Playground Bullies

in the school district i work in we have implemented a bullyproofing program in all of our elementary schools and will be implementing it at the junior high level next year. It has produced great results. You could probably do a search related to bullyproofing your elementary school if you are interested in learning more about this.

actually the civil rights office does not look favorably at harassment that is not dealt with immediately and ignored at the hands of the school administration. Precisely why schools are coming up with a plan,it’s about damn time if you ask me. This INCLUDES harassment at the hands of the very person who is suppose to protect us,our teacher’s. So ,if it was me?,I would file a complaint.

one of my favorite memo’s

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202

July 25, 2000

Dear Colleague:

On behalf of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education, we are writing to you about a vital issue that affects students in school - harassment based on disability. Our purpose in writing is to develop greater awareness of this issue, to remind interested persons of the legal and educational responsibilities that institutions have to prevent and appropriately respond to disability harassment, and to suggest measures that school officials should take to address this very serious problem. This letter is not an exhaustive legal analysis. Rather, it is intended to provide a useful overview of the existing legal and educational principles related to this important issue.

Why Disability Harassment Is Such an Important Issue

Through a variety of sources, both OCR and OSERS have become aware of concerns about disability harassment in elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities. In a series of conference calls with OSERS staff, for example, parents, disabled persons, and advocates for students with disabilities raised disability harassment as an issue that was very important to them. OCR’s complaint workload has reflected a steady pace of allegations regarding this issue, while the number of court cases involving allegations of disability harassment has risen. OCR and OSERS recently conducted a joint focus group where we heard about the often devastating effects on students of disability harassment that ranged from abusive jokes, crude name-calling, threats, and bullying, to sexual and physical assault by teachers and other students.

We take these concerns very seriously. Disability harassment can have a profound impact on students, raise safety concerns, and erode efforts to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to the myriad benefits that an education offers. Indeed, harassment can seriously interfere with the ability of students with disabilities to receive the education critical to their advancement. We are committed to doing all that we can to help prevent and respond to disability harassment and lessen the harm of any harassing conduct that has occurred. We seek your support in a joint effort to address this critical issue and to promote such efforts among educators who deal with students daily.

What Laws Apply to Disability Harassment

Schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions have a responsibility to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students, including students with disabilities. This responsibility is based on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title II), which are enforced by OCR. Section 504 covers all schools, school districts, and colleges and universities receiving federal funds. Title II covers all state and local entities, including school districts and public institutions of higher education, whether or not they receive federal funds. Disability harassment is a form of discrimination prohibited by Section 504 and Title II. Both Section 504 and Title II provide parents and students with grievance procedures and due process remedies at the local level. Individuals and organizations also may file complaints with OCR.

States and school districts also have a responsibility under Section 504, Title II, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is enforced by OSERS, to ensure that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is made available to eligible students with disabilities. Disability harassment may result in a denial of FAPE under these statutes. Parents may initiate administrative due process procedures under IDEA, Section 504, or Title II to address a denial of FAPE, including a denial that results from disability harassment. Individuals and organizations also may file complaints with OCR, alleging a denial of FAPE that results from disability harassment. In addition, an individual or organization may file a complaint alleging a violation of IDEA under separate procedures with the state educational agency. State compliance with IDEA, including compliance with FAPE requirements, is monitored by OSERS’ Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

Harassing conduct also may violate state and local civil rights, child abuse, and criminal laws. Some of these laws may impose obligations on educational institutions to contact or coordinate with state or local agencies or police with respect to disability harassment in some cases; failure to follow appropriate procedures under these laws could result in action against an educational institution. Many states and educational institutions also have addressed disability harassment in their general anti-harassment policies.

Disability Harassment May Deny a Student an Equal Opportunity to Education under Section 504 or Title II

Disability harassment under Section 504 and Title II is intimidation or abusive behavior toward a student based on disability that creates a hostile environment by interfering with or denying a student’s participation in or receipt of benefits, services, or opportunities in the institution’s program. Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling, as well as nonverbal behavior, such as graphic and written statements, or conduct that is physically threatening, harmful, or humiliating.

When harassing conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates a hostile environment, it can violate a student’s rights under the Section 504 and Title II regulations. A hostile environment may exist even if there are no tangible effects on the student where the harassment is serious enough to adversely affect the student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the educational program. Examples of harassment that could create a hostile environment follow.

o Several students continually remark out loud to other students during class that a student with dyslexia is “retarded” or “deaf and dumb” and does not belong in the class; as a result, the harassed student has difficulty doing work in class and her grades decline.

o A student repeatedly places classroom furniture or other objects in the path of classmates who use wheelchairs, impeding the classmates’ ability to enter the classroom.

o A teacher subjects a student to inappropriate physical restraint because of conduct related to his disability, with the result that the student tries to avoid school through increased absences.

o A school administrator repeatedly denies a student with a disability access to lunch, field trips, assemblies, and extracurricular activities as punishment for taking time off from school for required services related to the student’s disability.

o A professor repeatedly belittles and criticizes a student with a disability for using accommodations in class, with the result that the student is so discouraged that she has great difficulty performing in class and learning.

o Students continually taunt or belittle a student with mental retardation by mocking and intimidating him so he does not participate in class.

