Bullying Down in Hopatcong Schools

Hopatcong recorded seven incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying from January to June, according to the biannual bullying released by the school recently.

That number was as the district adjusted to the state's new anti-bullying law, which schools to crack down, record and follow up on incidents of harassment, bullying and intimidation—even if they occur off school grounds or on the Internet. The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights also forced districts to establish anti-bullying committees in each school.

Click to the right to see the full report.

The incidents were contained to the middle school (3) and high school (4), the report said. Borough elementary schools reported no instances of harassment, intimidation and bullying, the report said.

Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said the low amount of bullying incidents reported were "pretty amazing."

"And I think it's because we're doing a very good job of working on student discipline," he said. "So do we have incidents of inappropriate touching occasionally? Yes we do. Do we have some pushing and shoving and disagreements between students occasionally? Yes, we do. But we don't have those kinds of hardcore incidents where students are going after students for some perceived characteristic and I'm very pleased about that."

Under the law, the district had to create so-called safety committees of teachers and administrators in each building.

"We have a safety committee that addresses any patterns of misbehavior," he said. "We take a good look at interpersonal relationships between students and we try to teach students how not to get into picking on each other."