Moms Spearhead Anti-Bullying Effort
This is a great story for Friday reading. A group of local mothers who watched their children suffer the effects of bullying are seeking to amend Massachusetts’ law on pupil safety and violence prevention. Currently the state’s law requires schools to adopt a policy that addresses bullying, but the moms say the law has “no teeth.”
The mothers are working with state representatives to amend the law to require schools to provide staff training for anti-bullying along with awareness and prevention programs for students, staff and parents. In addition, they are adding information to hold schools accountable for enforcing the law by following a procedure for reporting incidents of bullying or harassment.
This is great news in the fight against bullying, but it won’t be enough. Changing the laws and rambling further in the deaf ears of kids isn’t going to stop anything. We need parents to start paying attention to what their kids are doing and then holding their kids accountable for their actions. Too many parents turn a blind eye to their child’s internet activity and then still do nothing to hold them accountable for their actions.
This is why parents need to start monitoring internet activity with computer monitoring software like our PC Pandora. It’s as simple as that.
April 12, 2009
Seacoast moms spearhead anti-bullying effort
Seek to have ‘teeth’ put in state law
By Jennifer Feals, SeaCoastOnline.comA group of local mothers who watched their children suffer the effects of bullying are seeking to amend the state’s law on pupil safety and violence prevention.
Currently the state’s law requires schools to adopt a policy that addresses bullying, but mothers Mary Michel of Stratham and Carol Croteau of Kingston say the law has “no teeth.”
The mothers are working with state representatives to amend the law to require schools to provide staff training for anti-bullying along with awareness and prevention programs for students, staff and parents. In addition, they are adding information to hold schools accountable for enforcing the law by following a procedure for reporting incidents of bullying or harassment.
“It’s the reporting and accountability message that we feel would have the greatest impact on the schools,” said Michel, whose son was bullied to the point he contemplated suicide at the age of 9.
Last spring, her son was rushed to Children’s Hospital in Boston where he was diagnosed with acute psychological trauma. Michel said she had known her son was bullied at the beginning of his third grade school year. But she did not know he was severely retaliated against after she spoke to his school.
“Whatever this kid did to him took everything away from him: his self-esteem, his self-confidence,” she said. “It’s been life altering for us. He was in such a depressive state. No kid, especially in third grade, should have thoughts of suicide.”
Michel said her passion for amending the law comes from a concern that if this type of bullying could be so severe in elementary school, what could happen when children reach middle school or high school.
The amendment would be submitted in the fall, meaning it will not be voted on until January 2010. Michel and Croteau say they are trying to get the word out. An informal meeting will be held Wednesday, April 15, at the Lane Library in Hampton. Parents, teachers and interested parties are invited. In addition, information on the amendment, bullying advice for students, schools and parents, and bullying facts can be found at Croteau’s Web site, www.bullyfreenh.org, and at Michel’s Web site, www.nhbullywatch.org.
“What I really want to focus on is to highlight the inadequacies of the state’s Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention Law. Really, it’s a law that has no teeth,” said Croteau, whose daughter experienced verbal and cyber bullying at the high school level in 2006.
Since the bullying incidents, both Croteau and Michel said they have transferred their students to area charter schools where they are happy and healthy.
State Rep. Donna Schlachman, D-Exeter, who will sponsor the amendment, said you “don’t have to scratch far” to know bullying is an issue in schools and that she was struck by the passion of Michel and Croteau and their experiences.
Schlachman said a bill will be heard in the Senate next month that would establish a commission to study school discipline, including bullying. She’s included information regarding elementary schools.
“It’s a way of getting something going right away to address the issue and we will be ready to introduce this legislation next year if we need to,” Schlachman said.
While the state has its public safety and violence prevention law, Molly Gosline, project director for the New Hampshire Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free School and HIV/Health Division of Instruction, said school districts have the right to create their own policy in order to better serve their schools. The current state law was written in 2004, Gosline said.
While bullying is not a new issue, Gosline said circumstances are different.
“Today children have more mobility. They have access to information and instantaneous response to information. There are different kinds of bullying that exist now that didn’t before, and our society is different now,” she said. “Our level of investment in children is more integral, parents are more involved, school boards are more invested.”
What is critical, Gosline said, is partnership between schools, school districts, parents and the state. The state Department of Education is holding a public forum on bullying with a panel of local experts, including administrators and parents. Michel and Croteau have both been asked to sit on the panel.
That forum will be held April 23 from noon to 2 p.m. in the New Hampshire Department of Education building in Concord.
“We are really identifying what needs to be done and building a community of supporters who can come in and bring their expertise and experiences,” Gosline said.
