Admin: bullying on the rise

 

The term “bullying” often surfaces in the halls of any given educational area, including primary and secondary schools. While it is a serious offense, there is no clear definition of what constitutes bullying. A passing comment or a seemingly offensive post falls under the gray area of punishable offenses.

 According to the Chandler Unified School District Reporting Form, bullying can be partially defined as “a repeated act over time that may occur when a student or group of students engages in any form of behavior that includes such acts as intimidation and/or harassment.”

 Anytime a student’s actions or comments create “an intimidating, threatening, or abusive environment in the form of physical or emotional harm,” an individual has the right to report the incident and have it investigated whether they are a victim or a bystander, according to the CUSD policy.

 “We have a no-tolerance policy for bullying on campus or cyberbullying,” states assistant principal Heather Patterson.

 Because an act of bullying is subjective, there is no clear punishment for any alleged individual.

 “Bullying can take many shapes and forms,” Patterson explains,“[The punishment] depends by scenario of what happened.”

 With the onset of social media, Perry officials are trained to deal with both contact and cyber bullying, in case a situation arises.

“Now people are bullied with text messages, Facebook, and social media,” principal Dan Serrano states.

 However, because of the permanence of the Internet, cyber bullying is minutely easier to punish, given the physical evidence. Regardless, all bullying claims must have support in order to ensure proper investigation.

“Some statutes just came out regarding bullying and harassment,” Serrano elaborates.  He continues, “If there’s a report, the assistant principals have to follow the whole process.”

Each grade possesses their own administrator that investigates claims. Patterson and Greene oversee upperclassmen while Aimes and Burkes supervise freshmen and sophomores. Depending on the grade level, the administrator of the area in which the case falls under immediately investigates any claim to maintain a safe environment.

 Patterson, the junior class administrator, deals with cases of intimidation “maybe two to three times a week.” The amount of cases that occur  fluctuate based on grade level with the freshmen class experiencing the most incidences.

 Overall, bullying reports have increased over the years. Serrano says, “I think I’ve seen more bullying in the last five years than I did in the first twenty-five of my career.”

 Bullying is a prominent issue in high schools today.  “Every student has the right to come to school and get their education and not be bothered in any matter when they are at school,” Patterson says.

While CUSD has strengthened their policies to ensure adequate inquiries, the fight against bullying still has a long road ahead.