Schools use programs in effort to reduce bullying incidents

Four area school districts reported no instances of harassment or intimidation last school year, but students, staff and experts agree bullying remains a growing concern that if undetected can lead to possible violence.

It’s important to remember, they said, that bullying is only documented by the schools if there is a repeated occurrence between the same set of individuals, and some surveys said, only 20 percent to 30 percent of students who are bullied tell adults or authorities about their situations.

The Butler County districts of Madison, Monroe and Talawanda and Carlisle in Warren County reported zero incidents during the 2013-14 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Hamilton City Schools reported the most (120), followed by Lakota (91), Fairfield (30), Franklin (16) and Middletown (15).

There isn’t a separate discipline category for bullying — they’re classified under harassment/intimidation, according to the ODE — so it’s impossible to pinpoint the number of bullying instances in each district.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month and school officials said it’s important to talk about these issues before they potentially lead to more serious violent crimes. About 90 percent of students say school shootings are motivated by the desire to get back at those who have hurt them, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice School Bullying and Cyber Bullying.

In a national online survey this year of 1,500 teens, more than 80 percent reported they had been teased or bullied. Sixty-four percent said they were targets because of their weight, clothes or other aspects of their physical appearance, the survey said. One in four worried about being bullied at least once a week.

The survey was commissioned by the Virginia-based CustomInk company, a longtime supporter of the bullying prevention center, and conducted by Kelton Global.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) anti-bullying website, Stopbullying.gov, bullying is defined as “intentionally aggressive, usually repeated” verbal, social, or physical behavior aimed at a specific person or group of people.

The majority of bullying still takes place at school; 1 in 3 U.S. students say they have been bullied at school, according to the DHHS.

According to one study cited by the DHHS, 29.3 percent of middle school students had experienced bullying in the classroom; 29 percent experienced it in hallways or lockers; 23.4 percent were bullied in the cafeteria; 19.5 percent were bullied during gym class; and 12.2 percent of bullied kids said it took place in the bathroom.

Most of the students in the study reported name calling as the most prevalent type of bullying, followed by teasing, rumor-spreading, physical incidents, purposeful isolation, threats, belongings being stolen, and sexual harassment.

Most experts agree that bullying peaks in middle school, while students are making the transition from children to young adults. Approximately 160,000 teens reportedly skip school every day because they are bullied, and 1 in 10 teens drops out of school due to repeated bullying, according to the DHHS.

Earlier this week, officials at a New Jersey high school, amid allegations of harassment, intimidation and bullying, cancelled the rest of the football season.

Sayreville Superintendent Rich Labbe said everyone on the team has a responsibility to stand up and protect one another.

“We can set the standard right now for all kids for all school districts in Middlesex County, in the state and in the nation that we are not going to stand around and allow kids to do this to one another,” Labbe said, according to the Home News Tribune. “We are going to start holding our students responsible for doing the right thing and reporting these kinds of behaviors. I believe with every fiber of my body that the only way we are going to stop bullying is if we get the kids to go to an adult or to the authorities.”

The announcement follows word of a criminal investigation by the county prosecutor, which Labbe said he could not discuss. Labbe says prosecutor Andrew Carey told him there is credible evidence to indicate pervasive, wide-scale and generally accepted forms of harassment, intimidation and bullying within the program.

To keep this from happening locally, school officials said they’re being pro-active by bringing in experts on bullying, establishing anti-bullying campaigns in their buildings and creating better dialogue among the students and staff. They say bullying never will be eliminated; their goal is to reduce the number of instances.

Lakota Local School District is bringing in a national expert who will hold assemblies for students, meet with staff and parents in hopes of arming them with the tools needed to deflect potential bully strikes.

Jim Bisenius, of Columbus, has 19 years of experience as a child and adolescent therapist specializing in teaching “extremely targeted” students how to handle bullying situations, he said. He has developed response techniques that have been recognized nationally as highly effective at “stopping the dance” between kids who bully and the ones they target, he said.

