John Merrow reminds his readers that bullying is illegal. It is not enough simply to react or to comfort students after the fact. Only in the era of Trump would this conversation take place. Just because the president does it, doesn’t make it either right or legal.
Merrow writes:
As schools reopen in the New Year and Donald Trump’s inauguration draws near, the reality of dramatic increases in hate speech and hate behavior cannot be ignored. Educators need to know that merely reacting to offenses will not be adequate. The adults in charge need to step up and be proactive. They must draw some very clear lines about what behavior will not be tolerated. It’s not enough to offer counseling and sympathetic hugs after the fact!
Why? Not just for the right reason–to support vulnerable students–but also to cover their own butts, because ‘after the fact’ actions, no matter how warm and supportive, are insufficient, inappropriate and almost certainly illegal.
The law is very much on the side of the victims, and school authorities ought to know that they are obligated under federal law to protect young people. I am not referring to anti-bullying legislation, which differs to state to state, but to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, sometimes known as ‘That damned sports law.’ Title IX clearly prohibits sexual harassment, and, even when bullying is ostensibly directed against an individual’s race, ethnicity or religion, it almost invariably includes sexual references. Girls are called “sluts” and “hos,” boys are called “fags’ and other names. Sexual rumors and comments are frequent. And the above behavior violates the granddaddy of all laws in this area, Title IX.
Title IX also prohibits these behaviors outside the school, such as when personal computers are used, when the behavior is disruptive to learning or affects a student’s ability to partake of the opportunities for learning and in other opportunities provided by the school. In short, schools and school administrator, under Title IX, are obligated to stop sexual cyber-bullying. Moreover, they stand to lose federal funding if they do not. Some school districts have paid 6-figure settlements for their demonstrated failure to protect students from harassment and cyber-bullying.
Only this president is free to bully people and groups with impunity. You are not!
I am incredibly upset by Murrow’s implication that most teachers allow bullying and don’t teaching anything to help stop it.
The vast majority of us are fighting to stop bullying, and teaching about ways to stop being bystanders and to speak up.
Murrow has never been a fan of teachers–just a few “superstar” teachers, and I am TIRED of being a general, run-of-the-mill teacher who gets blamed for the woes of the world.
TOW,
My reaction is the same. Really? You think I am capable of ending an age old practice. Children were bullied when I was a child back in the Dark Ages. One of my classmates committed suicide due to bullying. I do everything in my power to make my students treat each other with respect. Is anyone interested in the fact that I am being bullied by my administration?
See my post below Abigail.
Threatened Out West: for the moment I will give John Merrow the benefit of the doubt, but his first paragraph (and the tenor of what follows) could clearly be interpreted as meaning that “educators” are primarily responsible for permitting, condoning and refusing to deal with bullying.
Abigail Shure: if Mr. Merrow thinks that bullying is such a great problem, then he needs to read and ponder the last sentence of your comment: “Is anyone interested in the fact that I am being bullied by my administration?”
Notice the unintended bow in the direction of rheephorm thinking: as students, parents and most school staff (including teachers) are increasingly vulnerable to all sorts of destructive and disruptive behaviors by those in charge of schools—
The responsibility for dealing with problems gets shoved down to those least empowered to do anything about it.
Thank you both for your comments.
😎
YES! Is anyone interested in the fact that teachers across the nation are now being bullied, harassed, blamed and ultimately dismissed? Can John Merrow ,or any other “education” journalist, truly look at the looming teacher shortage and NOT see where it is, exactly, that these long, horrendous years of teacher bullying have led?
Well said. I have watched in anger as for YEARS, now, media outlets (TV shows, sitcoms, movies) have begun to promote student bullying for “entertainment” value as they additionally keep teachers off to the sidelines, or even show them participating in the poor behavior. Too many non-teachers who never go into schools or classrooms actually think of these media versions as reality.
I cannot , as a teacher, tell my students that it is OK for the President to bully someone. It is not!!! We cannot let our children believe that inappropriate behavior is correct for adults , but not children.
YES, abbynkids.
The point that Merrow misses is that public schooling is based on fear and bullying those below into compliance-“If you don’t do as I command you will be banished”.
From the Federal Dept of Ed to the State Depts of Ed to the district admin down into each school admin onto and through the teachers onto the students who bear the brunt of an oppressive, falsely conceived “measurements” standards and testing regime which discriminates against certain students for characteristics (mental capabilities) over which the student has no control and which is inherently biological in origin.
Talk about “the civil rights issue of the times”, that discrimination via testing is wrong, dead wrong and very few have had the cojones to stand up to that blatant bullying that is occurring on a daily basis in our public school classrooms.
And, as you know, Duane, it all runs downhill. Even if a teacher is trying to shield her students from the negative effects of the testing, so the students don’t get the brunt of it, the teacher does. It’s happened to me.
