Bullying in schools

[ChrisTrotter]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut.

My 10 year old daughter continues to be bullied by the same student, last week he rallied 5 other students and threatened to bring weapons to our house. We notified the Superintedent, a Police Officer, and am now seeking advice from a child advocate. We intend on seeking legal representation. Has anyone had experience with this situation, and can give advice?

[Ohiogal]

Originally Posted by ChrisTrotter

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Connecticut.

My 10 year old daughter continues to be bullied by the same student, last week he rallied 5 other students and threatened to bring weapons to our house. We notified the Superintedent, a Police Officer, and am now seeking advice from a child advocate. We intend on seeking legal representation. Has anyone had experience with this situation, and can give advice?

Have you filed an official complaint and asked that the child be prosecuted?

[ChrisTrotter]

No. The officer we spoke with was the School resource officer. He went to the Child's parent and informed her of the situation, and to find out if the child had access to any weapons. I did not get an answer about the weapons, and he said he gave the child a warning. Further he stated the tape on the bus had been removed on some previous date, and had not been reinstalled, so no video was available. The officer also told the child he would have to be responsible for his actions, and if he continued on this path he would be seeing more of him. He further said I would have to speak with the School Admin. for info on any disaplinary action taken. My husband and I met with the School Admin the following day. They were reluctant to tell us what exactly the disaplinary action was, and finally stated that only one student involved would be suspended from the bus (where it happend) for ten days, the max allowed by law in our state. Disiplnary action for the others would range from contact with the parents, to writen and verbal appoligies to my daughter, and some suspension of priveleges, but no statement of what or how long. He said he was telling me more than he already should, and asked if my intention was to allow my daughter to ride the bus until the one offender returned, to then remove her. I told him I would determine that at that time. I asked for Records of past incedents, Disaplinary policies, No tolerance policies, and any information on bullying education. They referred me to the website to find the policies but said they would need time to produce incident reports. Now I am waiting for callbacks from both the resourse officer and my child advocate.

[Banned_Princess]

CONNECTICUT
Substitute House Bill No. 5425

B-

Public Act No. 02-119

AN ACT CONCERNING BULLYING BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOLS AND CONCERNING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2002) Each local and regional board of education shall develop a policy, for use on and after February 1, 2003, to address the existence of bullying in its schools. Such policy shall: (1) Enable students to anonymously report acts of bullying to teachers and school administrators, (2) enable the parents or guardians of students to file written reports of suspected bullying, (3) require teachers and other school staff who witness acts of bullying or receive student reports of bullying to notify school administrators, (4) require school administrators to investigate any written reports filed pursuant to subdivision (2) of this section and to review any anonymous reports, (5) include an intervention strategy for school staff to deal with bullying, (6) provide for the inclusion of language in student codes of conduct concerning bullying, (7) require the parents or guardians of students who commit any verified acts of bullying and the parents or guardians of students against whom such acts were directed to be notified, and (8) require each school to maintain a list of the number of verified acts of bullying in such school and make such list available for public inspection. The notification required pursuant to subdivision (7) of this section shall include a description of the response of school staff to such acts and any consequences that may result from the commission of further acts of bullying. For purposes of this section, "bullying" means any overt acts by a student or a group of students directed against another student with the intent to ridicule, humiliate or intimidate the other student while on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity which acts are repeated against the same student over time.

Sec. 2. Section 10-230 of the general statutes is amended by adding subsection (c) as follows (Effective October 1, 2002):

(NEW) (c) Each local and regional board of education shall develop a policy to ensure that time is available each school day for students in the schools under its jurisdiction to recite the "Pledge of Allegiance". The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed to require any person to recite the "Pledge of Allegiance".

Approved June 7, 2002

[url=http://www.bullypolice.org/ct_law.html]CT - Anti Bullying Act[/url]

[Banned_Princess]

Originally Posted by ChrisTrotter

husband and I met with the School Admin the following day. They were reluctant to tell us what exactly the disaplinary action was, and finally stated that only one student involved would be suspended from the bus (where it happend) for ten days, the max allowed by law in our state. Disiplnary action for the others would range from contact with the parents, to writen and verbal appoligies to my daughter, and some suspension of priveleges, but no statement of what or how long. He said he was telling me more than he already should, and asked if my intention was to allow my daughter to ride the bus until the one offender returned, to then remove her. I told him I would determine that at that time. I asked for Records of past incedents, Disaplinary policies, No tolerance policies, and any information on bullying education. They referred me to the website to find the policies but said they would need time to produce incident reports. Now I am waiting for callbacks from both the resourse officer and my child advocate.

Go to the school with the act I posted above. Maybe they are not aware of what they are dealing with.

[enjay]

Have you given the school enough time to react?

You also need to understand that you will not be privy to the disciplinary records of other children. Just as your child has a right to privacy, so do they.

[Banned_Princess]

Yes. but the school clearly has to read over the anti bully act and get to applying it to their school policy.

[ChrisTrotter]

What, in your opinion, is an adequate amount of time to react?