Randy Oppenheimer, a spokesman for the district, said Bisenius will meet with those in Lakota’s 10 elementary schools and four junior highs. When asked about bullying, Oppenheimer said schools “know they have to take this seriously” and once bullying has been reported “you have to take the next steps.”

Bisenius said through his years of experience presenting his Bully-Proofing Youth assemblies he has learned that bullies look for body language from their targets. He said the training techniques taught during the assemblies focus on helping victimized students retain their personal power and dignity through simple action steps that alter body-language and control reactions to bullying.

“They are looking for a fear reaction from that kid,” he said. “They are using that to scare their other peers, like, ‘Look what I can do.’ You have to shut that down.”

He compared it to a stray dog who will stay around as long as it’s fed.

When he meets with parents, he tells them that bullies probably never will stop.

“They will be waiting for us in the nursing home,” he said with a laugh.

Bisenius said there are additional challenges when dealing with cyber bullying. Through the Internet, bullies are able to attack 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. All with the click of a button.

“The kids are using those tools,” said Bisenius, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Miami University. “It’s constantly there. People are sending out pictures on Facebook and saying, ‘We are here and you are not.’”

Michael Valenti has spent his entire 26-year career at Vail Middle School, now Middletown Middle School. During that time, he said the “biggest change” in regards to bullying has been its spread from the school to the Internet.

“It used to be that it had to be face-to-face,” he said. “Now you can say very hateful things without even looking at them. We tell the kids that once it’s online, it’s out there forever, it doesn’t magically disappear.”

Valenti said acts of bullying are taken “very seriously” and are addressed immediately.

“We are not going to stand for it,” he said. “They have done something wrong and we have to take action.”

Rebecca Combs, an eighth-grader at Garfield Middle School in Hamilton, said some of the responsibility falls on students, those who see bullying first-hand. Rebecca said she has stepped in when she saw a classmate being bullied.

“When I asked her why she was acting that way to one of my friends, she said, ‘She’s weird,’” Rebecca said. “I told her she wasn’t.”

Rebecca said after she confronted the bully, the actions against her friend stopped.

Last week, Edgewood schools brought in Justin Bachman, a senior at Solon High School near Cleveland, to talk to junior high students about his “Honor Good Deeds” program on accepting differences.

Justin has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD and dysgraphia, a fine motor skills disorder resulting in an inability to write legibly.

He told students that when he was 13, he was disqualified from a cross country meet because of noises and movements, called tics, caused by his syndrome. Despite his team’s support, explanations, and repeated pleas to the referees, they would not relent, he told the students.

He said he was constantly bullied in grade school and attempted suicide three times before the age of 11. That’s when the Edgewood auditorium got very quiet.

“I didn’t fit in,” he said. “It was incredibly difficult to deal with it.”

Eventually, he said, he was able to be “stronger than the people bullying me.”

He told the students there’s always something that makes them feel different, the color of their skin, their athletic ability, their religion, their sexual preference.

“Everyone has differences,” he said. “They are just differences.”

Later, he added: “Differences are not bad.”

Makayla Comstock, 13, and Andrew McDonell, eighth graders at Edgewood, said they sometimes see students being bullied at school and at social events. Makayla said she tries to stop the bullying or contact a school official before the incident “gets out of hand.”

Amy Macechko, health and wellness coordinator at Talawanda Schools, said the educational community must reduce bullying because it’s one of the many “barriers for academic success.”

She said those who are bullied sometimes lose their overall sense of self and that impacts what she called “a healthy, safe school.”

In Hamilton, the district has taken steps that have reduced the number of bullying type instances from 141 in 2013 to 120 last year, said Matt Tudor, director of student services.

He said the district stresses character development, has a 24-hour phone number and a website for bullying reports, and periodically surveys students and those results are shared with school administrators.

If there is a report of bullying, he said, school officials meet with the student and parents and a “thorough” investigation is conducted. He said the district also places adult supervision in areas where bullying typically takes place: the cafeteria and hallways.

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