U.S. DOE: It Takes a Village to Curb Bullying

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By Lauren Barack January 27, 2011

With the release of BullyingInfo.org, a new website sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), we caught up with Sunil Mansukhani, the deputy assistant secretary for policy with the DOE's Office for Civil Rights, to ask about a recent letter his office sent to districts, administrators, and educators—and what's expected from schools, parents, and the community to help curb the disturbing bullying trend.

How have schools and administrators responded so far to the letter?

The response has been quite favorable. Everyone is very concerned with this problem and is looking for tools on how to combat it. While combating bullying is first and foremost a local issue, we want to provide them with tools they can use. Back in August we held the first ever federal summit on bullying—where we brought in folks to brainstorm. And every couple of weeks federal agencies have met to develop a bullying prevention plan, combining research-based strategies to reduce bullying over the next couple of years.

What does the DOE hope school districts take away from these new guidelines?

What we wanted to do first of all was explain the difference between bullying and harassment that might be done in violation of federal civil rights laws: the discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and disability. And there are a couple of unique aspects of the law under harassment that we wanted to highlight. The first of which is with harassment, there does not need to be a specific target. As in an employment context, the circumstances of an atmosphere of harassment—such as sexually specific pictures being passed around—can be enough as it creates a hostile environment. And in a school, this could be a situation where learning cannot happen. Sometimes bullying crosses over and creates a hostile environment. So we wanted to make sure school districts were aware of this problem and then take steps to eliminate the hostile environment and prevent it from occurring.

What are some ways school districts can support students?

In any bullying situation, the typical response is to discipline the perpetrator, which may be necessary but not sufficient in a hostile environment. We need to look at disinfecting the environment. And part of that is implementing a monitoring program so it can be nipped in the bud. There needs to be counseling to the person conducting the harassment but also to the person being harassed. And sometimes there may need to be a school climate survey so students feel safe at school. We have to make sure districts have well publicized procedures for prohibiting harassment, and then people should know what those procedures are to report complaints, and how school districts will resolve them.

How can teachers and school librarians help?

The first thing I would suggest is if they don't see policies and procedures regarding bullying and harassment in their school, to talk to their administration to get that started. Teachers are the ones seeing students on a day-to-day basis, and so they can create an environment so that students feel comfortable talking about how they've been affected.

Particularly for school librarians, bullying often happens in places that are outside the classroom, whether that's a study hall or in a library. It can be in any one place, but librarians are often in the best position to see if something is going on. And in each situation they would need to use their best judgment on how to respond. We also encourage teachers and librarians to contact one of our 12 regional offices. We're happy to provide assistance, either through a one-on-one phone call, or they can invite our office out for presentations.

Has the Internet changed the nature of bullying?

The nature of bullying has changed with the advent of the Internet. We've heard about the recent tragedies, the spate of suicides, some very serious consequences, and some troubling statistics. [The Office for Civil Rights] got over 800 reports of harassment alleged in the year ending Sept 30, 2010 and that was a 7 percent increase over the last fiscal year. And the harassment complaints were 12 percent of all our complaints.

Part of it is just understanding how cyberbullying reaches far beyond school hours and the school yard. And so students might be coming to school feeling afraid of what might have happened the night before. The best administrators will see how students might be affected in the day.

What exactly can schools do when bullying happens off campus—like over the Internet or with mobile devices?

What we've seen in these harassment cases is that there is a repeated pattern of conduct often directed at a particular person. And that conduct is not 100 percent offsite. Things are happening in the school day, whether that's in study hall or somewhere at the school, and the effects of that problem might be manifested in how a student is performing in class. And so there's still enough going in the school yard that an administrator needs to be attuned to.

Does the DOE believe parents should be involved?

We know parents are an important part of the solution. So just like we're doing what we can do with administrators, we want to make parents aware of their rights as well. Most of the complaints we get are coming from parents. What we want, and what we have said as part of our letter, is to get the community involved, whether developing a plan to raise awareness or outreach. Really everyone needs to pitch in here. We need to get the whole community involved to come together to prevent future harassments.

This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.

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