School officials influence bullying

The situation described by Lower Lake educator Nancy Harby in her recent letter to the editor is familiar to me. I observed institutional sanctioning of bullying during my years in school.

The situations I remember are not necessarily identical to those described by Harby. I don’t remember if my school had spirit week themes that denigrated our team’s rivals. Rather, I remember routine, everyday practices that contributed toward a school culture in which differences were shunned and the shunning was considered acceptable.

An elementary school teacher who, observing that my classmates did not want to take my hands when instructed to form a circle, gave me a pair of combs for the other children to hold instead, gave tacit encouragement and acceptance to my classmates ostracizing and alienating me.

The continual practice in physical education was to have the popular children choose sides for teams. When I was chosen last — each and every single time — it was in front of everyone.

I had advocates and supporters among members of the teaching staff; one of my teachers told the class that I would be at the top of a pyramid of students if it was based on reading ability.

My memories of spirit week activities are that they placed emphasis upon our colors, our mascot, our team. Spirit week and game-night pep rallies emphasized us-against-them, whether name-calling was involved or not — and the school’s most popular students were again given power over students who were potentially weaker and more vulnerable than they.

A recurring feature of game-night rallies involved students selected to perform challenges.

Rally attendance was mandatory and I was always fearful about whether I’d be humiliated in some way in front of the entire school. I hated pep rallies and if schools today were to consider abolishing the practices, I for one would be in support.

At the very least, I hope schools reconsider giving the most popular students so much power over other students in the school.

Teachers and school administrators need to accept the reality that their attitudes make a difference. Any mission statement that promotes tolerance and acceptance will be undermined by sanctioned school activities that promote ridiculing other teams.

What a person does always carries more influence than what he or she merely says. To say one thing and do another is hypocrisy.

Any programs that promote acceptance and understanding among students, such as Challenge Day, need to be accompanied by zero-tolerance policies that are consistently and rigorously enforced, with the victims of bullying spared the burden of having to initiate complaints.

A few days after reading Harby’s letter I was volunteering at the Middletown Library and saw three DVDs in the collection that address school bullying. The school administrators that Harby talks about in her letter would do well to view these DVDs and consider what kind of school culture their actions are contributing to.

A search of the library catalog and its audio and video resources shows many more resources available on the subject of bullying. Access the catalog at your nearest library or online at http://catalog.sonomalibrary.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=lake#focus.

Published Feb. 14, 2012 in the Lake County Record-Bee

All victims of bullying need support

Cover image: Perfect Targets: Asperger Syndrome and Bullying

PACER Center, a national group, is encouraging everybody to take a stand against bullying this Wednesday. Oct. 20, 10.20.10, is “The Day We Unite Against Bullying.”

Work of Challenge Day begins now

"Be the Change" jar
at the Record-Bee

The "Be the Change" donation jar for Challenge Day at Clear Lake High School was on the table next to my desk on Monday morning, its cloth cover partially torn off the jar's opening. My co-worker Greg DeBoth gave the sad news to me when I passed him in the parking lot: someone had stolen the money out of the "Be the Change" jar; he'd found the jar outside next to the dumpster.

I felt deeply disappointed in whoever stole this money. It wasn't just a collection of bills and pocket change; this money was supposed to help "Be the Change"  for Challenge Day. As someone who'd endured bullying and rejection throughout my time at school, it was vitally important to me that students at Lake County schools enjoy a climate of acceptance that was denied to me.

Challenge Day addresses bullying head-on

A group of high school students from around the lake are raising money to finance Challenge Day at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport. Having heard first-hand from community volunteers who participated in Lower Lake and Middletown, I think this would be a worthwhile program at any and all of our schools because it deals with bullying head-on.

ACLU presents misleading picture of local schools

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) paints a misleading and stereotyped picture of Lake County in its latest members’ bulletin. This from an agency that is supposed to combat prejudice!

Two stories bring focus to school bully incidents

Pomo Elementary School principal April Leiferman has loaned me a marvelous book called “Bully-proofing Your School: A Comprehensive Approach for Elementary Schools” (Sopris West, 2000).

The authors — Carla Garrity, Ph.D; Kathryn Jens, Ph.D; William Porter, Ph.D; Nancy Sager, M.A.; and Cam Short-Camilli, L.C.S.W. — note that victims are often driven to self-destructive or violent acts out of desperate retaliation against bullying. The purpose of their book is to prevent the school environment in which bullying is permitted to flourish.

The crux of their intervention is empowering what they refer to as the “caring majority,” the 85 percent of students who are neither bullies nor victims. The job of the caring majority is to make sure that everyone feels included and to report any bullying attempts.

Having been the victim of bullying, I can speak from personal experience that the absolute worst part was the isolation I felt. I can’t begin to tell you how validated I feel knowing that people in Konocti take bullying seriously. In addition to studying the book, I’ve attended special assemblies at Burns Valley and Pomo schools where the focus was anti-bullying.

Two stories broke this week that embody the complete antithesis of what Konocti schools are striving for. They come to me courtesy of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, to which I am a subscriber.

The first concerns the Rotenberg Center, a place of “last resort” where problem children are sent. Mother Jones published an investigative report almost one year ago.

