Lynn schools to address bullying

LYNN – With changes made to anti-bullying legislation released in early May, Lynn Public Schools will be putting “best practices” methods in place until an official policy is created.Dennis Thompson, assistant director of curriculum K-12 health and physical education, presented the school committee with the temporary policies last night, which were created after he and Superintendent Catherine Latham attended a conference at the office of Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett.”This summer, Dr. Latham will spearhead a bullying committee,” Thompson said. “We will have principals, teachers and other administrators as a part of that committee. We will do some formal planning in getting our curriculum and getting our policies in place. As of January 1, 2011, every school district in the state of Massachusetts must have a policy in place. We will comply with that.”He said the most important thing is to make sure that each incident is documented. A form has been created for principals to use throughout the remainder of the school year, with space for feedback to make sure it is “a tool instead of a hindrance to the principals.” At the end of the year, Thompson will file the forms.”Every claim must be investigated regardless of how minor the principals or teachers think it is,” he said. “It has to be investigated. That’s the day and age we live in now. The new law states that if anything happens outside of school, be it on the playground or on the Internet, if it affects the learning environment or affects the ability to learn, the principal has the jurisdiction to act.”Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy spoke about the suicide of 15-year-old South Hadley student Phoebe Prince, mentioning that the school knew bullying was occurring outside of school but it was out of their hands.”When the school knows, that may be the only place a child finds a trusted adult,” she said. “The schools have to take action now or face the consequences.”Students will also have to face the consequences if they are considered bullies. According to Thompson, it is considered bullying after three offenses, which is why documentation is so imperative to the new policy. If bullying appears to be a problem, parents of the bully, as well as the bullied, will be notified. If disciplinary action is needed, it will be taken to the superintendent.Punishment could be as little as two to three days or a full suspension, which is 10 days, and would need to be approved by secretary of the school committee Thomas Iarrobino.Eventually, as a part of the new policy, schools will have a bullying coordinator to handle incident reports and investigations, but principals will be responsible for notifying parents.Latham said there have been an increased number of bullying complaints placed by parents since the issue was pushed into the limelight in January.”With all the news that has been on, parents are worried,” she said. “I don’t blame them. They are worried. Something happens in school, kids do fight, but they get worried. I think that this will calm down and be a little bit better as we all get a handle on this, but I understand their concern and right now, we really don’t want a Phoebe Prince incident here or anything like that.”