Canton raising the bar on bullying prevention

Repeating a refrain he made in a similar presentation earlier this year, Peter Boucher, the Canton school district’s wellness coordinator and chairman of the Bullying Prevention Committee, proudly informed the School Committee last week that Canton is “way ahead of the curve” regarding its anti-bullying policy — a new requirement under Massachusetts law.

Widely hailed as the most comprehensive bullying law in the country, the new legislation — which came just months after South Hadley freshman Phoebe Prince was discovered hanging in the stairwell leading to her family apartment — requires teachers and other staff members to immediately report all incidents or allegations of bullying to the principal or a designated administrator. The law also mandates that schools provide annual professional development for staff members on prevention and intervention as well as workshops and other resources for parents, and education and training for students in every grade level as part of the curriculum.

Appearing with fellow committee members Janet Donnelly and Meredith Carey, Boucher presented a 12-point executive summary outlining the steps that Canton has already taken, including completion of a district-wide policy that must be submitted to the state Department of Education by the end of the month. He said a DOE legal consultant recently reviewed the 13-page document and was so impressed that she wanted to use it as a model for other school districts.

According to Boucher, while other districts are still scrambling to comply with the provisions of the law, Canton got right to work last spring and is now on the verge of full compliance — pending final approval of the policy by the School Committee at its next meeting on June 16.

In accordance with the new law, the district policy defines bullying as the “repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal, or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof, directed at a target” that either causes physical or emotional harm, places the target in “reasonable fear of harm,” creates a hostile environment at school, infringes on the rights of the target at school, or “materially and substantially disrupts the education process or the orderly operation of a school.”

The policy also defines related terms such as cyberbullying, aggressor, target and bystander. Boucher noted that Canton even coined its own term: upstander, which refers to a student who “actively chooses to remove or support the target” during a bullying incident.

In addition, the policy strictly prohibits bullying on school grounds, on property immediately adjacent to a school, at school-sponsored events, school bus stops and buses, and through technology owned by the schools. It also prohibits bullying that occurs off school grounds if the act in question creates a hostile environment for the target at school.

As required by law, the policy also includes detailed guidelines for reporting and investigating incidents of bullying, as well as a provision for notifying law enforcement and pursuing criminal charges.

Besides drafting the policy, Boucher said the bullying committee has distributed surveys to students and parents and will provide that data to the School Committee as soon as it becomes available. They also worked with the Canton Police Department to create an anonymous hotline via phone and text for individuals to report incidents of bullying.

Boucher described the new bullying law as a “great law,” but reminded School Committee members that it came with “no money attached to it.” He agreed that an enormous amount of education and training is still needed on the subject, as well as a comprehensive public relations effort in order to get the word out to the community.

School Committee members raised similar concerns, and while they praised the policy, they suggested that the bullying committee perhaps draft a more user friendly summary and then take steps to ensure that it reaches every family with children in the schools.

In other School Committee news:

* In a report highlighting recent trends in the high school guidance department, CHS guidance director Dan Rubin indicated that the current senior class has done “phenomenally well” getting accepted into top colleges and universities, with an estimated 85 percent of soon-to-be graduates headed to four-year schools and another 12 percent headed to two-year schools. Rubin said Canton’s seniors are succeeding in a historically difficult year for college admissions, and they are doing so without reporting class rank — a traditional measure that was abandoned at the start of the school year.

As for the recent CHS Scholarship Night, Rubin said a total of 179 scholarships were awarded this year by 73 local organizations to 73 members of the class of 2011. He said the combined value of the scholarships was just shy of $250,000.

Pointing to a more concerning trend, Rubin informed School Committee members of what appears to be an “increased reliance on school personnel for mental health services,” as more and more families struggle to locate — or in some cases, pay for — counseling from outside providers. Rubin said the trend is “not unique to Canton by any stretch.” However, he said it certainly bears watching as guidance counselors are now addressing issues that go far beyond “helping kids succeed in school.”

* Student services director Debra Bromfield recommended a new policy that would prohibit the taping of special education team meetings, other than to accommodate a vision or hearing impairment. Bromfield said she was surprised to discover upon coming to Canton that audio taping was a common practice, and she has already noticed a “sharp decline” in the practice since informing teachers of their legal right to object. Her primary concern was that comments on tape could be taken out of context, while the very presence of a tape recorder could limit the dialogue in a meeting that is intended to be honest and open.

Committee members were skeptical of the proposal, however, and Reuki Schutt in particular said she had a problem with an outright ban on taping. They asked Bromfield to go back and check with parents to see if they, too, had any concerns with the idea.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Jun 1 2011. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.