Belmont Ahead of the Bullying Curve

Belmont public schools have a comprehensive system in place to combat bullying, but a new state anti-bullying law will still be beneficial, according to district officials.

Superintendent George Entwistle called the state action "appropriate" on Wednesday, as he said it brings all districts up to a certain standard.

"I think for all intensive purposes Belmont meets the (state set) standard now," he said, "but I'm not sure if that's the case in all school districts across the state."

Gov. Deval Patrick signed the bill into law on Tuesday. The new law requires all school employees to report acts of bullying. It also outlaws bullying on school grounds and cyberbullying, or bullying through electronic communications.

The state took a hard-line stance on bullying after two Massachusetts students, said to be the victims of intense harassment, committed suicide in the past year.

In January, Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old freshman at South Hadley High School, hanged herself after allegedly being bullied for months. A group of her classmates have pleaded not guilty in connection with her death. Previously, in April 2009, 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover of Springfield hanged himself after alleged torment.

The law also mandates anti-bullying training for teachers, administrators and students, which will allow schools to expand their existing programs, according to Butler School Principal Michael McAllister.

"We're now able to use staff development time to look at bullying specifically," he said Friday. "We typically haven't done specific training for bullying in the past."

Chenery Middle School Headmaster Deborah Alexander said the law also provides an opportunity for the district to create a more aligned K-12 effort when it comes to bullying.

The district does have a Harassment Policy, which takes a strict approach to any sort of discriminatory remarks or harassment, including sexual harassment. As for the disciplinary action, the superintendent said it's handled on a case-by-case, age-appropriate basis.

"It's done developmentally," Entwistle said. "The more sensational acts of bullying could ultimately lead to expulsion, but a simpler case at the elementary-school level is handled much differently than a more severe case at the high-school level. The high school, in particular, has a fairly straight forward no-tolerance policy."

At the elementary schools, like Butler, bullying is often handled as teachable moments, McAllister said. The student being bullied is brought in and assured that he or she is safe and the situation will be dealt with. Administrators then try to gather as much information as possible about the incident and talk with the accused bully. Parents are always involved in the process, McAllister said.

"Parents always get a call," he said. "I usually call them on speakerphone with the student in the room so everyone's on the same page."

For more involved cases, guidance counselors and school psychologists are contacted.

In addition to reactionary measures, the district has taken proactive steps to improve school climate and togetherness.

At Chenery, for example, teachers meet with small groups of students for 20 minutes, twice a week to discuss conflict-resolution training. At the fifth-grade level, guidance counselors teach anti-bullying lessons, Alexander said, and eight-graders are paired with fifth-grade "classroom buddies" as an added resource.

The district also recently completed a youth risk behavior survey at the middle- and high-school levels to collect data aimed at making existing programs stronger, Entwistle said.

He said the district tries to instill core values at a young age and reinforce them throughout the curriculum.

More recently, cyberbullying has become an issue that schools have had to deal with. Even though it usually doesn't happen at school, Entwistle said, the ramifications usually carryover to the next day.

He said the schools have tried to collaborate with parents to tackle the issue. "Well the school has a level of responsibility, the primary monitors of [cyberbullying] are really the parents," he said. "We try to sensitize the parents to the kinds of things that might be going on."

McAllister said he has heard of cyberbullying in elementary schools but has yet to see it first hand.

Overall, administrators agreed that providing a safe environment for students is a must, and they believed that Belmont schools do have a positive climate.

"I think that the principals and the teachers have done a very good job at all levels of creating positive and respectful school communities," Entwistle said. "That's not to say that we don't have bullying that happens. It's always going to be a part of human behavior, a part that we need to acknowledge."