Bullying from a Policy Perspective

Kids these days yearn for a school that they can go to and feel safe. Those type of schools are few and far between now days. I remember the days where there were not alarms on doors where you had to be buzzed into the school, you did not have to wear a name tag and certainly there were not police officers roaming the halls. But face it those days are long over.
As you send your kid to school this year and you look to address the school climate particulary in respects to bullying, it is important to review your boards policies to insure they are inline with current state and federal laws and reflect the district's zero-tolerance stance.  You might think that this information is not easily available to you as a normal parent, but it is and it is our right as parents to demand it.
Bullying and harassment is a very serious issue in schools and there has been a great amount of discussion in legislation about the subject. In Ohio there was a passage of Ohio House Bill (HB) 116, the Jessica Logan Act.  Jessica committed suicide in 2008 after relentless cyber-bullying and other harassment. So you should be aware of three (3) key policies that a board MUST adopt are:
Zero Tolerance; hazing and bullying; and Internet safety policies.
According to state law, all school boards must adopt a zero-tolerance policy.  This policy should contain a statement that "the board has "zero tolerance of violent, disruptive, harassing, intimidating, bullying or other inappropriate behavior by it's students."  Within this policy, it is important to state that students will be disciplined for failure to comply with this policy. The policy does not have to outline the specific discipline, but rather refer to the procedures in the student handbook.  The district MUST provide written information about the zero-tolerance policy to students and parents annually.
Most schools do this by putting a "Blurb" about it in the student hand book. But  let's get real here how many student's read those and honestly how many parent's of those kids get to see it in the book. I know my kid's don't show me their student hand book and I am all over them about this sort of thing.  What about the parent's who are not? 
A little less known fact:
In 2009 HB 19 added the requirement that districts are to provide continuing education instruction in grades 7 through 12 regarding dating violence prevention. This should be stated in the zero-tolerance policy and in the district's hazing and bullying policy.
So when your kids get their books look in them and check.  If that information is not in there, if your kids are not getting their educational instruction about this DEMAND it from your Educational Board.

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