School bullying: White House takes on bullying today. Does it belong on the federal agenda?
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants schools to pay more attention to all forms of bullying.
I dropped off my 11-year-old daughter at a middle school event recently. She was with a new friend who just moved to our town. As soon as we arrived, another girl walked up to my daughter’s new pal and announced, “Suzy Q in my social studies class does not like you.”
The poor kid was startled to hear that news and protested that she didn’t even know Suzy. It was a terrible way to greet a newcomer who was probably already concerned about fitting in at a new school, so I told the carrier of the bad news that I didn’t understand why she would pass on such information and that it sounded like Suzy had the problem.
At that point, my daughter jumped in and I was able to step back and let kid justice prevail.
But I had one thought: Kids can sure be mean to one another.
The White House agrees. “We’ve got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up. It’s not,” said President Obama. “We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. Every single young person deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and achieve their potential, without having to worry about the constant threat of harassment.”
While I agree that bullying is a problem, do we need the White House to put it on its agenda?
Today, Washington escalated its involvement in school bullying, sending out a “Dear Colleague” letters to 15,000 schools and districts and 5,000 colleges and universities explaining their legal obligations to protect students from student-on-student racial and national origin harassment, sexual and gender-based harassment, and disability harassment. The letter provides examples of harassment and illustrates how a school should respond in each case.
The letter puts schools on notice that they have a legal obligation to stop what U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called “a silent epidemic” during a telephone press conference just now. In the most egregious cases where higher ed institutions and k-12 schools ignore bullying, they could risk a loss of federal dollars, he warned.
The goal is to both help education institutions build on their bullying prevention programs and to wake up “the schools that have their heads in the sand,” said Duncan.
“If the federal government has to step in, it means that the problem was ignored for far too long,” said Duncan.
A federal censure would only come if adults and students allowed the bullying to continue without any checks. “There is no excuse for that,” said Duncan.
“Among the thousands of young people who kill themselves each year, we know that many of them have been harassed by bullies and no one came to their defense. As a country, we have to confront bullies,” said White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes, who was also on the media call.
“We think bullying should not exist,” said Duncan. “We need to work, all of us together as fast as we can, to eliminate this issue. Students cannot learn if they feel threatened, harassed or are in fear. Every adult in the building… must intervene and act when they see bullying for whatever reason. Students themselves have a an important responsibility to respect each other no matter what their differences in their backgrounds or their personal beliefs.”
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82 comments Add your comment
Maureen Downey
October 26th, 2010
8:12 pm
@catlady, Just posted his response.
Maureen
catlady
October 26th, 2010
8:13 pm
Realist: Glad to give you a wonderful moment in what must be a very dull life.
I am guessing you don’t teach. And, to follow up on your “fear”, I wouldn’t mind a bit if the parents of bullies pulled them out of school. Then we might get on with teaching.
I think part of our problem is that every time two children disagree about anything, one parent is going to call “bully”. I have seen it overused, myself. It is frustrating, however, when you cannot get anything done about the bully because the administration is scared of its shadow.
Also (I know you won’t believe this) but there are kids who cry bully whenever they get caught doing something. A previous bully incident (which no one saw) “caused” them to bully the other kid. They were just “sticking up for themselves” as their parents taught them to. It rings pretty hollow, however, when it is same kid over and over, and the kids who are supposedly bullying him are handicapped or scared of their own shadows.
Hope you have a good laugh over this.
catlady
October 26th, 2010
8:15 pm
Mrs. Downey: Thanks. Well, it IS still Tuesday, for a little longer, so I guess he made it under the wire!
Former Lakeview Parent
October 26th, 2010
8:20 pm
I paid 24k a year so my child could be a victim to the teacher’s kids. The teachers always know when its happening, they condone it or chose to look the other way
Ray
October 26th, 2010
8:21 pm
Yeah, this is much worse than when the last White House needlessly sent thousands of our graduates to die in the Iraq debacle.
The ajc continues as an accomplice in the republican war on public education….
