ANTI-BULLYING PLAN NEAR FOR BALTIMORE COUNTY ...
Monday May 18th 2009 10:39 AM
baltimoresun.com
By Arin Gencer | arin.gencer@baltsun.com
May 18, 2009
Baltimore County school officials are preparing a new anti-bullying plan to present to the Board of Education this week, seeking to fulfill a state law requiring all districts to develop a policy by the summer.
"What we're trying to get to here is everybody taking the bullying, harassment and intimidation as a very serious thing," said Dale Rauenzahn, executive director of student support services for county schools.
All school boards must submit their plans to the state Department of Education by July 1. Baltimore County's proposal follows a model policy - called for by the General Assembly - that the state Board of Education released this year. The model plan forbids bullying, harassment or intimidation.
Officials cite a number of statistics to illustrate the problem. A 2007 survey of students in selected high schools showed that more than one-fourth of them "had been harassed or bullied on school property" during the 12 months before doing the questionnaire, according to an introduction to the state policy.
"A similar portion of students reported verbal slurs due to weight, size, or physical appearance during the same time period," the document states. Last school year, about 3 percent - or about 3,370 of the state's nearly 119,000 suspensions and expulsions - were for bullying, harassment or sexual harassment, according to the policy.
The state board identified the forms such behavior can take, including verbal, physical, written or electronic communication - and detailed ways to prevent and handle it, such as anti-bullying programs that involve students, collaborating with school families and the community, and providing professional development on the subject at least once a year.
The concept is not new in most school districts, including Baltimore County, where bullying and harassment programs for students and teachers have been part of character education for "many, many years," Rauenzahn said. He described the proposal as formalizing those efforts.
The district has had a procedure for dealing with such incidents, providing resources for prevention and outlining how administrators should report and investigate, said Rauenzahn and Glenda Myrick, coordinator of the office of safe and drug-free schools.
The state requirement "would just bring continuity statewide, consistent prevention strategies, consistent intervention and consequences," Myrick said.
The same holds true at the local level.
"We're coming to terms with ensuring that we have a systemwide approach to this," Myrick said. "We don't want one school to say one thing and another school to say another."
The policy will also mean training the entire staff - administrators, teachers and custodial employees, among others - on the matter, she and Rauenzahn said.
"We want anybody who's recognized someone as being bullied to report it," Rauenzahn said.
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