The Center for Disease Control calls bullying a "major public health problem." Suicide is the third leading cause of death among school-aged children, with an estimated 4,400 deaths per year. Bullying victims are up to nine times more likely to consider suicide than a non-victim. It even has a name now: bullycide.
Allow that to sink in. That's the equivalent of 58 school buses driving needlessly off of a cliff every year. With no survivors.
Finally, people are beginning to take notice of the multitudes of children who are tormented just by the idea of going to school, let alone what kind of harassment they endure once they get there.
In 2008, Florida passed HB 669, the "Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act" (Florida Statute 1006.147). This four-page statute requires, among other things, that school personnel undergo training to prevent bullying, that all acts of bullying must be reported, and that all allegations of bullying must be investigated. By all standards, Florida's law meets the expectations set forth by the U.S. Department of Education.
This law has been in effect for three years. Is it working?
In some ways, yes. The Hernando County school board has adopted extensive policies regarding bullying prevention and consequences for students who are determined to be "bullies." There are also programs for bullying awareness, such as "Bullying Prevention Week" and cyber-bullying prevention workshops for parents.
Alarmingly, however, many parents believe these policies and programs are not having the desired effect. Parents whose children attend Hernando County public schools report that their children endure verbal, physical, and sexual harassment on a daily basis:
- An eighth grade student's book bag was ripped out of his hands in the school's hallway during passing time. The bully threw the student's book bag in a urinal and urinated on it.
- Several seventh and eighth grade girls report being touched inappropriately by boys even after telling them to stop.
- A seventh grade girl reports being called "tiny t***" by a male student on a daily basis.
- A sixth grade student was repeatedly punched and shoved into a urinal in the boys' locker room.
- During lunch, a seventh grade student was punched three times by the same bully. Three times he tried to walk away. When the bully went after him a fourth time, the victim, who was much larger than the bully, turned around and punched him hard enough to cause him to stumble and fall. Only then did teachers get involved. The victim was put on five days of out of school suspension along with the bully. The entire spectacle was recorded on the school's surveillance tapes.
It does not take a panel of experts and six months of research to figure out that something is wrong.
The first, and most logical step, is parental responsibility. Yes, parents -- it is your responsibility to teach your child how to behave. It does not matter how many jobs you have, what time your favorite TV show comes on, or any other of the myriad excuses that so many parents use to get out of raising their children. It is okay to remove your child’s computer from his room if you suspect cyber-bullying. It is okay to make your child write an apology letter to a child he has bullied. And it is okay to teach your child self defense if he is the victim at school.
The second step is school responsibility. Teachers are required by law to report any bullying or harassment they see or hear on campus. Administrators are required by law to investigate. Too often, this does not happen. In the cases of bullying above, parents complained that after they called teachers, guidance counselors, or administrators, there was no follow-up. There were no consequences for the bullies. And these were not isolated events. These were part of a chain of events, and more often than not, the parents had already made several bullying-related complaints.
In short, there is nothing wrong with Florida’s bullying prevention law. There is nothing missing from it. But the law in itself will not solve the bullying problem, nor will prevention workshops or programs. It is up to parents to teach their children how to behave and, just as importantly, up to educators and administrators to enforce the laws and policies already put in place. Only then will we see an end to "bullycide."
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