November
October 26th, 2010
8:44 pm
markie mark
October 26th, 2010
5:46 pm
@bootney….I have seen this response on blogs before….and its crap. When 4 kids jump the new guy, self defense aint gonna hack it. I know from first hand experiance. I fought my butt off, and lost. And these days, try nailing someone with a rock, a limb, etc. You will find yourself in jv court so fast it will make you head spin. Great theory though, if you can guarantee a one on one situation.
So, markie mark….what you’re proposing is to run home to mommy with your tail tucked between your legs and say……”mommy, please make them quit”…..so you lost….did you ever fall off your bicycle? Naw, you probably had training wheels forever. And it’s not crap to defend yourself. Bullying has been going on forever…..!!!!! Remember to vote November 2nd
Dr. John Trotter
October 26th, 2010
8:51 pm
MACE doesn’t like the bullying either…especially the bullying administrators who render a deaf ear when kids are being bullied. The bullying administrators are really weasels and are afraid of the student-bullies, but they sure do like to bully the teachers.
Dekalbite
October 26th, 2010
8:59 pm
Please read “Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls” by Rachel Simmons. You will find that girls don’t have to do anything to be disliked. It has to do with socialization within the group and the control the group establishes. This should be mandatory reading for any parent of a girl.
Democrats are trash
October 26th, 2010
9:13 pm
Ray
Your current Sec of State and VP sent the kids off to war. Get your head out of your a$$ and grow up.
Ken Trump
October 26th, 2010
9:35 pm
The untold story on the federal “bullying” craze is one about politics, civil rights agendas, and political pressures on the Obama Administration by special interest groups (especially gay rights advocates). There has been strong lobbying by special interests with social and political agendas to get civil rights bills passed under the guise of “anti-bullying” laws. My research ( http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com/tag/civil-rights-and-school-safety/ ) has found the politics behind the scenes to be intense, yet completely out of view of most educators and parents who simply want to see bullying concerns addressed.
Ken Trump
National School Safety and Security Services
td
October 26th, 2010
9:58 pm
This is just going to be another failed initiative by the federal government that takes away critical money for the classroom. The only people that will be successful with these new regulations are the lawyers. They will sue every school in the country and make tons of money (by taking away the money from the schools). I can see another Zero tolerance policy being set up that says if you look at a student in a way that the student feels threatened then you are a bully and must be suspended from school.
td
October 26th, 2010
10:00 pm
BTW: When are people going to learn that the government(school systems) can not solve the human behavior problems in America.
Gratitude to AJC & concerned citizen
October 27th, 2010
2:22 am
Bullying is a sociological problem in schools affecting teachers, students, and parents which has reached an epidemic level. To appropriately address bullying, one has to understand the facts of recent empirical research on bullying: Administrators bully teachers 20% of the time (See research by tenured educational professors Drs. Joseph and Josephine Blase at UGA). Teachers, by their own self-reporting, admit to bullying students 43% of the time (See 2006 research study by Dr. Temlow at The Menniger Clinic in Houston, TX). Teenagers admit to bullying other students 50% of the time (USA Today–Oct. 26, 2010 p. 1A) and bullying done on students by students is about 77% of the time (See US Bully Police website). Note the ratio of bullying to those in the school population of administrators:teachers:students or 20%:43%:77% considering just how many administrators, teachers, and students there are in a given school (i.e. There are more students than teachers and more teachers than administrators in a given school). As you can see the bullying is an overarching problem in the school milieu which creates a hostile environment for all and can be identified as existing with administrators, with a known power differential bullying those below them thereby creating a culture for bullying to manifest and to continuously recycle. To have even a better understanding of bullying and the use of power by inappropriate leadership, one may want to examine the Lucifer Effect Study done at Standford University which basically states that if those in charge misuse their power to do cruel acts, and reinforce those cruel acts with blind eye to others doing them as well, you not only create a hostile environment, but one that quickly escalates into becoming unsafe for those in it under the control of such nefarious leadership. What quickly happens in such an environment of nefarious leadership, is that those who also have power begin mirroring the leader, and very suddenly they loose their moral footing and also engage in such egregious and dangerous acts as well–. It may be important to note that The Lucifer Effect Study had to conclude early for fear of harm for its participants as under such construct of nefarious leadership, harm began to quickly escalate–such an event is not a frequent occurrence in controlled psychological studies.
