NJ anti-bullying law puts responsibility on the schools (EVERYONE!)

In January, Gov. Chris Christie signed the toughest anti-bullying law in the country. The “Anti-bullying Bill of Rights” eliminates loopholes in the state’s first anti-bullying law, enacted in 2002, when districts were encouraged but not required to establish anti-bullying programs. The mandate – which gained steam after the suicide of a Rutgers University freshman after a bullying incident – is now clear.

The law is intended to strengthen the standards and procedures for preventing, reporting, investigating and responding to incidents of “Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying” (HIB). It requires training for most public school teachers, administrators and other employees on how to spot bullying. A district “Anti-bullying Coordinator” must be selected, as well as a team of “school anti-bullying specialists” charged with fostering a positive school climate.

A “School Safety Team” will review claims. School districts will be graded by the state on their efforts to combat the bullying problem.

Bullying is defined as any gesture or written, verbal or physical act or electronic communication that substantially disrupts or interferes with the operations of the school district or the rights of others. It is “insulting and demeaning” behavior that creates a hostile environment.

If a school employee is made aware of an incident – in or out of school –that meets HIB criteria, a thorough investigation must follow. Administrators who do not investigate reported incidents would be disciplined, while students who bully could be suspended or expelled.

Last Thursday, Ocean City school district employees listened as Superintendent Kathleen Taylor discussed the importance of following the new law to the letter. Any incident of bullying must be verbally reported by the end of the day; it must be in writing within two days.

“There are very strict, very tight timelines,” Taylor said. “We are working on a lot of things. It’s very hard to define what is and what is not bullying.”

The district had a bullying program in place. The new law means that the program has to be revamped.

Taylor said she would present a program to the school board for approval at the Sept. 28 school board meeting. “We have practices in place. This new law brings bullying to the forefront.”

“The state has put a great deal of emphasis on prevention,” Taylor said. “It’s important that any incident is reported and handled. The bulk of the law focuses on prevention. The idea is to stop bullying before it starts.

“Kids that bully need to know the impact,” she said. Sometimes, she said, students are not aware of the toll that bullying takes on the victim.

Victims, she said, should be comfortable and free to confide in a trusted adult if they are bullied.

“Many times with harassment, intimidation and bullying, you have a number of bystanders – they may see this happening but don’t know what to do,” said Taylor. “The idea is to support bystanders, and set up a school culture where bullying is not a cool thing. We need to get children to understand that if you are a victim or you see bullying, you cannot keep quiet. Every school district has to have a program to deal with this. It’s very involved.”

Taylor said the ramifications go beyond the walls of the school building and much farther than the school day. Bullying occurs anywhere, anytime, and the state is holding the school liable for HIB incidents no matter where they occur.

“If a child is at a birthday party on a Saturday and someone bullies them, and they come into school on Monday and tell someone about it, it has to be reported and investigated,” Taylor said. “It’s very involved. Everyone who deals with the school, every staff member, every volunteer, everyone who comes in here will have to be trained.

“We have to make everyone aware that they have a responsibility,” she said. “Everyone in the community has a responsibility. It’s a very strict law and we are going to have to comply with it. Parents are going to have to understand, we may have to investigate an incident that took place out of school. We will have to have programs for parents too.”

[see original article at http://www.shorenewstoday.com/snt/news/index.php/ocean-city-mainmenu/ocean-city-general-news/15943-nj-anti-bullying-law-puts-responsibility-on-the-schools.html ]

The Bully Cycle: Who is Responsible for Keeping Us All Safe?

In order for harassment to take place, you need more than just a bully and a victim. This is a complex event; my good friend and Verbal Judo Master Trainer, Gary T. Klugiewicz, breaks down the situation in an effort to promote greater understanding of these types of events.

****  Read Below **** 

Your Mount Laurel martial artist,
Peter Liciaga

The Bully Cycle: Who is Responsible for Keeping Us All Safe?

by Gary Klugiewicz

Bullying is a complex event.  Since my undergraduate work was in sociology, I usually look at systems when dealing with problem-solving.  So it was only natural that my examination of the bullying problem focuses on system failures rather than the action of the individual bully.  It is important for us all to understand that if we have a bullying problem in our school, social group, or workplace, we have a bigger problem than just one person, the bully, acting badly.

A bully doesn’t operate in a vacuum. The problem encompasses the entire group whether that is a school, a social group, or a workplace.

The Bullying Cycle is made up of:
1. the person who bullies,
2. the victim who gets bullied, and
3. the larger group that allows the bullying to continue.  This larger group is made up of both peer group members and persons in authority who allow bullying to occur and continue.

A key point is that bullying continues in any setting only when the group permits it through a sick sort of co-dependency.

In order to disrupt the Bullying Cycle all three of the following components need to be addressed and mobilized.

• The bullied person needs to be empowered to stand up to the bully and to solicit support from both his/her peer group and appropriate authority figures.

• The peer group needs to be empowered to stand up to the bully, resist him/her with their peer group pressure, and solicit support from person in authority figures.  The authority figures who witness or are notified of bullying activities must then take appropriate action to keep everyone safe.

• Even the bully is part of the equation – s/he needs to be reached out to in order to try to stop that behavior.  The bully must be placed on notice that the behavior needs to cease or appropriate action will be taken. Bullying occurs because we -- the bully, the bullied, the peer group and persons in authority - - allow it.  We need to practice the same type of Ethical Intervention that Dr. George Thompson of the Verbal Judo Institute (www.VerbalJudo.com) trains police officers to use when a member of their group acts badly.  Who is responsible for keeping members of our school, group, or workplace safe from bullying?  We all are.  We need to establish a “Caring Watch” of each other to keep us all safe from inappropriate, intimidating, and possibly physically threatening behavior.

• Persons who act like bullies need to be taught that they don’t need to bully, that they can change, and that their bullying will not be tolerated.

• The person being bullied needs to learn that bullying is not okay and that they have the right not to be bullied.  This victim should be taught ways to interrupt the bullying cycle and how to seek out support from his/her peer group and authority figures.  Bullying targets must feel that they are able to reach out to their peer group and authority figures for support.  This person should expect that their peer group will support them and, if needed, that authority figures will protect them.

• Peer group members need to be trained to understand how to appropriately intervene or, if necessary, notify authority figures to help them manage the bullying.  Finally, authority figures need to be trained to recognize bullying behaviors and how to respond appropriately to manage the bullying and that ignoring the problem is harmful to persons under their supervision and harmful to themselves  due to liability concerns that rise out of a “failure to protect” someone in their “care and custody."

Remember bullying doesn’t occur in a vacuum.  It occurs within a system and therefore a systematic approach is needed to manage the problem.  We all need to do our part to keep everyone safe from this kind of misbehavior.  Most people who become abusers were themselves abused.  Let’s stop the Bullying Cycle now by managing bullying one incident at a time.

Gary Klugiewicz is employed by PoliceOne as a law enforcement consultant. He is nationally known as law enforcement defensive tactics trainer. Gary works with Dr. George Thompson from the Verbal Judo Institute. He can be contacted at gtklugiewicz@cs.com. This article originally appeared at the Better Kids Institute. Used with permission.

Introduction to Verbal Self Defense (Anti-bullying program)

Here is a 20 minute introduction to our Verbal Self-defense program. Grab a cup of coffee or a tea and sit back for a short 20 minute seminar on a program that will teach you and your child how to protect yourself against bullies.