[Banned_Princess]

Originally Posted by Banned_Princess

CONNECTICUT

Substitute House Bill No. 5425

B-

Public Act No. 02-119

AN ACT CONCERNING BULLYING BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOLS AND CONCERNING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2002) Each local and regional board of education shall develop a policy, for use on and after February 1, 2003, to

address the existence of bullying in its schools. Such policy shall: [b](1) Enable students to anonymously report acts of bullying to teachers and school administrators, (2) enable the parents or guardians of students to file written reports of suspected bullying, (3) require teachers and other school staff who witness acts of bullying or receive student reports of bullying to notify school administrators, (4) require school administrators to investigate any written reports filed pursuant to subdivision (2) of this section and to review any anonymous reports, (5) include an intervention strategy for school staff to deal with bullying,

(6)provide for the inclusion of language in student codes of conduct concerning bullying,(7)

require the parents or guardians of students who commit any verified acts of bullying and the parents or guardians of students against whom such acts were directed to be notified, and (8) require each school to maintain a list of the number of verified acts of bullying in such school and make such list available for public inspection. The notification required pursuant to subdivision (7) of this section shall include a description of the response of school staff to such acts and any consequences that may result from the commission of further acts of bullying. For purposes of this section, "bullying" means any overt acts by a student or a group of students directed against another student with the intent to ridicule, humiliate or intimidate the other student while on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity which acts are repeated against the same student over time

.

Sec. 2. Section 10-230 of the general statutes is amended by adding subsection (c) as follows (Effective October 1, 2002):

(NEW) (c) Each local and regional board of education shall develop a policy to ensure that time is available each school day for students in the schools under its jurisdiction to recite the "Pledge of Allegiance". The provisions of this subsection shall not be construed to require any person to recite the "Pledge of Allegiance".

Approved June 7, 2002

[b][url=http://www.bullypolice.org/ct_law.html]CT - Anti Bullying Act

[enjay]

Originally Posted by ChrisTrotter

What, in your opinion, is an adequate amount of time to react?

Assuming the child has been removed from the bus, I'd give them at least a couple of weeks. This isn't the only issue they have to deal with.

What do you want them to do?

[CdwJava]

The punishment will almost certainly not include prosecution. So, you are left solely with school administrative penalties.

The penalty is likely to be the maximum allowed by law - the ten day suspension. Apparently that has happened.

The parents of the victim child cannot be provided all the information they might want because of other laws concerning student privacy.

I am not sure what more can be done to the bullying child at this point.

- Carl

[Banned_Princess]

So, What I am hearing is "the maximum that can be done has been done"

But I disagree.. Since the bully victim in Fl posted, and I was made aware of these anti bully laws. They appear to have been passed by some states and some states are stricter then others, but as far as Ct is concerned, I posted the act 2x and still you believe the school is powerless, or has acted appropriately.

Bullying is a serious problem as brought to our attention by Columbine and the like and schools need to take better action, or any action at all.


*

[CdwJava]

Originally Posted by Banned_Princess

So, What I am hearing is "the maximum that can be done has been done"

But I disagree.. Since the bully victim in Fl posted, and I was made aware of these anti bully laws. They appear to have been passed by some states and some states are stricter then others, but as far as Ct is concerned, I posted the act 2x and still you believe the school is powerless, or has acted appropriately.

Bullying is a serious problem as brought to our attention by Columbine and the like and schools need to take better action, or any action at all.
*

Maybe I am missing something, but what more can the school do? I don't see that stocks is a viable legal option and criminal prosecution is beyond the scope of the school's authority.

The act you posted has to do with the school establishing rules articulating a policy to deal with bullying and how it must be constructed, it does not appear to mandate some draconian penalty beyond the normal legal response for the school.

So, what penalty do you believe the school should have or could have legally applied?

- Carl

[Banned_Princess]

If it were me, and my child was being bullied in a Connecticut school

I would definitely have my child see if she could report the bullying anonymously to the principal or whoever.
1) Enable students to anonymously report acts of bullying to teachers and school administrators,

Then I would want to write a report and file it with the school
(2) enable the parents or guardians of students to file written reports of suspected bullying,

And I expect that the staff, including bus drivers are required to report bullying to notify the proper administrators,
(3) require teachers and other school staff who witness acts of bullying or receive student reports of bullying to notify school administrators,

Then I will want to make sure the school administrators properly investigated the reports
(4) require school administrators to investigate any written reports filed pursuant to subdivision (2) of this section and to review any anonymous reports,

I would want to know what kind of intervention strategy the school has adopted
(5) include an intervention strategy for school staff to deal with bullying,

I would want to SEE in the actual code of conduct ...
(6)provide for the inclusion of language in student codes of conduct concerning bullying,

I would want them to Notify the other students parents that they were being labeled bullies due to their actions, as bullies.
(7)require the parents or guardians of students who commit any verified acts of bullying and the parents or guardians of students against whom such acts were directed to be notified,

AND I certainly will want this list created and updated. I will want to check the "list" every month!!!
(8) require each school to maintain a list of the number of verified acts of bullying in such school and make such list available for public inspection.

I would expect the following information relayed to me, as the parent of a child that has been bullied, and would expect the same information be given to the parent of the bully.
-The notification required pursuant to subdivision (7) of this section shall include a description of the response of school staff to such acts and any consequences that may result from the commission of further acts of bullying.

I would use this as my definition of "bully" and demand that bullies be dealt with according to the rest of this act.
For purposes of this section, "bullying" means any overt acts by a student or a group of students directed against another student with the intent to ridicule, humiliate or intimidate the other student while on school grounds or at a school-sponsored activity which acts are repeated against the same student over time.


So maybe the school did all they could for this one instance (suspension) but after this, me as a mom, would have been all over the school to adopt this as an over all guide to how the school was going to handle things from then on.

So, I guess the only action left for OP is pro-action lol.

[CdwJava]

Nothing that has been written indicates that such a policy does not already exist and is in use.

But, as I said, the school has likely done all it can to the child in question.

- Carl