What this research points to is that to better address bullying in schools, what we have to do is examine those adults in charge of the schools who have the power differential, misuse their power to hurt others,and thereby create hostile school environments where such behavior is learned and recycled: Students are just bystanders watching and learning what they see adults doing and also are experiencing bullying in the schools from powerful adults 43% of the time and/or are bystanders to the adult to student bullying. Student behavior is essentially a learned behavior being taught to them by adults in an educational atmosphere. This may be why so many times administrators deflect their bullying and project it as a student-student issue, evade bullying in schools, put up gilded anti-bullying posters, and claim the fame of having anti-bullying programs as a front, because they recognize for the bullying to stop, it would mean essentially that they would have to stop their misuses of power of bullying teachers, parents, and students too: They don’t want to loose that “edge” of power differential as somehow they too have been conditioned to think they need to use power inappropriately in order to “control” their school: Blinded by narcissim, administrators forget it is not “their” school to “control”, but an establishment of learning to be “managed” for the benefit of the larger community for which they are to “serve.”
This may possibly explain why the federal government is taking a stand because those who should be protecting with their administrative powers are not, and instead are ignoring such school violence, misusing their powers to create hostile environments for personal gain, and such administrators are further not being held accountable as those structures of local level government and/or even state levels of government, which are to hold them accountable, are often times just as corrupt (How many times do we see those in a state department of education being run by old school administrators.?…Isn’t the federal government investigating CRCT scandals in GA” due to the “inefficiencies” of the state to conduct their own self-investigations?…).
Unlike other states, such issues of school violence and misuse of power are compounded in Georgia because administrators and teachers can and do use corporal punishment on students, administrators act as “parentis in locis” which means they act as guardians of the children during the day and believe such role replaces that of the parent as guardian, teachers and administrators have immunity, all means of reporting child abuse in schools are biased as all means to report child abuse–be they DFACS, Professional Standards Commission, and/or local police— streamline reports of child abuse back to the school districts’ human resource department for self-investigations often times to be conducted by those not licensed or trained as social workers, counselors, and/or law enforcement officers to adequately investigate and many times school districts ignore and do not investigate allegations of child abuse at all as to snuff out any potential for enforcement which would make the school look bad and create potential law suits against a school district, and NCLB demands that children go to school even if the school is hostile and dangerous and administrators and districts threaten parents with the loss of their children by reporting to the authorities if they do not return their children to school to the hands of their abusers or bullies (keep in mind high rates of truancy are often attributed to students being bullied at school by students and/or teachers and/or administrators): The loss of a student attendance jeopordized by truancy can equate to loss of federal and state allocated education dollars: Schools hardly care about the child as long as they can force attendance to get the child’s FTE tax money for each child as lowered FTE means less tax allocated dollars for the school and as well truancy and poor attendance compromises the school being placed on failing to make AYP ,all of course which reflect poorly on the school administrator and school district…
Under such constructs of unchecked power at both local and state levels and where parents, who have exhausted all means within the system only learn they are circling the wagon, and further who could could be at risk for retaliation by the administrators and district, it may become necessary for the federal government to get involved to make sure the school allows for student safety, FAPE; (fair appropriate public education), and where monitoring, reporting, investigation for child abuse, as well as enforcement can be done if necessary.
In short to stop the violence, harassment, bullying, and abuse found in schools, such abuses have to be stopped by those at the top. Those at the top, engaging in such nefarious acts with unchecked power at the expense of others, prohibits a positive and safe learning atmosphere for students and pleasant work place for the teachers…the Lucifer’s Effect is enticing to those at the top…..and it needs to be stopped even if you need to make a federal case about it.