And before you accuse me of being GAGA, Duane–my moniker is “Threatened out West” BECAUSE I’ve been threatened with losing my license because I speak out against the testing and refuse to do it.
I know you have TOW and thanks for the resistance. I too have felt the sting of and brunt of that resistance.
Thank you, Threatened, we need more like you.
The president elect is harsh, uncouth and a horrible example for students.
In my 21 years of teaching in a low income urban school district, the biggest challenge I face daily, is behavior. Bullying is a serious and often complex problem to remediate, but there is another kind of misbehavior that is chronic, wide spread and seriously compromises the opportunities of students who actually come to the class room ready to learn. This, ( and a shameful lack of resources), is the elephant in the room that cripples education.
I have, over time, become very good at the critical component to teaching called classroom management. I have also seen many new, bright, and efficacious teachers quit because student behavior is so extreme, they are overwhelmed.
Despite the fact that I, like most of the teachers at my school, am good at my job, I know that I spend way too much time dealing with the social and emotional needs of students. These behaviors manifest as: defiance, persistent disruptiveness, a disproportionate need for attention, aggressive/contentious behavior towards peers and staff, and an inability to focus. This goes beyond what teachers and schools are designed and resourced to remediate. I know that the culture of my classroom, and my school is determined, in large part, by the worst behavior, not the best. This is unfair and corrupt. Why should the best students have their education overshadowed and, literally, coopted by students that are not prepared to hold up their end of the bargain?
Many charter schools deal with this problem by using a zero tolerance model. While I can empathize with this approach, I know that it is extreme, demeaning to students and staff, and a substitute for a real solution. Often if a parent and student can’t live up to the zero tolerance culture of the charter school, they are “counseled out”, back into the local public school. How does tis serve that student, or the classmates that his behavior effects?
While bullying is a real problem that must be taken seriously, it is dwarfed by this other kind of behavior that occurs daily, and yet, seems to go unrecognized. Real school reform would focus on this challenge first, since it has the biggest impact on the quality of a student’s education.
Jonathon is correct. I have been teaching in public schools for almost 20 years. The degree of discipline problems is often overlooked and dismissed even within my own district. The principal usually just turns her eyes away and expects teachers to deal with it. Likewise, if a student is sent to the office, the child usually gets to play on the IPAD or do some kind of fun activity. My principal actually told me that “consequences ” don’t work with most behaviorally challenged kids. Go figure!
Mr. M’s comment s about bullying and teachers is patronizing and uninformed. Until children who are disrupting classrooms and getting away with it, are allowed to act out in all sorts of ways that interfere with other students’ learning then bullying then bullying is not seriously being dealt with. So much easier to point the finger at teachers instead of looking at that elephant in the room!!!
Sixteen years after the top-down bullies in schools cars America were allowed to fabricate charges and throw the tenured professional teachers out the door, we are suddenly worried about bullying the children?
What about US, the dedicated professional who devoted our lives to the future citizens, the children of this nation.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
If you have never visited th site that Lenny Isenberg put up when they took him away from his classroom in hand-cuffs
http://www.perdaily.com/2010/02/yesterday-i-was-removed-from-class-in-handcuffs.html
for blowing the whistle onSocial promotion,
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/social-promotion–lausds-prime-mover-for-continued-and-predictable-student-failure–do-they-really-w.html now is the time. Use perennially as a reference guide to democracy
He has chronicled the swamp that is LAUSD, the second largest school system in the 15,880; he explains that for every tenured teacher fired, or any teacher not allowed to reach tenure, the district saves 60,000 in benefits. With the budget about to be overwhelmed by budget obligations, instead of funding public education, the Eli Broad backed bureaucrats and corrupt politicians in LA, figured that thy could fabricate charges
and remove teachers willy nilly, with clear civil rights violations
http://www.perdaily.com/2015/01/were-you-terminated-or-forced-to-retire-from-lausd-based-on-fabricated-charges.html
–which they did as the media ranted about bad teachers.
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
Read about Jo Scott Coe, the teacher at point blank range
http://www.perdaily.com/2010/11/teacher-at-point-blank-by-jo-scott-coe.html
Lenny pointed out the collusion of the union UTLA which supported the dismissal process (so much for all the ranters who claim unions protect those ‘bad teachers)!
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/03/lausd-and-utla–connecting-the-dots-of-blattant-corruption.html
He wrote about Carroll years ago: FORMER CTC ATTORNEY KATHLEEN CARROLL LAYS OUT UNHOLY ALLIANCE BETWEEN UNION AND PUBLIC EDUCATION PRIVATIZERS http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
it is ALL about money .
Hey, they did it in NYC, the largest in the nation, in the nineties and even now, ending civil rights for Americans who happened to be teachers. It happened to me when I was a celebrated teacher, filmed by Pew and the cohort for the National Standards.
http://www.opednews.com/author/comments/author40790.html
This is what the result was in NYC when the best educators were GONE!
