Battling bullying

Bruce Howard has never witnessed bullying first hand at school, he said.

"I've only heard about it," said Howard, a former trustee of the Post Falls School District board. "It's always been third hand or worse."

And he has never heard complaints from his two children while they were progressing through the school system, he said.

But he knows it happens.

"To say there is no bullying would really be speaking with blinders on," Howard conceded. "Nothing is perfect. There are always opportunities for improvement."

That tends to be the attitude among local school districts.

Although district spokespeople believe their own policies have the issue of student harassment covered already, they aren't denying possible improvements that might be won through an anti-bullying bill advancing through the state Legislature.

"I know our school district has a strong policy, but we don't necessarily know other districts across the state," noted Laura Rumpler, spokeswoman for the Coeur d'Alene School District. "Our district's policy is any type of support for resources to fight bullying, we support. If this legislation were to pass, we would revisit our strong policy to see if there's anything we need to add to it."

SB1358, which passed the Senate 25-8 on Thursday, would expand the current law to require educators at all 115 school districts in Idaho to undergo annual training on bullying, harassment, intimidation and cyber bullying.

The law would mandate staff to intervene if they witness students being harassed.

Language would be added to define and prohibit cyber bullying, and district discipline policies would be required to address bullying with graduated consequences of suspension, expulsion and reporting criminal activity to local law enforcement.

Rumpler said much of these provisions are already in place at the Coeur d'Alene School District.

"We actually went through a policy revision last year to enhance it and include language on cyberbullying," she stated.

Under the policy, district employees must report any bullying or harassment. Besides cyber bullying, harassment is defined to include demeaning jokes, taunting, slurs, and negative remarks relating to the victim's sex or sexual orientation, race, color, national origin, age, religious believes, ethnic background or disability.

The district also has a graduated disciplinary process, Rumpler noted.

"It is imperative that our district maintain a learning environment that is safe and free of bullying and violence," Rumpler stated.

There is ongoing staff training and development on threats and bullying, too, she added.

"If this legislation passes, we would be thrilled if the state helped us fund an annual professional development training," she stated.

Rumpler noted that bullying happens across the district from the elementary school level up through high school, with situations ranging from teasing to more severe interactions.

A snapshot she could provide was that Canfield Middle School, which has more than 800 students, has incidents where adults become involved about two or three times a week.

"No matter how many cases of bullying we have in our district, no instance is ever acceptable," she stated.

Sen. John Goedde, who co-sponsored the SB1358, said this is the farthest that anti-bullying legislation has gotten in two years.

Some school districts are doing a fine job of addressing bullying, the Coeur d'Alene lawmaker noted, but "other districts are not doing as well," he said. "This is going to provide some standard on a state-wide basis."

Goedde believes bullying not only has a psychological impact, he said, but it also affects a student's ability to learn.

"I think you'll find bullying victims are more often absent from school, and that hurts the school's average daily attendance, which hurts their funding," Goedde said. "The impact is far reaching."

Lakeland School District Superintendent Mary Ann Ranells said the new law might give the district more weight in cracking down on misbehaving students.

But the district already has policies on harassment and cyber bullying, Ranells said, and doesn't experience incidents often.

"I would say I get a handful of calls each year from parents just frustrated and kids just frustrated, someone picking on someone else and it doesn't seem to stop," she said. "We've had some kids suspended if we haven't been successful in changing that behavior, but I don't believe we've ever expelled anyone."

The district has placed emphasis on encouraging good behavior, she explained. At several schools, kids receive "self-manager" status if they demonstrate courteous behavior in class, in the halls and on the playground.

"The students, when they become a self manager, they are extraordinarily proud of that," Ranells said. "The toughest thing I see is when the kids sometimes mess up and lose that status, and have to earn that back."

The Post Falls School District's policy prohibits sexual harassment and demeaning conduct related to a person's race, religion, disability, nationality or color.

The district has a goal of investigating and responding to a complaint of bullying within a few school days, the document states. Law enforcement may be called to assist.

Penalties for bullying can include a warning, suspension, expulsion or discharge.

Aggrieved students can file an appeal to the superintendent and then board of trustees, if dissatisfied with the district's response or inaction.

Bruce said bullying is certainly not a huge problem in Post Falls schools. But he sees potential for some additional measures, say a code of conduct form specific to bullying that all students must agree to and sign.

"I think there are missed opportunities to correct things and make sure the rules are correctly understood," he said.

Districts out of the area might need more stringent policy tweaking.

Lorisa Wellock, the North Idaho parent education coordinator for Idaho Parents Unlimited - advocating for disabled Idaho residents - said she fields calls every day from parents reporting bullying problems.

Speaking personally and not for the nonprofit, Wellock said her own daughter was bullied in the ninth grade at Kamiah High School, southeast of Orofino. Two girls threw the teenager against the wall and took her purse and demanded money, Wellock said.

The girls received three hours of in-school suspension, which Wellock doesn't consider enough.

"In my eyes, it was assault and burglary," she said. "They would have gotten a whole bunch of consequences, had it not happened in school but in public."

The proposed legislation could help school districts better address such issues, she believes.

"I know it's a problem," she said.