Bullying and Harassment Policy Training Document

1. Bullying and Harassment Policy Training Document Mark Langdorf

2. How Bullies Act • Harm occurs as the result of an intentional act, rather than the result of a mistake or negligence. • A power imbalance exists between the target and the perpetrator. • The perpetrator enjoys carrying out the action. • The perpetrator repeats the behavior, often in a systematic way. • The victim is hurt physically or psychologically and has a sense of being persecuted or oppressed. -Source Olweus (1993)

3. Three Types of Bullying • Physical Bullying: Harm to another’s person or property. • Emotional Bullying: Harm to another’s self-concept. • Relational Bullying: Harm to another through damage (or threat of damage) to relationship or to feelings of acceptance, friendship, or group inclusion.

4. Early Warning Traits of a Bully/Victims Phase One – Trolling (Perpetrator looks for easy targets) • Students with low self-esteem. • Students with low physical strength. • Students easily intimidated. • Students who don’t resist/fight back. Perpetrator will test potential victim boundaries by invading the student’s personal space, test reactions to guide comments, threats, taunts. Phase Two – Campaign (Perpetrator escalated the behavior) • Student victim hopes for relief and tries to fit in. • Student victim experiences guilt, self-blame, shame at not being able to stop the behavior or stand up for himself or herself. • Perpetrator more frequently attacks and will often encourage others to participate or tell all involved or witnesses to the bullying not to tattle. Phase Three – Bully-Victim Relationship (What started subtly is now happening every day in multiple places) • Student victim experiences a growing sense of despair. • Propensity for violence increase for both the Bully and the Victim.

5. Encourage Staff To Look For Potential Victims • Be observant and document and report all situations where they witness or believe bullying is taking place. • Encourage children to report incidents of bullying they experience or observe. • Encourage staff to discuss behavior they observe with the student they perceive to be a victim. • Encourage staff to show concern to the victim and find out if these behaviors have occurred before. • Be on the lookout for “Bully/Victims” • Listen to and report rumors of bullying, harassment, or abuse that they overhear among student conversations. • Watch for signs that a child is being victimized. • Provide close supervision to vulnerable students.

6. Liability, Negligence, Duty of Care? • Liabilityis legal responsibility – The obligation to do, or not to do something. • Negligenceis a failure to act as a reasonable person is expected to act in similar circumstances, when a duty exists towards the person affected. • Duty of Care requires individuals to consider the consequence of their acts and omissions, and to ensure those acts or omissions do not give rise to a foreseeable risk of injury to another person.

7. How Do Courts Determine If a School is Negligent? Courts ask four questions: • Did the educator have a legal duty to the injured person? • Did the educator fail to fulfill this duty? • Was there an injury to the person to whom the educator had a duty? • Did the educator’s failure to fulfill the duty directly, or promptly cause the injury? * Educator can be: teacher, school administrator, bus driver, after school child care worker, or anyone employed or volunteers by or for the school who has a role in supervising students.

8. How Is Liability Established under Federal Civil Rights Laws? (Title IX or Federal Civil Rights Act 1983) • The supervisor/school official received notice of a pattern of improper acts by a teacher or educator; • The supervisor/school official demonstrated deliberate indifference to or tacit authorization of the offensive act; • The supervisor/school official failed to take sufficient remedial action; and • Such failure proximately caused injury to the student.

9. What Qualifies as Notice? • A school has notice if it actually knew (actual notice) or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known (constructive notice) about the harassment/bullying. • As long as an agent/responsible employee of the school receives notice, the school has actual notice.

10. What Do You Need to Do 1. Train Staff on what constitutes Bullying and what is in the district's Bullying/Harassment policies. 2. Train staff regarding the difference between a bullying incident and a conflict (so that inappropriate referrals are not made). 3. Advise staff of their responsibility to supervise students, and that the district may be liable if they fail in this. 4. Train them on the signs and symptoms that a child is a target of bullying behavior. 5. Advise them on classroom and/or playground intervention and disciplinary actions which can be implemented.

11. What Do You Need to Do (Continued) 6. Train them to respond to a student report of bullying (i.e. do not dismiss as tattling, do not promise confidentiality, be compassionate and non-judgmental, do not harm the victim). 7. Advise staff that administration is serious about these issues and consider it their job to intervene in all instances of bullying and harassment. 8. Advise them how and when to document and report incidents. 9. Advise what types of matters to refer to administration.

12. What to do when: Level I Response – Students who approach a teacher or teacher observes problems he/she perceives as bullying: • Teacher should learn if this has happened before. Obtain dates, times, and circumstances. All multiple incidents of bullying must be referred to administration for investigation. (Level II response.) • If this is the first report and no prior incidents have occurred, teacher should intervene and correct the perpetrating student. The goal is to correct the situation. (i.e. speak to the perpetrator and try to resolve without major disciplinary impact). • Victims should be advised by the teacher what they are going to do, and the victim should be advised to report back if further issues arise. The teacher should follow up with the victim in a few days to see if issues have resolved. Several days or weeks later the teacher may once again follow up to make certain further incidents have not occurred. • If the student comes to report again, or if the teacher is made aware that the pattern of bullying is continuing, refer this to administration. (Level II response).

13. What to Do When (continued) Level II Response – Student approaches staff regarding multiple situations or teacher observes multiple events regarding bullying. • Formal investigation starts • Victim completes Student Incident Reporting Form 1 • Administrator questions perpetrator (without victim present) and completes the Accused Statement Form 2. • Administrator questions any witnesses reported by the victim and the perpetrator. All witnesses complete Witness Statement Form 3. • Administrator reviews all statements taken, interviews any staff members that may have an impact on the investigation and decides if bullying occurred or not. Administrator completes the Incident Investigation Form 4. • If bullying found attempt to rectify using Student Code of Conduct discipline along with forms 5 & 6.

14. What to Do When (continued) Level III Response – Serious Matters if the investigation includes: • Sexual Harassment • Racial Harassment • Discrimination base of protected class (race, sex, disability, etc.) • Illegal or criminal activity • Pattern of taunting & harassment over time by the same perpetrator toward the same victim • Severe, persistent, or perverse behavior Some or all of the above may need police intervention.