If Merrow wants a crackdown on bullying, he needs to agitate to give schools’ stronger tools for discipline. Currently there’s a huge stigma to suspending and expelling kids. “Big sticks” are what’s needed to convince the bullies to quit it. Or do we think the Muslim-bashing bully just needs counseling, or to go through the “restorative justice” rigamarole?
Bullies… Suddenly , bullies are in the news, because a bully is president, a man who said he could assault women?
Well, here is his equal… a principal whose harassment of Lorna Stremcha, a Montana teacher, was not successful —, so he set her up to be sexually assaulted… and NOTHING HAPPENED TO HIM…well NOT UNTIL SHE SPENT ALL HER SAVINGS TO TAKE HIM TO COURT.
Then she worked with Montana Senator Testor, to end workplace bullying OF TEACHERS in the educational workplace.
OH, you haven’t heard about this? “School bullying statistics and cyber bullying statistics are increasingly viewed as an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide. Case studies of the shooting at Columbine High School and other U.S. schools have suggested that bullying was a factor in many of the incidents. As a result, dealing with bullies is now becoming an American industry. Companies are being hired to deal with bullies and the trial lawyers are looking at the problem. Acknowledgement must be made that some try to milk the system. The costs related to their complaints and legal actions contribute to that billion-dollar figure.
Why is this happening?”
HOW COULD IT HAPPEN TO TEACHERS!
Exactly!!!!
Here is her Must read book “Bravery, Bullies and Blowhards:”
Stremcha included advice for people who feel they are bullied or harassed at work, with plenty of warning for a long, difficult journey ahead.
“We must break the code of silence and shine the spotlight on those who are not fit to teach or administer our schools,” she wrote.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/my-montana/2016/03/18/educator-recounts-harassment-school/81896206/
For those who are still name calling – Putinisms – and weeping and can’t wake up from their nightmares – I proffer the following list which should get you motivated to do something rather than curl up in your safe places that have no walls
Just an FYI, there have been some changes on the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee due to the election. These committee members will hold their hearing for Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos on January 11th. I’d encourage you to contact them with questions they can ask of the nominee. I have eleven questions of my own here if you need some ideas.
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) – Chair (@SenAlexander)
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (R-WA) – Ranking Member (@PattyMurray)
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) (@SenatorBaldwin)
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) (@SenBennetCO)
U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) (@SenatorBurr)
U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) (@SenBobCasey)
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) (@BillCassidy)
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) (@SenatorCollins)
U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) (@SenatorEnzi)
U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) (@SenFranken)
U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) (@SenatorHassan)
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) (@SenOrrinHatch)
U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) (@SenatorIsakson)
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) (@SenKaineOffice)
U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) (@lisamurkowski)
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) (@SenMurphyOffice)
U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) (@RandPaul)
U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) (@SenPatRoberts)
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (@SenSanders)
U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) (@SenatorTimScott)
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (@SenWarren)
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) (@SenWhitehouse)
U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) (@SenToddYoung)
Thank you. Very helpful list.
The tone of this article places responsibility for the conduct of students on teachers.
Merrow says “The adults in charge need to step up and be proactive. They must draw some very clear lines about what behavior will not be tolerated.”
I agree, but that point is not developed in this article.
The place to begin is with President-elect Trump and every public official who has approved his multifaced bullying by remaining silent about his conduct.
Teachers are drowning in recommendations to prevent bullying. See for example
http://www.stopbullying.gov
http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov/index.php?id=01
The irony: It is probable that these and other recommendations will be vanished. It seems likely that vouchers will be marketed as the panacea.
An irony is that voucher schools and charter schools ARE better equipped to drop the hammer on bullies: unlike our hamstrung public schools, they can make a credible threat of expulsion. Liberal groupthink notwithstanding, fear is a tool that can be employed for good.
ponderosa,
You are wrong about that. Voucher schools and charter schools are better equipped to enable any bullying that gets the expensive kids out of their school, as long as the “bullies” are helping them do it.
It is all in the definition of bullying.
Public schools have means to address bullying IF teachers follow through with them and the administrators aren’t lazy. Nothing hamstrings a kid who hits another kid from being punished. Nothing. That’s the big lie. But it doesn’t just happen without anyone lifting more than a small finger (“I filled out a form that took 1 minute, nothing happened, I’m done”.)
The same thing that is said about bullies is what is said about incompetent, near-criminal behavior by teachers, fyi, to justify why the union is so bad. “Nothing we can do” unless you break the union and allow principals to fire any teacher they feel like firing. Is that what you believe?