There are no counselors and no drug therapy at the Rotenberg Center, just the use of “adversives” in the form of electrical shocks. The children lug around backpacks that have chargers inside and electrodes are fastened to their bodies.

The situation described in this article is truly horrifying and a story broke this week concerning the seizure of documents by police. Apparently an investigation involves multiple government agencies and is ambitious in its scope.

If something can be done about this, all the better, I say — because as it is, no one is watching out for these children. If this was Abu Ghraib or the School of the Americas there’d be a groundswell of activism demanding that the place be shut down — but the only groundswell is one of silence where these throwaway
kids are concerned.

Think about the message being sent through electrical shocks. It’s one of fear and intimidation. Contrast that message to the words of Monty Roberts, an ongoing district consultant: “No one has the right to say ‘You do what I tell you, or I’ll hurt you’” (www.montyroberts.com).

The second story concerned a teacher at Morningside Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fla, who singled out a young student and had everyone in the class say what they didn’t like about him and then led them to vote him out of class.

According to an online blogger, Asperger Square 8, the teacher’s apparent intention was to teach the students about bigotry and exclusion. If so, I would have to challenge the efficacy of her lesson plan. Far from teaching the students that bigotry and exclusion are wrong, the net result was apparently a hands-on lesson in how to practice it.

Let me be first to assure you that students do not need lessons in how to bully effectively; they come by it naturally. It would have been far more effective if the Morningside teacher and other district staff had tried to develop that “caring majority” that I mentioned at the beginning of this article. Instead, her approach seems to have been teaching the students how to bully and conveniently directing their attention toward an all-too-vulnerable target.

The juxtaposition of these two articles prompts me, yet again, to express my appreciation that our own local schools care so strongly to prevent bullying. Yes, it still happens as reports indicate but when it does there are immediate reminders that bullying is not OK.

Published May 27, 2008 in the Lake County Record-Bee

Bullying prevention involves an entire school

Local school districts are definitely not created equal when it comes to outlining student rights and responsibilities and getting that information to the public.

Among our four unified districts, Konocti’s policy seems the most in-depth and has a link on the district home page, www.konoctiusd.lake.k12.ca.us/. It has entire sections that address various offenses directed by students toward their peers.

I couldn’t find district policies on Lakeport and Middletown sites and while I found Kelseyville’s district policy, the section that most closely approximated a defense of student welfare consisted of a standard notice that prohibits discrimination.

I could not find references to recourse for victims of bullying or other abuse on the Kelseyville policy Web page. Specified offenses toward students included “profanity” and “threats” but bullying such as teasing or put-downs doesn’t necessarily fall within these categories.

Terrace School in Lakeport hosted assemblies with guest speaker Michael Pritchard on Friday, Jan. 11, to address building a caring and safe school community.

Konocti school assemblies regularly address the problem of bullying and district consultant Monty Roberts is working with Konocti schools to teach that violence is never the answer.

But in their day-to-day reality, how aware are our local students of the avenues that are available to confront a bullying attempt? At Pomo Elementary School, students sign a pledge agreeing to “stamp out bullying.” The school’s principal, April Leiferman, gave me a copy of the pledge, which holds onlookers just as guilty if they fail to report or stop the bullying.

Bullies choose victims for their weakness and inability to defend themselves, which makes it all the more important that entire school communities be willing to address this problem.

Think about it: a victim has already been demoralized by being the victim of a bully who has a network of friends to rely upon while the victim, too often, does not. Does the victim know where to turn to report this

harassment? Will the complaint be taken seriously if he or she (or a third party) comes forward?

Are policies in place to ensure that pursuing a recourse will protect the victim from further abuse or will it merely pile on further social stigma for the victim among his or her peers?

Under no circumstances should bullying escalate until a victim is forced to resort to desperate, inappropriate measures. When a situation has progressed to the point when a victim responds with violence, he or she should face the consequences — but events leading up to that incident should be given due consideration.

In my opinion, under these circumstances, the district bears the greater share of blame for having turned a blind eye and for having withheld interventions that could have resolved the situation earlier

School assemblies should encourage third parties to be involved in bullying prevention.

Our local schools might also consider adopting anti-bullying pledges the way that Pomo Elementary has.

Any adults who are employed by the district and who come into contact with its students should be required by district policy to make referrals for discipline when inappropriate behavior is observed. It should not fall solely upon the victim to defend him- or herself from abuse.

Here’s what Konocti’s policy has to say about recourses against sexual harassment. The procedure also applies toward bullying with the district’s recent adoption of a new policy:

“Any student who feels that he/she is being or has been subjected to sexual harassment shall immediately contact his/her teacher or any other employee. A school employee to whom a complaint is made shall, within 24 hours of receiving the complaint, report it to the principal or designee.

“Any school employee who observes any incident of sexual harassment involving a student shall report this observation to the principal or designee, whether or not the victim files a complaint.”

I hope that the rest of our local districts adopt similar board policies about student rights, responsibilities and available forms of recourse. If they have already done so, I ask that they please make this information available through as widespread means as possible within their school communities.

Published Jan. 16, 2008 in the Clear Lake Observer American

Konocti school district deserves support for policies against bullying

The Konocti Unified School District deserves to be commended for including among policies for approval on Wednesday, Dec. 5, an outline of student conduct that specifically prohibits bullying.