School Bullying: Laws, Policies, Procedures, and

Protocol

Buncombe County SchoolsLeadership Retreat

June 2012

Why Address School Bullying?

It’s the law! NC Senate Bill 526: An act to enact

the school violence prevention act and to define Bullying or Harassing Behavior

THE NC 2009 SCHOOL VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT DEFINES BULLYING

AS: Pattern of gestures, Written, electronic, or verbal communications Physical act or threatening communication

That takes place on school property, the school bus, or any school-sponsored event that:

Places a student or school employee in actual and reasonable fear of harm to his or her person or damage to his or her property,

Creates or is certain to create a hostile environment (defined by the target) by substantially interfering with or impairing a student’s educational performance, opportunities, or benefits

School Violence Prevention Act Senate Bill 526 and

State Board of Education policy HRS-A-007 Bullying or harassing behavior includes acts

reasonably perceived as being motivated by:

Race National originGender Socioeconomic StatusColor ReligionAcademic Status Gender IdentityPhysical Appearance Sexual OrientationMental, Physical, Developmental or Sensory Disability

OR

Association with a Person who has or is PERCEIVED to have one or any of the above characteristics

66% of youth are teased at least once a month, and nearly one-third of youth are bullied at least once a month.

For every gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender student who reported being harassed, four straight students said they were harassed for being perceived as gay or lesbian.

An estimated 160,000 children miss school every day out of fear of attack or intimidation by other students.

One out of every 10 students who drops out of school does so because of repeated bullying.

http://groundspark.org

Statistics on Bullying

30.0% of LGBT students missed at least one entire day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.

29.1% of LGBT students skipped a class at least once in the past month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.

2010 The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network

ALLIES MATTER

NC Senate Bill 526 Mandates Reporting of Bullying

A school employee who has witnessed or has reliable

information that a student or school employee has been

subjected to any act of bullying or harassing

behavior shall (must) report the incident to the

appropriate school official. A

student or volunteer should report the incident to the

appropriate school official.

Policy Requirements Each local school system must adopt a

policy prohibiting bullying/harassing behavior.

The policy must contain: A statement prohibiting bullying and harassing

behavior. A procedure for reporting an act of

bullying/harassment, including a provision for anonymous reporting.

A procedure for prompt investigation of reports of serious violations and complaints of any act of bullying or harassment, by the principal or the principal’s designee.

A statement that prohibits reprisal or retaliation against someone who reports an act of bullying/harassment and the consequence and appropriate remedial action for a person who engages in reprisal or retaliation.

Notice of the policy must appear in any school publications or handbooks that set forth comprehensive conduct rules and procedures for students and employees.No

Bullying

Information about the policy must be incorporated into school employee’s training program.

The school system must provide training on the policy to school employees and volunteers who have significant contact with students by 3/1/2010.

BCS Policy #464Bullying, Harassment, Hazing, and

Discrimination Policy applies:

While in a school building or on any premises before, during, or after school hours;

While on any bus or other vehicle as part of any school activity;

While waiting at any bus stop; During any school function, extracurricular

activity or other activity or event; When subject to the authority of school

personnel; While using school or personal electronic

communications; Any time or place when the behavior has a

direct and immediate effect on maintaining order and discipline in the schools.

Policy #464 Definitions Actual or Perceived Differentiating

Characteristics Bullying: “Deliberately hurtful behavior

repeated over a period of time or on isolated occasions, where a student or group of students deliberately intimidate, threaten or harass another student”. May be psychological or physical in nature May be written, spoken, or gestured words Examples include (but are not limited to)

taunting, intimidation, cyber harassment, rumor spreading, extortion of money or personal items, and playing abusive tricks.

#464 Definitions, cont’d.

Electronic Communications Employee and student emails, text

messaging, instant messaging, chat rooms, blogging, websites and social networking websites.

Harassment Unwanted, unwelcomed and uninvited

behavior…that interferes or impairs the person’s educational or work environment.

#464 Definitions, cont’d. Hazing

GS 14-35. “…to subject another student to physical injury as part of an initiation, or as a prerequisite to membership into any organized school group, including any society, athletic team, fraternity or sorority, or other similar group”.

Discrimination “any act that unreasonably and unfavorably

differentiates treatment of others based on their membership in a socially distinct group or category such as race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age or disability”.

Employee Requirements Any employee who witnessed or who has

reliable information or reason to believe that an individual may have been discriminated against, harassed, or bullied MUST report the offense immediately to the appropriate administrator or supervisor.

An employee who does not promptly report possible discrimination, harassment or bullying shall be subject to disciplinary action.

Students and parents are encouraged to submit complaints to principals. May be done anonymously.

If student is not comfortable reporting to the principal, they should report to the Associate Superintendent.

Principal and Supervisor Requirements

“Will promptly initiate an investigation of the complaint”.