Joyce Holton Crawford
October 27th, 2010
4:58 am
Read DON’T CALL ME MICHAEL, a children’s chapter book about bullying, friendship, and forgiveness. Kids can relate to the characters in this book. Teachers can lead discussions about bullying incidents in their schools and kids can discuss what is happening and what they can do about bullies. Read comments made by Superintendent of Humboldt, Iowa, Community Schools at joyceholtoncrawford.weelby.com. Mr. Darling desribes how using this book in grades 2 – 8 had a positive effect on conflicts in his schools.
Good for the White House that they are helping to keep bullying in the forefront of media issues.
Attentive Parent
October 27th, 2010
6:12 am
Again most bullying will not be affected by this overgrasping by the DoEd because it does not involve protected groups. Schools and districts can protect against bullying now against all individuals if they wish.
This expansive interpretation of the civil rights laws is designed consciously to make certain groups extra-special so that schools and districts have to show how they have gone out of their way in the classroom and in staff meetings and prof devt to honor the GLBT community and to show how much Islam is to be respected.
If your child is being harassed for being a straight-laced Christian goody 2 shoes for example, there’s no civil rights case because there’s no common racial or ethnic characteristics consistent to Christianity.
This is the same Office of Civil Rights that has decided to use the widely discredited disparate impact analysis to find discriminatory intent and civil rights violations when the percentage of students in honors and AP classes is disproportionate to enrollment.
It’s all about identity politics, not harassment or discrimination.
DC intends to control all aspects of what and how your child is taught both in K-12 and higher ed in the public sector.
If anything I’ve said sounds too incredible to be true, let me know. I can provide multiple definitive links to support all of it.
East Cobb Parent
October 27th, 2010
7:42 am
This is an easy one, Obama needs to stick to running the country not the local schoolyard.
Dr NO
October 27th, 2010
8:01 am
Perhaps the economy, foreign affairs, Govt fraud, domestic affairs etc might take precadent over such a lackluster issue? Then again Obama cant get anything right so concentrating on the miniscule issues might be his forte’.
Free Market Champion
October 27th, 2010
9:21 am
In private school they throw the bully out. In a free market, politics would not play games with the problem, the market would address the problem or customers would be lost. Also, the problem would be dealt with as a crime of violence, not one about “feelings.”
Attentive Parent
October 27th, 2010
9:33 am
This letter was sent out to public and private K-12 schools, public and private colleges and universities, and all 15,000 school district superintendents.
That’s not about bullying. It’s about the federal government sending the message out that certain students are to get extra special treatment and you need to be taking affirmative steps to show us how you are implementing this policy of special treatment.
Rose
October 27th, 2010
12:01 pm
Different subject: I have a weak stomach don’t like all that goury, yukie look for Halloween snacks, what are some good food/snacks to serve at a family style Halloween gathering
Something's Been Left Out Here
October 27th, 2010
12:08 pm
Bullying of students for being the “wrong” ethnicity, sexual orientation etc. was mentioned, but what about kids who are physically disfigured? Who will protect THEM? Can someone amswer that???
Free Market Champion
October 27th, 2010
12:18 pm
The fact that parents firmly believe that they can just put their children onto a bus or drop them off at an establishment run by the government that they have not consciously chosen through a careful process of consideration of alternatives and have everything be ok just shows how naive and trusting the citizens of this country are. There are NO successful government programs and NO government programs with ANY accountability for their failures.
Every private business must be accountable in a free and competitive marketplace (which we don’t have).
Homeschooled children only suffer from the potential bullying of their siblings or their emotionally stunted parents (but that goes on in addition to government school bullying if they are forced into that situation as well).
Really, simple question, when have you ever seen a government program or institution use the mechanism of politics to successfully solve ANY problem??? But keep hoping. Miracles, I am told, do happen.
Meanwhile the bullying continues (and the folks who are being looked to for salvation are the greatest bullies in society).
HS Public Teacher
October 27th, 2010
12:23 pm
What a hot potato – or is it potatoe? LOL! JK
Any solution to the student bullies needs to include a penalty for the parents.
