School Negligence

School's need to take responsibility for their student's safety now!



Julie Hart, US national school counselor of the year.
A role model that all teachers should hopefully wish to emulate -
unless it's too much trouble...

I was going to write a carefully worded piece today, trying get at the root cause of why bullying is still so widespread, in spite of the fact that most schools have anti-bullying provisions in place that have been legislated from state, county or national government. I was going to make a balanced argument, explaining the difficulty sometimes of identifying bullying behaviour. I was going to craft a piece that powerfully but tactfully made the case, (careful not to alienate the teachers and head teachers), that schools should take bullying more seriously. But you know what? Damn the feelings of the schools and damn the feelings of the teachers.

I’m sick of everyone being more concerned about the administration and the bullies than the victims.

Over the past six months, I’ve had cause on several occasions to ask local schools for a copy of their anti-bullying policy documents. Without exception, the answer has been a defensive and interrogatory, “Why?!” rather than a compassionate, “Is there someone we can help with?”

There are some facts that we are going to have to confront before bullying will ever be eradicated in schools.

• Many teachers consider the workload, before they consider the child. All they see when a child  or parent complains is the task ahead, not the pain being suffered and the damage being done
• Many schools are more concerned with their reputations or funding than their students. With league tables, government targets, and who knows what, schools are often driven to deny bullying rather than tackle it
• Many teachers are so afraid of the bullies and their parents, that they are unwilling to act. But if the teachers are afraid, what chance have the kids got?
• Many schools are blasé about bullying, especially “soft-bullying” that doesn’t result in visible injuries. Damaged minds are far worse than damaged bodies because it’s harder to assess the injuries, and the scars of disempowerment and fear can last a lifetime
• Some teachers are bullies themselves, and should be withdrawn from the system immediately, if only for the example they set
• Many schools are in denial that there is even a problem at their school. There’s a problem at EVERY school, because bullying is part of the juvenile condition – it’s just a matter of degree
• Many schools provide unmonitored computers and tools that unwittingly facilitate cyberbullying
• Just because a bullying incident may not be criminal does not mean it is unworthy of resolving
• Just because a teacher considers a bullying incident trivial, does not mean that the student feels the same way. All incidents should be investigated and resolved as best as possible for the well-being of the victim.
• A single incident can be as devastating to some students as years of bullying to others. Some kids are just so gentle and unprepared for hate that it shatters the very bedrock of their world if it’s targeted at them
• Kids frequently do not feel confident reporting bullying to schools. There many social reasons but one common and unacceptable reason is that the school lacks the commitment or competence to resolve the incident
• Many schools are so constrained by the opinions of conservative-minded bigots on the school boards and PTAs, that they don’t take action even when they know they should
• Some bullies need as much help as the victims. Many are trying to re-empower themselves for painful aspects of their own lives. This should be considered, but never at the expense of the victims
• Some bullies are irredeemable. The kind of kids who wore nooses to school after hounding Tony Cappellano to hang himself. They don’t deserve compassion or consideration. They are scum, and should be taken from the school system immediately. Let their parents handle the burden of home-schooling. After, all they’re part of the problem!



A school governor's meeting, hopefully discussing the welfare of
the students not just budgets and league tables

 The last time I wrote a (far milder) piece elsewhere highlighting the negligence of teachers in contributing to the bullying crisis, many parents wrote thanking me for highlighting a problem that they themselves had experienced, and a couple of teachers wrote to me outraged that I would dare to attack them. As expected, they threw up their hands and said “Not me; not at my school!” Maybe they were amongst the good ones. I’m sure there must be many, but I say now to the all of you, you have a moral OBLIGATION to protect the kids under your care. They are rarely there by choice. What good are all the qualifications in the world to students, if they are so traumatised by their time at school, that they are unable to live happy lives?

In the majority of cases of teen suicide, families say that they reported bullying incidents to the school, often more than once. In the last UK survey on bullying, 60% of all parents who reported bullying to a school, said that they were dissatisfied with the way the school handled their complaint. I believe that what we need is to change the monitoring system about school bullying, so that the stigma is attached to unsatisfactorily resolved cases, not reported incidents. I believe that every report of bullying MUST be officially recorded, and until that complaint is signed off by the victim, it remains unresolved. Unresolved cases should be what counts against the schools, not the number of complaints. At the moment, each logged case of bullying goes against the school’s reputation, so of course, many try to minimise or even deny the existence of bullying. But there are many factors that can produce higher-than-average levels of bullying: lower socio-economic catchment areas, an influx of transient families, a rise in local unemployment, even a single family joining a school!

Of course, schools should still work hard to prevent a culture of bullying existing within their schools, so the overall number of complaints should also be monitored, otherwise we risk the schools simply switching their attention from preventative to after-care solutions.

I believe most teachers need a Road to Damascus experience to bring about the paradigm shift in perception that will force them to give this problem the care it deserves. All-too-often that only occurs when a student commits suicide. Don’t let a fresh death at your school be the trigger. I beg of you. Let the tragic deaths of students already gone, motivate you to change. Google “bullied teen” and read the stories till you weep. Then be as courageous as you ask your students to be. Do what’s right, not what’s convenient, cost-effective or popular with the board.

A good starting place is the video below, "Bullycide in America" which shows some of the beautiuful, young lives lost to bullying. And teachers, when you look at these young faces, remember, these were some of the best your schools produced: gentle, artistic, thoughtful, creative kids who would have greatly enriched the world, if they had not been bullied to death...