Bullying and Harassment: What every school employee should know

Bullying and Harassment:What every school employee should know Adapted from North Carolina School Boards Association 2010 Spring School Law Academy North Carolina’s Bullying Law--Practical Applications for Schools Thursday, May 13, 2010

Percentage of students affected by violence in schools 2007 • Assaults 1.2% • Serious Violent Crime .4% • Theft 3% • Bullying 32.2% • 80% occurred in the school building • Highest percentage is within 6th graders

Forms of bullying • Direct/Physical • Indirect/Emotional • Mostly used by girls • Cyber bullying • Twice as many girls engage in cyber bullying • Lasting effect—School phobia—avoid certain places

NC Law Defined • “Bullying or harassing behavior” is any pattern of gestures or written, electronic , or verbal communications, OR any physical act OR any threatening communication that takes place on school property, at any school-sponsored function, or on a school bus, AND that:

Places a student or school employee in actual and reasonable fear of harm to his or her person OR damage to his or her property; OR • Creates or is certain to create a hostile environment by substantially interfering with or impairing a student’s educational performance, opportunities, or benefits.

What Does a Bully Look-Like? Eric Harris Dylan Klebold Two of the most vicious bullies in history or were they victims?

Bullying or harassing behavior includes, but is not limited to, acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristics such as • Race • Color • Religion • Ancestry • National origin • Gender • Socioeconomic status

Academic status • Gender identity • Physical appearance • Sexual orientation • Mental, physical, developmental, or sensory disability, or • An association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics

Reasons for Violence in school… • Verbal Harassment (All starts here) • Verbal + Emotional/Psychological = Physical • Physical – Boys forget by lunch Girls do not forget • Girl Fights: #1 Reason… “Just Kidding” • Boy Fights: #1 Reason … “We were just Playing” • Bullying is not normal & a learned behavior!!!

Megan Meier • A teenager from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri who committed suicide by hanging three weeks before her 14th birthday. An investigation proved the matter and her suicide was attributed to cyber-bullying by the social networking website through MySpace.

Eric Mohat • Eric Mohat committed suicide after being tormented by bullies at his Mentor, Ohio, High School.

Jeremiah Lasater • Tall, awkward and dealing with a learning disability, 14-year-old Jeremiah Lasater was a target of frequent taunts by schoolyard bullies at Vasquez High School in Acton. Even the classroom wasn't always safe for the 6-foot-5 teen, who in middle school was poked and teased by some of his fellow special needs students.

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover • Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover was 11-- hardly old enough to know his sexuality and yet distraught enough to hang himself one day after school bullies repeatedly called him "gay”.

Holly Grogan • Holly, a 15-year-old public schoolgirl, jumped 30ft to her death from a road bridge. Her suicide was blamed on the “huge pressure” and “modern complexities” of social networking websites. She fell on to a busy dual carriageway and was hit by passing traffic. • She had endured a torrent of abuse posted on her Facebook page. Friends said that she had been a victim of cyber-bullying.

Hunter Layland • 15-year-old Hunter took his own life because he was repeatedly bullied and teased. He had a hearing problem and facial scars because of an accident when he was a toddler. Several classmates made fun of him. They made fun of the way he looked and someone once told him “if I had a face like yours I’d shoot myself.”

Jaheem Herrera • This 11-year-old Georgia boy was found hanged to death in his bedroom closet. His family said that school bullies drove the child to suicide. The family reportedly complained to school officials that he was being repeatedly teased and threatened by classmates.

Michael Brewer • Michael Brewer survived severe burns over 60 percent of his body when classmates doused him with alcohol and set him on fire over a video game.

Hope Witsell • In recent months, two high school girls were relentlessly harassed as "sluts" by their peers in school and committed suicide as a result --

Phoebe Prince • Nine teens charged in the bullying in teen’s suicide: Nine teens, including three juveniles, have been charged in connection with the death of a 15-year-old Massachusetts girls who committed suicide after weeks of bullying on Facebook and at her high school.

What Now? • Administrators and School Counselors are good candidates to educate parents and students on bullying/harassment. • Students learn behavior from home—behavior is reinforced • Can suspend for off campus conduct (cyber bullying) • Students have a RIGHT to a bullying –free environment • Students need to know that they should report If: • They see bullying or • If they are being bullied

Bullying and Harassment: What every school employee should know