in schools after the events at Columbine High School in 1999.

Never before has the actions of bullies been so clearly defined. In the book “The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander” Barbara Coloroso (2008) describes three elements of situations that involve bullies and those being bullied. First, the situation always involves an imbalance of power. That is that the offender is often bigger, older, stronger, more verbally equipped, or has more capital with peers. Second, the bully always acts with intent to harm. The offender means to inflict some type of physical or psychological pain on the victim or victims, and it is never an accident. Third, in instances of bullying both the offender and the victim know that the bullying can and most likely will occur again. This threat of further aggression is often the reason that bullying goes unreported to adults.

Coloroso (2008) asserts that the terror that is generated from the above mentioned actions renders victims powerless. Once this terror exists there is potential for extreme acts of aggression, retaliation, and a cycle of violence that can come from either the offender or the victim. School administrators and teachers now intimately aware and focused on the interactions of students with one another in classrooms, in the hallways, in the cafeteria, and on the sports fields have been hyper vigilant about ensuring that students are not engaging in these behaviors.

When crises such as those in South Hadley strikes the public school system groups of people whom I refer to as “Crisis Entrepreneurs” move quickly. These are groups of people and corporations who profit from seriously unfortunate events. To date, I have received about a dozen invitations to seminars and weekend retreats to meet with “professionals” about mitigating the problems caused by bullying in schools. One of these conferences was $600.00 per person to attend, and it came with a weekend stay at a four star hotel. These invitations come to me by fax, by E-mail, and in via the US Postage service. The faxes go in the recycle bin along with the mail, and the E-mails go directly to the junk E-mail box.

The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School has a department that focuses specifically on Student Support Services. Among this group of highly qualified professionals are veteran school counselors, a school psychologist, licensed school social workers, and a support team facilitator. This group meets weekly to discuss the interactions of individual and groups of students, their behavior in and outside of school, and proactive approaches to stopping violence while ensuring school wide social-emotional wellness. At Mahar, we understand a very simple fact: If students are not well, learning cannot and will not take place. How could a student who fears for his or her safety focus subjects like Algebra, Geometry, Chemistry, or anything else for that matter?

The No Child Left Behind Act calls upon school administrators to focus on student drop out rates, performance on state assessments, graduation rates, and specifically the performance of students in selected populations such as Special Education, English Language Learners, and those from Low Income Families. Take the pressure of these accountability standards and when added to the previous and approaching budget crises the public schools are faced with an entirely new set of problems. There is only so much funding, and where should it go? Do we risk lower test scores to keep our students safe? Do we focus on their wellness even though it might mean that class sizes may go up in our schools?

To me the answer is simple. The safety of our students comes first. Those who are best poised to ensure student safety are those who are trained to listen to them and when needed, act as their voices. I recognize that we are in a budget crisis – but I will not allow any reduction in funding to fall on the backs of our children who are in need of the most support. Those who are reading this article who have been bullied or been bullies know that bullying is not isolated to schools. Perhaps there are bullies in our adult lives too. It is my hope that the proactive approach of Mahar and the proactive approaches of other public schools will not only keep our students safe now, but educate them for a future in which they go out of their way to help, rather than hurt others.