Support grows for anti-bullying laws

As incidents of bullying and cyber-bullying gain notoriety nationwide, parents close to home start to look at their childrens’ schools to see how they stack up.

Sewanhaka Central High School District Superintendent Warren Meierdiercks said that starting a dialogue with students — through the use of counselling groups, assemblies and student-to-student communication — is the biggest part of eliminating bullying behavior.

“We do our best to have programs, group counselling sessions, teen speak out sessions and student speakers,” Meierdiercks said. “We do different things in each building, to try and address the variety of different concerns that we have.”

Meierdiercks added that the district tries hard to create an environment where students have multiple places to reach out if they feel threatened or bullied by their peers.

He said that teaching students, especially in middle-school grades, that differences with one another are not to be chastised but celebrated, is key.

“We talk about good decision-making, self-image, the difference between violence and communication,” he said. “We try to concentrate on the seventh- and eighth-grade level.”

Going even younger, Franklin Square Superintendent-designate Patrick Manley said that the elementary district concentrates on rewarding acts of kindness, and establishing a difference between helpful, kind behavior, and bullying.

“Character education and anti-bullying goes on all the time at our schools,” Manley said. “It’s something that’s in the interest of the parents and the schools to focus on that type of character for our children.”

He said that one popular campaign at all three Franklin Square schools was the “Bucket Filler” challenge, where students at all grade levels were rewarded for getting caught performing random acts of kindness to their peers. Whenever one student saw another helping a friend, classmate or teacher, they were encouraged to write the act down and put it in one of several buckets throughout the school.

It’s not just in-school programs, however, that encourage students not to bully their peers.

New York is one of just a handful of states in the nation with no anti-bullying laws on the books. State Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) is looking to change that with legislation that would prohibit bullying and cyberbullying in schools, and encourage districts to take more action.

Hannon’s bill would increase penalties for hazing and establish a hotline for children who are being bullied and feel they have no place else to turn. He noted that many nonprofit agencies on Long Island already offer interactive anti-bullying workshops, and the legislation would help direct those resources to schools.

One such organization is Child Abuse Prevention Services of Long Island, or CAPS. Executive Director Alane Fagin said the group hosts programs in about 200 Long Island schools each year. Workshops include Steer Clear of Bullies, for third- and fourth-graders, Step Up and Speak Out, for middle-school children, and Relational Aggression, for female students. CAPS also offers several cyberbullying workshops.

“These programs are not assemblies,” Fagin stressed. “They’re given in classrooms. There’s a lot of interaction and critical thinking.”

Several school districts participate in the Bully Reduction Anti-Violence Education program through North Shore-LIJ. Jill Vogel, director of guidance in the Valley Stream Central High School District, said the program has been in place for four years and is directed at junior high students. “I can’t tell you how much good it’s done,” Vogel said.

She added that the program encourages bystanders to take action and tell bullies that what they are doing is wrong. This year, cyberbullying has become a major focus, as students learn about potentially destructive behavior using computers, cell phones and other technology.

Vogel and others say that anti-bullying legislation is long overdue. Fagin said that school districts need to be empowered to deal with the issue. Any legislation, she said, should provide a definition of bullying and require school districts to implement an anti-bullying policy, including consequences for those who mistreat other students. An effective policy, Fagin explained, has to work from the top down. “There has to be a very clear message sent by administration,” she said, “that bullying will not be tolerated.”

Johanna Mathieson-Ellmer, director of safety education for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Long Island, said her organization has led programs at schools for children in pre-K through high school. A cyberbullying workshop for parents and their children will be held at the Long Beach library on May 24.

Mathieson-Ellmer said she would like to see statewide legislation passed that would help schools develop strong anti-bullying policies. Laws have failed before, however, she acknowledged. “This is nothing new,” she said. “I’ve been watching bills get to Albany and fall by the wayside.”

Hannon said that past legislation has failed because it tried to go beyond the powers of the state. “We can’t regulate the Internet,” he said. However, he said, the state can toughen its criminal statutes, maintain a hotline and match school districts with available resources.

Mathieson-Ellmer said that with or without anti-bullying laws, society needs to take this issue seriously. Family efforts should start at home, she said, where parents should monitor how their children use computers.

Fagin agreed, and said that when parents just sit down and talk to their children, it can have a big impact. “The civil behaviors begin at home,” she said, “and parents need to model them.”