Bullying in Boston Schools

Bullying continues to be an enormous problem for children, parents, and schools in our country. Exact statistics vary from study to study, but the National Center for Educational Statistics released a report last year that over one in five students report having been bullied. This number rises to one in four for black students, and students with disabilities are two to three times more likely to experience bullying behavior.

The consequences of bullying are serious and all too real. In 2009, Carl Walker Hoover of New Leadership Charter School in Springfield hung himself after severe bouts of depression and anxiety following repeated bullying. He was 11 years-old. In 2010, Phoebe Prince of South Hadley committed suicide at age 15 after dealing with classmate bullying for many years.

The one bright spot in the tragic, avoidable losses of these young lives is that it compelled the Massachusetts legislature to take action. Massachusetts anti-bullying laws are now some of the most comprehensive in the nation. You can learn more about these laws, how they help everyone in communities dealing with bullying, and what to do if your child is being bullied by reading on.

 

Massachusetts’ Anti-Bullying Laws

When drafting Massachusett’s bullying laws, legislators listened to educators, psychologists, and policy experts to ensure that the bill would be more than just a half-measure. Based on these expert recommendations, the bill goes the distance by offering a more complex set of protections and procedures for handling bullying

These include:

• A wide definition of bullying (G.L. c. 71, §370), which can constitute any repeated harassment that fulfills any of the following:
  • Causes physical or emotional harm to victims or damages their property
  • Makes the victim fearful of harm or of damage to their property
  • “Creates a hostile environment at school for the victim”
  • “Infringes on the rights of the victim at school”
  • “Materially and substantially disrupts the education process or the orderly operation of a school”
• A mandate for all schools, both public and private, to have an anti-bullying policy in place that includes an explicit prohibition on bullying, procedures for responding, and prevention techniques
• Mandatory notification of parents of bullying victims
• Protections for harassment on the basis of religion, skin color, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender preference, nationality, academic status and more
• An inclusion of cyber-bullying activities

The Mass. Attorney General provides additional bullying information resources directed at parents of both victims and bullies as well as educators.

 

Effectiveness of Mass. Anti-Bullying Laws

While our anti-bullying laws are far from perfect, Mass. has made dramatic improvements since implementing them. A 2008-2009 study found that 43% of Mass. students said they were bullied at school “sometimes” while 32% said they were bullied “often.”

Now, our state has been reported as having the lowest overall bullying problem in the country according to a study conducted last year. Mass. ranked last among studied states for “bullying prevalence” and among the lowest percentage of high schoolers who have bullied at school, involved in physical fights and skipped school for worry of bullying problems.

 

What to Do if Your Child Is Being Bullied

If you know or fear that your child is being bullied, you should take the steps recommended by the Mass. Attorney General.

• Talk to Your Child — Get specific information on the situations where they were bullied and who was doing it. Find out about the history of bullying incidents, including other children targeted.

• Be Supportive — Show empathy to your child and emphasize that bullying is not their fault. Tell them you are happy they shared their experiences with you and that you will work with them and their school to fix the problem.

• Research — Read your school’s anti-bullying policy, which should be available online or within a student handbook. Also read the Mass. Attorney General’s anti-bullying resource pages.

• Contact the School, Not the Other Parent — Confronting the other parents or child yourself often only escalates the situation. Instead, follow through with your school’s established procedures to work with educators and administrators together.

• Don’t Ignore or Disregard Cyberbullying — Online bullying is just as terrifying and emotionally distressful as physical confrontation. Tell your child to block people bullying them and to not engage with harassment directly.

• Follow Through — If you are not satisfied with your school’s procedures for handling bullying, you can look to other support organizations, including GLAD, your local law enforcement or a civil attorney

Make sure to talk with your kids, not just about their experiences, but what goes on in the classroom and online that could signal a threatening environment. Also, communicate regularly with school officials and teachers to coordinate efforts to keep bullying behavior down. Only a community working together can stop bullying and reduce the factors that lead to it.

 

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