Ann Anomous
October 27th, 2010
12:39 pm
Bullying is everywhere. It does not go away as these kids grow up and become adult bullies. Walnut Grove School, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, is a school where two administrators bully the teachers. There is also one first grade teacher in particular who bullies her co-workers by lying about them, writing her unsubstantiated “medical” opinion about them, and in her own words, “Doing whatever I have to to others so I can fly under the radar of the principal”. This school’s staff cannot possibly be expected to combat bullying when it comes directly from the top down. Bullying in schools HAS to stop, but it also has to start with the administration and staff first.
shaggy
October 27th, 2010
12:53 pm
This will never entirely go away, until we all get in a circle holding hands to sing kumbayah. However I do know what will help.
Instead of focusing on TV, popularity, celebrity culture, etc… instill value in kids that inspire them to believe in themselves and go to school to learn how to be a doctor, astronaut, scientist, etc… You know, something that actually matters.
I know this would take actual parenting, instead of so-called parents, being little Johnny’s “friend”, and that would mean responsibility for your kid. I know that is a tall order for those like the Kennesaw so-called parents, who put their kid in a Porsche Boxter, where he promptly killed himself and severely injured others, only to wonder “why, oh why, it’s not my fault, we were friends”. Those morons should have gone to prison for accessory to manslaughter.
John
October 27th, 2010
1:14 pm
Taking on bullying is not constitutional. Kids are kids. The parent lets it happen so the kid gets bolder and bolder. TV and movies make bullying cool. Big and mean equals respect. Decent means you are worth almost nothing except what the bully can get from you. Decent people need to stand up to bullys of all ages.
jwr
October 27th, 2010
1:31 pm
Absolutely the parents let is happen! Half of them were bullies themselves…is it any wonder they condone or even encourage their kids to be bullies?
The answer is simple: the federal government should not only strip federal funding from school systems that don’t stop bullying, but charge school board members, administrators and teachers in federal court when they fail to stop bullying that meets the standard of violating a person’s civil rights. Give them a federal conviction and a fine commensurate with their level of responsibility. I bet the threat of a year in jail and a $100,000 fine will get the attention of a school board member, no matter how much parents think bullying is okay.
Horse doesn’t want to drink once you lead him to water? Stick a tube down his throat.
Bullying will be easy to stop. We just need to overrule the parents who were (and still are…just watch a soccer game) bullies themselves.
Archie B.@Arkham Asylum
October 27th, 2010
4:16 pm
“We has met the enemy and they is us!” -Pogo
Teacher-Mom in Cobb
October 27th, 2010
8:34 pm
Anything that brings attention to this problem is welcome. Kids can be so mean, and teens don’t always have the ability to brush it off. Raising awareness and lowering tolerance are both steps in the right direction.
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October 28th, 2010
3:23 pm
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mytwopence
October 29th, 2010
1:33 am
This is a reflection of the pampering by U.S. laws for children, who get away with any and everything. Nobody can tell them anything, let alone whip them, for fear of the legal system. So now we have children empowered to bully pears, teachers, parents and any and everybody who would dare cross their paths! At least the White House is FINALLY realising one aspect of it!
Ole Guy
October 30th, 2010
2:10 pm
People…believe it or not, like it or not, agree with it or not…we live in a world dominated by the concept of “survival of the fittest”. That’s fittest, not in terms of brawn, but in terms of mental/psychological agility. Somehow, these characteristics, in past generations, were borne of the byproducts of real achievements, not the psuedo achievements which eminate from grade inflation, dumbed down academics, and the constant rewarding of the most miniscule accomplishments.
While bullying is certainly nothing new, it has only been propagated by an educational culture which has not the spheroids to properly educate kids. Too afraid of displeased parents, and too afraid of unfavorable political backlash, we, the adults in kids’ lives, have only ourselves to blame for the current out-of-control state of the “bully culture”.
Like many issues which have gone awry within the educational camp, nothing will change until we commit to doing the unpleasant, unpopular, and difficult things…yes, even the politically unsavory things. First and foremost…ALLOW TEACHERS COMPLETE AUTONOMY IN MANAGING CLASSROOMS. Give them unquestioned support in their decisions. Until that happens, look for absolutely nothing to evolve from all the thrashing about to which we seem to subject ourselves in attempting to find solutions.