When disability harassment limits or denies a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from an educational institution’s programs or activities, the institution must respond effectively. Where the institution learns that disability harassment may have occurred, the institution must investigate the incident(s) promptly and respond appropriately.

Disability Harassment Also May Deny a Free Appropriate Public Education

Disability harassment that adversely affects an elementary or secondary student’s education may also be a denial of FAPE under the IDEA, as well as Section 504 and Title II. The IDEA was enacted to ensure that recipients of IDEA funds make available to students with disabilities the appropriate special education and related services that enable them to access and benefit from public education. The specific services to be provided a student with a disability are set forth in the student’s individualized education program (IEP), which is developed by a team that includes the student’s parents, teachers and, where appropriate, the student. Harassment of a student based on disability may decrease the student’s ability to benefit from his or her education and amount to a denial of FAPE.

How to Prevent and Respond to Disability Harassment

Schools, school districts, colleges, and universities have a legal responsibility to prevent and respond to disability harassment. As a fundamental step, educational institutions must develop and disseminate an official policy statement prohibiting discrimination based on disability and must establish grievance procedures that can be used to address disability harassment. A clear policy serves a preventive purpose by notifying students and staff that disability harassment is unacceptable, violates federal law, and will result in disciplinary action. The responsibility to respond to disability harassment, when it does occur, includes taking prompt and effective action to end the harassment and prevent it from recurring and, where appropriate, remedying the effects on the student who was harassed.

The following measures are ways to both prevent and eliminate harassment:

o Creating a campus environment that is aware of disability concerns and sensitive to disability harassment; weaving these issues into the curriculum or programs outside the classroom.

o Encouraging parents, students, employees, and community members to discuss disability harassment and to report it when they become aware of it.

o Widely publicizing anti-harassment statements and procedures for handling discrimination complaints, because this information makes students and employees aware of what constitutes harassment, that such conduct is prohibited, that the institution will not tolerate such behavior, and that effective action, including disciplinary action, where appropriate, will be taken.

o Providing appropriate, up-to-date, and timely training for staff and students to recognize and handle potential harassment.

o Counseling both person(s) who have been harmed by harassment and person(s) who have been responsible for the harassment of others.

o Implementing monitoring programs to follow up on resolved issues of disability harassment.

o Regularly assessing and, as appropriate, modifying existing disability harassment policies and procedures for addressing the issue, to ensure effectiveness.

Technical Assistance Is Available

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley has emphasized the importance of ensuring that schools are safe and free of harassment. Students can not learn in an atmosphere of fear, intimidation, or ridicule. For students with disabilities, harassment can inflict severe harm. Teachers and administrators must take emphatic action to ensure that these students are able to learn in an atmosphere free from harassment.

Disability harassment is preventable and can not be tolerated. Schools, colleges, and universities should address the issue of disability harassment not just when but before incidents occur. As noted above, awareness can be an important element in preventing harassment in the first place.

The Department of Education is committed to working with schools, parents, disability advocacy organizations, and other interested parties to ensure that no student is ever subjected to such conduct, and that where such conduct occurs, prompt and effective action is taken. For more information, you may contact OCR or OSEP through 1-800-USA-LEARN or 1-800-437-0833 for TTY services. You also may directly contact one of the OCR enforcement offices listed on the enclosure or OSEP, by calling (202) 205-5507 or (202) 205-5465 for TTY services.

Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.

Norma V. Cantu,
Assistant Secretary for
Civil Rights

What about the child who doesn’t look disabled but everyone just thinks is “wierd?” Being “wierd” is a major symptom of my child’s disability because it affects his social skills and ability to communicate. I once explained that to a child who was telling other children my son is “wierd.”

Disability harassment under Section 504 and Title II is intimidation or abusive behavior toward a student based on disability that creates a hostile environment by interfering with or denying a student’s participation in or receipt of benefits, services, or opportunities in the institution’s program. Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling, as well as nonverbal behavior, such as graphic and written statements, or conduct that is physically threatening, harmful, or humiliating.

“Based on having a disability” not as result of being disabled,not based on looking disabled. IN actuality, the school Rose, is very responsible here,they are violating your sons right to make sure others around him are educated and providing to your son an enviroment that is not hostile,humiliating,threatening nor denying him the benefits or his education such as developing social skills and communication skills. If the comment he is weird is to effectively prevent him from participation in the activities going on at that playground then he IS being discriminated against and the school is allowing your son to be harrassed. As defined by the Office of civil rights,Office of Special educational programs.

