District to rely on technology to reduce bullying
According to the Miami Herald, Broward County is the first Florida school district to unveil a new anti-bullying policy before the year’s end, as required by law. The district has rolled out a new computerized system for reporting and tracking bullying. The Florida Department of Education will use Broward's policy as a model for the state's 66 other school districts. Spurred by parents and school board members, Broward already had begun working on its own guidelines while lawmakers wrestled with a broader policy. The district now defines bullying as “systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress.” The policy encompasses more than traditional schoolyard name-calling, such as teasing and shoving. It extends to behavior over the Internet, i.e. social networking, if it affects students in school. Once reported, administrators will begin tracking the behavior, looking for patterns of abuse. Students are not the only ones protected. The policy applies equally to adult employees.
The data will be available electronically, so administrators can easily see if a particular student or adult might be a habitual bully. According to Amalio Nieves, health curriculum specialist for the district, Broward schools have worked to prevent bullying for years. “What the policy does is help formalize the process,” he said. With a unified definition and a new reporting system, the school system will be able to come up with better prevention measures, which Mr. Nieves said could include peer counseling, parent conferences, or guidance counselor referrals. He emphasized that the policy was not meant to be punitive but to educate and to help change a culture that supports teasing and other forms of bullying in school.
Source: Miami Herald, 7/29/08, By Ely Portillo
[Editor’s Note: Background on the state legislation is below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Florida anti-bullying law