Consequences and appropriate action shall be determined after consideration of the nature and circumstances of the act.

Principal is responsible for reporting and documenting verified acts of bullying or hazing on the Annual School Violence Report.

Principal is responsible for providing students, parents, and staff access to Policy 464 and relevant procedures in writing.

Guidelines for Responding to Bullying

Bullying Response Documentation

Bullying Screening

What happens if a school fails to take action to prevent

bullying and harassing behavior?

Potential for Legal Liability

Legal grounds that have been used in the past to hold a school system or school employee liable for bullying/harassment: Negligent supervision (state tort law) Violations of U.S. Constitutional rights

(federal law) Discrimination claims under federal law

based on the fact that victims were members of a “protected class” because of their race, ethnic group, sex or disability.

Note that in each of these types of lawsuits, the school system or the employee is not liable for the acts done to the victim but rather they are held responsible for failure of the school system or its employees to take adequate measures to “deal with” the bullying/harassment situation.

Negligent Supervision

Cavello v. Sherburne-Earlville CSD, 110 A.D.2d 253 (3rd Dept. NY 1985).

A brother and sister were constantly bullied, sometimes physically, mostly verbally, while attending a high school.

The school’s response was ineffectual and the bullies received little or no punishment.

The court held that the two students asserted a valid claim for emotional suffering caused by continuing bullying that the school failed to address in a reasonable manner.

“While a school is not an insurer of student safety, it will be held liable in damages for a foreseeable injury proximately related to the absence of supervision.”

Violation of Constitutional Rights

Flores v. Morgan Hill Unified School District, 324 F.3d 1130 (9th Cir. 2003).

Several former students of the school district sued school administrators/employees and school board members alleging that the district’s response and lack of response to complaints of student-on-student anti-homosexual harassment denied them equal protection under the law.

The court ruled in favor of the students finding that there was sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find that the defendants acted with deliberate indifference to harassment based on sexual orientation in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Deliberate indifference is found if the school district’s response to harassment is clearly unreasonable.

Violations of Anti-Discrimination Statutes

Vance v. Spencer County Public School District, 231 F.3d 253 (6th Cir. 2000).

Over a three year period, a middle school girl suffered numerous instances in which other students taunted her with vulgar language, groped her, attempted to remove her clothing, hit and shoved her and stole her homework.

The victim and her mother filed numerous complaints with teachers and school administrators. School district response consisted of “talking to” the offending students, but school officials never investigated the incidents, nor did the perpetrators receive any discipline other than “talking to.”

Finally, the victim and her mother filed suit alleging that the school system had subjected her to intentional sexual discrimination as a result of peer conduct in violation of Title IX.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the victim and awarded her $220,000, and the school system appealed.

On appeal, the court applied this standard, established in Davis v. Monroe County School Board, 526, U.S. 629 (1999):

Schools may be held liable for student-on-student sexual harassment when the plaintiff can establish the following:

The sexual harassment was so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it could be said to deprive the plaintiff access to the school’s educational opportunities or benefits. [And]

The school system had actual knowledge of the sexual harassment. [And]

The school system was deliberately indifferent to the harassment.

Summary Through the School Violence Prevention Act,

the North Carolina General Assembly now requires school systems to take a number of proactive steps to prevent bullying and harassment in the schools.

School systems may be held liable for failure to take adequate steps to deal with bullying and harassment.

All students in North Carolina schools should be able to learn in an environment that is free from bullying and harassment.

References Bullying Prevention and Intervention: Realistic strategies for

schools (pp. 53-73). New York: Guilford. www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov How effective are school bullying intervention program? A

meta-analysis of intervention research. School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 26-42.

Bullying in school: Evaluation and dissemination of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program: Implementation and evaluation over two decades. Handbook of bullying in schools: An international perspective. New York: Routledge.

Smith, J.D., Schneider, B.H., Smith, P.K., & Ananiadou, K. (2004). The effectiveness of whole-school antibullying programs: A systhesis of evaluation research. School Psychology Review, 33, 547-560.

Resources and References http://www.bullypolice.org www.bullyfreezone.info Channing Bete Company, Inc. http://groundspark.org http://www.relationalaggression.com http://www.education.com http://www.stophazing.org http://www.olweus.org MyFoxBoston.com http://www.foxnews.com University of Oregon (Sugai, Horner, Lewis,

Colvin, Sprague, Todd, Palmer) North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

Resources Continued

Great Bullying Resource Kids http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A.

(2004). Bully-Busters: A psychoeducational

intervention for reducing bullying behavior in middle school students. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82 259 – 267.

Resources Continued

Second Step – a universal approach to school bullying

http://www.cfchildren.org/programs/ssp/overview/

Garrity, C., Jens, K., Potter, W., & Short-Camilli C. (1997) Bully proofing your school: Creating a positive climate. Intervention in School & Clinic, 32, 235 -243