“Nobody says you have to get along with everybody all the time,” says Jon Hutton, Tippecanoe Valley High School’s assistant principal, in regards to school bullying. “It’s about [students] being able to get along and learn.”
Bullying is an age old problem. A problem exacerbated by the proliferation of the internet and social media.
In 2013, the Indiana Department of Education decided to update its policies on bullying. HEA 1423 passed the General Assembly, and Gov. Mike Pence signed P.L. 285-2013 into law.
The bill defined bullying as “overt, unwanted, repeated acts or gestures, including verbal or written communications or images transmitted in any manner (including digitally or electronically), physical acts committed, aggression, or any other behaviors, that are committed by a student or group of students against another student with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate, or harm the other targeted student and create for the targeted student an objectively hostile school environment.”
“Every case that comes across our desk gets addressed,” says Scott Backus, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School’s principal and a certified school school safety specialist. “We have a lot of kids who have conflict,” adds Hutton.
Backus and Hutton note that the vast majority of conflicts they deal with are isolated. As the state has defined bullying, malicious acts must be repeated and one-sided to truly be bullying.
“Part of this is learning how to deal with the conflicts we have,” says Hutton. TVSC has a number of tactics in place for addressing conflicts, bullying or otherwise.
For one, all students are closely monitored while on school premises. Every TVSC school is equipped with cameras, with more on the way. Access to social media sites is disabled during school hours by the IT department. And all the schools have peer mediators who can help faculty and staff identify problems.
But, believe it or not, problems are often allowed to persist without ever being brought to the attention of an authority figure. “That’s part of the issue: communicating what’s going on,” says Hutton.
According to a presentation prepared by Backus, approximately 2/3 of bullying cases are not reported to an adult. Furthermore, due to the state’s legislation, schools are responsible for student behavior 24/7, not just during school hours.
“We see a lot of stuff come in after break, or after a weekend, that we have to address,” says Backus. Hutton and Backus stated that all reported instances of bullying are investigated and consequences levied, but due to confidentiality policies, it is sometimes difficult to relay to parents just what was done.
TVSC schools are equipped and trained to deal with bullying. However, Hutton and Backus stressed that school officials need to be made aware of problems, and there are a number of ways to report conflict.
Students who are being bullied should feel comfortable telling a teacher, administrator, parent or peer mediator about the problem. The TVSC Safe Schools hotline, (574) 387-3825, is also a resource for reporting bullying – as well as struggles with drugs, alcohol, suicidal feelings or other tips.
While schools will likely never be completely rid of bullies, but reporting any incident of conflict will help school officials keep the problem to a minimum. For more information on TVSC’s policies on bullying, visit tippecanoevalleyschools.com.
Related Article: Wawasee Has Tools To Combat Bullying
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of a series on school bullying policies. Additional articles regarding the policies at Whitko Community School Corporation and Warsaw Community School Corporation will also be posted.]