It is amazing how this board and its wonderful supporters “read minds”. The district I am, has a bullying/harrassment policy. There is a feeder school K-8 district to the east of us, that has no policy in place. I was recently contacted my opinion on this topic and how to get it on the board agenda for action.

I would like to say that you have proven time and time again to be an advocate for your children. Way to Go!

Thanks for the information. Alex has only been mainstreaming less than a day a week this year but we have an IEP Friday about full time mainstreaming next year. This will really help me to address some of my concerns. Especially since I’ve already seen what can happen to him on the playground.

(1) The kid who is harassed for being too “good”. My daughter was underweight and quiet, nerdy, not fond of noisy disorganized play. She was not disabled but she sure got harassed and bullied. I tried going through the school, which was a waste of time; they were stuck in a 1970’s do your own thing mindset. I got fed up when the kid who literally weighed twice what she did physically intimidated her and I happened to see one of many instances; I faced him down (carefully keeping a ten foot distance so I couldn’t be accused of doing anything to him) and told him that next time he would have to answer to someone bigger, namely me. His mother complained to the school and I got called in with a complaint. I told my daughter how a group of kids in my youth rediscovered “united we stand” and when a bully tried to push one of us down and rub her face in the snow, we got together and did the same to him — self-defense. She started to hang out with a bunch of “big” girls in Grade 3 — and the bully’s mother went to the school and accused her of starting a gang!! This is a serious complaint that could have ended up in juvenile court. Luckily I happened accidentally on the best possible answer — I visualized the scene, my forty-pound delicate polite shy well-spoken blonde six-year-old girl being accused by the big lumpish grade 3 boy — and I broke up in hysterics and said “Let them try it!” That was the end of that instance. But what about the mothers who don’t have the strength of character to stand up to bully kids from bully families? Not easy.

(2) One of the many, many reasons I’m not teaching in public schools any more: as a teacher, you are given all the responsibilities and zero rights. This is a very frustrating and often personally dangerous situation. Teachers are required (by law) to supervise playgrounds and cafeterias and corridors, but often have absolutely no disciplinary measures that they are permitted to take, no backup from the administration, and no legal protection should things go wrong. This is pretty frightening. I stopped some girls from playing “horsey” running through a rough field with skipping ropes tied around the necks; and I was the one who got called into the office, for interfering. I stopped some kids from jumping on tractor tires, lying on their sides, that other kids were inside of; and I was the one who got called into the office, for interfering. If a kid had been injured or killed in those situations, I would have lost my teaching credentials and been in court before you could turn around; but when I tried to prevent the accidents, I was the one who was wrong. I happened into the bathroom where some very serious bullying was going on, two Grade 5 girls locked into the stalls preventing a third from using the toilet so that she would wet herself and be terribly embarrassed. I took the girls down to my classroom and sat them down to write explanations of what they were doing there, to make them think about their actions; and you’ll never guess who got in trouble for disciplining somebody else’s students.
If you want to stop bullying, first step: *let* teachers enforce rules and policies that already exist; *let* teachers take action to keep a safe and pleasant environment. Insist that principals and administrators support teachers taking these actions, not fall over backwards to apologize to the bullies’ bullying parents.

definitely a double edged sword Victoria,things are as easy as the first appear,very true.

I do believe the advent of having these plans to prevent bullying after incidents like columbine occured, are not supposed to be strictly for disabled children. Being a teacher in public school has got to be a scary feat at best. Zero tolerance rules abound these days.

Bullying is a tough issue. It often is exclusion rather than physical violence. I remember when a slap on my child’s face would have been easier to deal with than the constant sneers and manipulation of the clique to exclude or jeer my daughter.
It a tough issue and requires a schoolwide awareness, training and policy. www.bullying.com has lots of info. The best source I have ever come across was conference sessions with Michael Thompson, phd. He wrote ‘Raising Cain’ as well but works extensively with schools on bullying. He is insistant that the school needs to want to do something. He involves parents.

A huge issue in a many, many schools. Takes everybody on board to fix.

I pray we never run into it again. Made our life hell for 2 years. We moved.

I think this is a very difficult problem but that the attitude of the teachers and administrators make a huge difference. I would start by making sure that my child was in a school that had a zero tolerance for bullying. It makes a big difference. You don’t want a school which basically believes in the survival of the fittest.

Beth

We have found that just because kids presumably “understand” the plight of LD children does not necessarily stop bullying. The worst offender in our son’s class is the son of an elementary LD teacher in another elementary school in our district. Some kids are just mean. Mean kids suck, of course, but it’s still the district’s responsibility to guard against the actions of kid such as these, in my opinion.

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