West Des Moines Students Bullied Less Often than Peers Nationwide, but Rate Still Troubling

More than one-tenth of West Des Moines students in grades seven through 12 report having been bullied, a number below the national average but still high enough – 353 – to concern local school officials.

That’s according to the results anonymous survey of students at Indian Hills Junior HIgh, Stilwell Junior High, Valley Southwoods Freshman High School and Valley High School, the Des Moines Register reported.

“That’s a lot of students,” said West Des Moines school board President Elizabeth Brennan.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is offered to schools by the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention. Distribution of an anonymous student questionnaire assessed the nature and prevalence of bullying. About 3,200 students took the survey and 11 percent said they’d been bullied.

The the school district’s bullying rate as a whole was below the national average, students in ninth and 12th grades reported being bullied with more frequency than their peers nationwide, according to the newspaper’s report.

Efforts to curb bullying are difficult because students are reluctant to tell their parents and other authority figures what has happened.

“They are the eyes and ears as to what is going on in the halls. We need to educate them so they know it’s OK to report to us,” said Valley High School science teacher Julie Krieg.

The West Des Moines Community Schools Board of Education discussed the survey findings at a Jan. 28 workshop meeting. A committee is looking at ways to better train the district’s teachers and implement a district-wide program, but educators stressed the community needs to be involved as well.

Some of the school district’s anti-bullying strategies for dealing with bullying are detailed in stories on the district’s web site. In October, school and city officials in West Des Moines, Waukee, Urbandale and Clive signed a proclamation that recognized anti-bullying month.

More than 30 percent of students nationwide reported either bullying or having been bullied, according to the proclamation.