The same thing goes with bullying. Real bullying, which is what we are talking about. Nothing stops the violent ones from being suspended. But suspending a “bully” and thinking when he comes back all will be well because he’s scared of being suspended again is wishful thinking.
Imagine a 10 year old boy who feels terrible about himself because he is overweight and kids laugh at him. He eventually strikes out at someone who teases him or throws a chair that doesn’t hit anyone. You think suspending that kid solves the problem? He comes back to the same environment and all is well? And somehow when you are talking about how teachers’ are hamstrung, you aren’t talking about punishing the kids who tease versus the kids who are “violent” and act out.
NYC Parent,
I (secretly) cheer on the bullied kid who lashes out. But his having to lash out hints at a failure of the adults to keep the bullies in line.
You’re right: public school administrators CAN suspend and expel. But they do so at peril to their careers. It’s a demented truism in education world groupthink that suspensions and expulsions are evidence of administrator failure. What they heck are order-loving administrators to do? They’re supposed to do the impossible: tame even the most hardened students with weak measures like counseling, restorative justice, relationship building and positive incentives. This is bunk, but it’s easy to believe for those who don’t work in the trenches.
Personally I throw the book at bullies. I give detentions, call home, write referrals, send to the office, give stern talks –even though there’s a stigma to doing this. Good teachers don’t need to give detentions or write referrals, you know.
Forgive me for being RELENTLESS, dauntless –in reminding everyone of TEACHER BULLYING — this civil rights abuse to TENS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS who just happened to be teachers… a SANDAL that is UNHEARD OF TO THIS DAY, although chronicled in so many places…like here
http://endteacherabuse.org/
and here
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
It isn’t as if the stories are not OU THERE
http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/2010/07/defamation-of-david-pakter-by-new-york.html
david paketr http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2008/12/david-pakter-nyc-teacher-and.html
and there is Francesco Portelos, YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HIM
http://www.endteacherabuse.org/Portelos
… just because there are almost sixteen THOUSAND school systems, YOU need to know what the ‘freak’ is happening in the BIGGEST SYSTEM IN THE NATION.
They count on YOUR IGNORANCE and that of the public.! (who is they???? https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf
.html:http://nationalpublicvoice.blogspot.com/2012/04/betsy-combier-nyc-department-of.html
Portelos is still standing up to the NYC board of ed, which is bullying him in every way possible. http://protectportelos.org/green-light-for-trial-by-jury-portelos-v-doe-et-al/
TEACHERS MUST FIGHT BACK IN COURT!)
Reduced to a sub (ATR/Absent Teacher Reserve), he tells his story on Facebook… and fights in court.
Look — him up and read how ruthless the Top-dogs at the NYC Ed Department can be when they know the union will do NOTHING to stop them.
Look what they did to him: http://protectportelos.org/does-workplace-bullying-continues-my-33-hrs-behind-bars/
…. and then see how he fights back… even read for UNION PRESIDENT and works with a GRASSROOTS group to fight for US. (the solidaritycuacus.org)
Teacher bullying is an enormous problem, which has gotten worse since everyone decided that the teachers are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens in (and even out of) schools.
What John Merrow wrote, in my opinion, was an article bullying teachers to stop the bullying in schools. I do all I can, but I will NOT be blamed for everything that is wrong in schools.
New Jersey holds teachers liable for reporting incidents that take place outside of school. If, for example, a student tells me about bullying in a park on a Saturday afternoon, I am a mandated reporter. It is not clear whether bullying incidents are increasing or they are being more frequently reported. Are there any recommendations being put forward to decrease incidents of domestic violence and child abuse? Schools do not operate in a vacuum.
Correct me if I am wrong, Abigail, but wouldn’t your report be thrown out as hearsay in a court of law? What stupidity! I would send that student to a counselor or school social worker or an administrator if the district had eliminated all support personnel. The most you should even remotely have to report is that a student reported to you about an incident off school grounds during non-school hours. As to policing computer usage, I suppose a school can play spy if they own the computer, but does the public really want to pay the cost of the district having to hire people to review every student’s cyber activity? I hope Merrow reads this blog, the comments should have him rethinking his brainstorming. Next time maybe he will consider testing and researching his musings before he publishes them. He has shown the ability to do so in the past. Why is the default setting for solving all problems with young people public schools and specifically teachers? I suggest that Merrow research the mandates, both state and local, that define the responsibilities of public school teachers and schools (probably in any locale he chooses).
John Merrow can get down off his high horse now about what teachers need to do.
From what I see of the Republican administration and Congress that is taking shape, I expected bullying to no longer be illegal. Likely, it will be elevated to a patriotic act. You can’t take being bullied – You’re weak! You’re a Loser!
The Goldfish rots from the head down.
An educator does not bully. You see, it’s not possible. The term ‘educate’ means to draw out, not stuff in. Those in the profession know this. Those who pretend, or observe from the outside, do not.