Granby01033

This is a follow up to the next post down. I cross-posted and was frontpaged on Blue Mass Group. The comments led me to write what follows. I've yet to see any evidence that suggests the South Hadley High School administration addressed bullying effectively.

High school students can and do commit suicide in spite of school intervention. Schools, however, have a legal and ethical duty to do as much as they can to prevent it. It is becoming increasingly clear that South Hadley failed to do so.

Reporting on a forum yesterday, The Daily Hampshire Gazette [subscription required] South Hadley refers to witnesses who say that bullying has had a problem for years. (Let me preface this excerpt by saying that bullying is a professional, not a personal, issue for me. I’ve met my cousin’s son Matt Bail, but we are not close. He’s also the only witness quoted).

Stories unfolded of students being pushed in the hallways, kicked in the knees, punched in the chest, slammed to the floor and written on with marker. Parents blamed school monitors and parents who have raised "monsters" for "not doing their jobs." Several speakers noted they have kept their children away from South Hadley schools because of their own horrific experiences. "I was a middle class kid, I was not athletic, I was not the smartest kid on the block and I got punished for it," said Matthew Bail, a 1995 graduate of South Hadley High School. Now a Belchertown resident, Bail said he watched his best friend get beaten up because bullies said he was gay. They broke his friend's arm and busted Bail's ribs, he said. "I graduated in '95; that happened in '92," he said. "Where are we now?" The early to mid-90’s was a transitional time in education.

 A lot of sensitivity training was taking place. Concerns about sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and diversity led to a lot of workshops. Aside from addressing the law, workshops sensitized us to issues. Concerns about bullying have been discussed in professional journals for years. A quick search of Kappan, a journal that glosses educational research for educators, turns up 5 articles between 1997 and 2004. A search of Educational Leadership, another popularizing educational magazine, turned up 96 hits on bullying, most from this decade. South Hadley was behind the curve. As a progressive, I support community involvement, but the issue of bullying in schools requires leadership and school action. Too many times I’ve seen weak local governments and institutions invite community members to participate only to pass more than half the buck to them. The idea of South Hadley convening a task force leads me to wonder if this has been the school system’s approach to bullying.

The Gazette also reports that “national bullying expert Barbara Coloroso… delivered a full-day workshop on bullying prevention and intervention in September, which only 35 parents and community members attended.” It’s great to involve parents, but it would be interesting to know what action plan the school system instituted in September. Children have a constitutional right to attend school. Educators have a legal obligation to preserve these rights. The Commonwealth recognized the issue in 2005 forming the Safe Schools Initiative. Documents on the attorney general’s site give an idea of what schools should have in place.

Mark