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And, for the first time this year, the city plans to include anti-bullying and harassment efforts into its annual school quality review. These reviews assess how well a school is organized based on conversations with the principal, teachers, staff, students and parents, as well as observations and use of data.
Although many bullying incidents are not reported, the negative behavior affects one in three children in grades six through 10, according to a nationwide study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The National Association of School Psychologists has called bullying the “most common form of violence in our society,” while the National Education Association has noted a rise in bullying incidents in the last two decades.
Our national definition of bullying has also changed over the years to include both direct and indirect harassment. Direct bullying includes hitting, shoving, teasing and making verbal threats, but children can also find themselves victims of cyber bullying, which involves threatening emails, text messages or harassment on social networking websites.
Beginning this year at all city schools, parent coordinators and all school-designated Respect for All liaisons must attend a two-day training session, school
atmosphere and culture will be added as evaluation criteria in annual quality reviews, which factor into a principal’s annual performance review and the Office of School and Youth Development’s assessments will be expanded to include aspects of Respect for All.
But some experts say all this talk of the “big, bad bully” in schools is actually hurting children, not helping them.
“Every person is a product of heredity, environment and experience,” said Dr. Izzy Kalman, a nationally certified school psychologist and director of Bullies to Buddies, Inc. “Bully is not an objective psychological diagnosis but an objective insult. It is a term we use against anyone who we feel is treating us in a way we don’t like and we don’t know how to make them stop.”
Kalman added there has been an increase in “anti-bullyism,” or fear and hatred of bullies and that the increase in bullyism could very well be attributed to an increase in victim thinking.
“School anti-bullying lessons tell kids about all the horrible ‘bullying’ behavior that they should not tolerate, things like name-calling, rumors, social exclusion and gestures,” he said. “So all kinds of routine, unpleasant behaviors that many kids may have simply let go by because they are part of life, now elicit the response, ‘Oh no, that’s bullying. No one is allowed to do that to me!’”
Kalman suggests dealing with bully behavior, not by punishing bullies, but by teaching victims how to deal with the hardships of life and how not to let themselves be upset by a bully’s actions and words. “No one gets bullied if it doesn’t upset them,” he said.
But other advocates, including Bully Police USA, a watchdog organization founded by Brenda High, whose son committed suicide after after being bullied, say New York should do more when it comes to protecting children against bullies. In fact, the organization gave New York an overall “F” when it comes to advocating for bullied children.
There are currently 40 states that have passed anti-bullying legislation — but New York is not on that list. A version of a bill, most recently called the Dignity for All Students Act, has been in the works for nine years now with no success. If passed, guidelines would be developed for nondiscriminatory and counseling methods and require that at least one member of each school staff be trained to counsel both victims and bullies.
“A law is like a foundation to a building,” High said. “You can have a program, which is like a house, but with the winds of people that program might disappear. Laws require something to be done.”
To achieve an “A” on Bully Police, states must meet certain criteria when developing anti-bullying laws, including referring to it as an “Anti-bullying law,” and not a “school safety law” and adding provisions that protect the victim against reprisal, retaliation or false accusations. In addition, there must be school district protection against lawsuits that can be brought against teachers and principals who have done everything possible to protect a victim.
