STATE LAW INEFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING BULLYING
Many cases go unreported
Nine years after the suicide of Phoebe Prince shocked legislators into action against school bullies, Massachusetts schools are failing to protect thousands of kids from their tormentors, with as many as 14,000 kids claiming they were bullied in a recent survey while just 2,000 cases a year are reported to the state.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey in 2017 found that of the state’s nearly 1 million K-12 students, 15 percent reported being bullied in school or online, while 12 percent said they had contemplated suicide.
But during the 2017-18 school year, schools reported only 2,031 cases of bullying — a number that represents just 0.2 percent of the state’s public school students.
The numbers indicate that the bullying of thousands of children goes undetected or unreported, as was the case with Anna Aslanian, 16, of Lowell who killed herself in October, revealing only in a letter she left behind that her self-esteem had been devastated by harassment in middle school.
“We’re in trouble with our whole country right now,” said national bullying expert Barbara Coloroso. “If we’re just dealing with laws, we haven’t done enough. … We’re no longer on a walk — we’re on a bullet train and we can’t help but think that our schools are impacted by this.”
Coloroso said anti-bullying laws are “necessary” but they aren’t “sufficient.” She said the law must be used in conjunction with policies, procedures and programs enforced by individual school districts.
“Our kids are not all right. Many of them are coming to school scared,”
said Coloroso.
Data from the state Department of Education also shows that few students are being disciplined for bullying — just 915 statewide in the 2017-18 school year. Boston Public Schools filed the most bullying reports of any district in the state — 178 reports. However, just 29 students were suspended or removed from class for bullying.
Jill Carter, BPS acting assistant superintendent for social and emotional learning, said the district focuses on using other forms of discipline for bullying, like Saturday classes, instead of suspension.
“Ultimately we want to keep students engaged in school and so this is a method where we’re going to work with you to understand that your behaviors are not appropriate,” said Carter.
BPS saw a dramatic decrease in the number of reported bullying incidents over the past two school years — from 354 reports to 178. But Carter said there has been an increase in reporting on the district’s bullying hotline, which was implemented in 2016.
“It’s important you have strong policies,” Carter said. “Then schools need to come up with a real way to implement these policies.”
But Meghan McCoy of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University said the law can only go so far in helping students feel safe at school.
“The policies are doing what they can to address these issues, but these are not policy issues, these are human being issues,” said McCoy.
McCoy said schools should focus on securing time and funding for social and emotional learning programs that teach students skills like coping mechanisms.
“If we can find ways to put resources into developmental programs that can be implemented into all of our subject areas, those are areas where we need the support,” said McCoy.
The landmark 2010 anti-bullying law established a new set of requirements for schools that included procedures for staff and students to report bullying, standards for reporting incidents to law enforcement, and requirements to provide annual training to all faculty.
Norfolk state Rep. Alice Hanlon Peisch, a sponsor of the bill, said, “While it is unfortunate that the law cannot prevent all bad behavior from taking place, the 2014 updates to Massachusetts’ bullying law strengthened what were already some of the strongest anti-bullying protections in the country. All schools across the state are required to adhere to bullying intervention plans that help protect vulnerable students and address bullying issues if they arise.”