CHILLICOTHE — As recently as October, almost every school district in Ross County had failed to comply with a four-year-old state law requiring that all districts publish a summary of bullying incidents online.
The mandate calls for every district in Ohio, twice per year, to post on its website a summary of all reported acts of bullying. It’s part of a 2007 law requiring the districts to adopt policies prohibiting bullying, harassment and intimidation.
While local school districts’ handbooks show they have enacted policies against bullying, some of their websites show they lag behind when it comes to reporting the incidents to the public.
Four districts in Fairfield County — Amanda-Clearcreek, Liberty Union-Thurston, Fairfield Union and Lancaster — currently have bullying incident reports on their websites. Following the Eagle-Gazette’s request for information, Lancaster brought its link for the bullying report to its home page in an effort to make the information easier to find. They also are found under the “staff” and “parents and students” tabs.
A search of the Bloom-Carroll, Walnut Township and Berne Union websites did not turn up any bullying reports. Bloom-Carroll interim Superintendent Jan Broughton said district officials do post the reports online in January and June each year, but they’re not kept there all year. She said the law doesn’t specify how long they have to be online.
Berne Union and Walnut Township Superintendent Dale Dickson, who started for both districts this fall, said in an email response that he is reviewing the data from the previous school year to determine the number of cases that can be classified as bullying, and will work to provide bullying resources and reports on both districts’ websites.
Other counties had lower compliance rates. In Ross County, for example, Chillicothe City Schools has the report posted on its website, along with its bullying policy, protocol and procedures that administrators are expected to follow.
Zane Trace has a report online, but it’s outdated.
Huntington Local Schools and the Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center have their reports on their websites, but cached Google snapshots of those websites show that on Oct. 29 and Oct. 15, respectively, the reports had not yet been posted.
Paint Valley and Union-Scioto officials confirmed Friday their reports were not available online, but they pledged to post them. The reports also appear to be absent from Adena’s and Southeastern’s websites.
Despite the fact several school districts in Ross County are not — or in the case of Huntington and PRCTC, were not — compliant, all of them except for Paint Valley reference the mandate in their own bullying policies.
Because the districts are not only in violation of their own policies, but also state law, they could be reported to the Ohio Department of Education’s area coordinator, ombudsman, legal counsel or Office of Educational Reform, said Patrick Gallaway, ODE spokesman.
Contact then would be made with the appropriate district official and corrective measures would be developed and implemented, Gallaway said.
Several superintendents owned up to the error but also said they feel overwhelmed by the number of state mandates that are handed down to them. In light of the recent alleged assault caught on video at Unioto High School — which created a national firestorm after the victim’s mother said her son was attacked because he’s gay — the local school officials also offered insight into the challenges they face when investigating and verifying claims of bullying.
Compliance lacking
As it turns out, the non-compliant school districts in Ross County are not alone.
An unofficial survey of district websites by several of the Eagle-Gazette’s sister publications revealed a lack of compliance elsewhere in Ohio. The Zanesville Times Recorder found that just one of 13 districts in Muskingum, Perry, Morgan and Coshocton counties appeared to have a bullying report posted online, and it was from 2009. Similarly, the Mansfield News Journal found that one of nine districts in Richland County appear to have made the reports public on its websites.
In some other cases, the reports were made available but were difficult to find on the website.
Union-Scioto Superintendent Dwight Garrett said his district’s principals meet with the board of education twice per year to review all disciplinary incidents. Still, he said the district dropped the ball in not posting its summary online. He promised it would be posted no later than Monday.
Paint Valley Superintendent Gary Uhrig acknowledged his district had made a mistake in not posting its report online and said, “We’ll put it up.”
“It’s another one of those mandates that can cause a lot of problems for schools,” Uhrig said.
A large number of bullying incidents in a district’s report might dissuade a family from sending their child to school there, he said.
That’s unlikely to be the case for Paint Valley, considering just two reports of bullying have been filed this school year.
Tough to track
Even the way administrators report the number of bullying incidents varies from district to district and school to school.
When House Bill 276 became law in 2007, each school district could choose to adopt the model policy or its own policy, as long as it aligned with the model, ODE’s Gallaway said.
The State Board of Education adopted a policy that limits reporting to verified acts, but some school districts opted to include all reported incidents in their reports, Gallaway said.
“There are likely some districts that may not have any verified acts to report,” Gallaway said.
To muddy the waters further, a parent’s idea of what should be reported might be different from the school’s.
“Some parents will argue that a fist fight is bullying, but it might not be,” Uhrig said.
State law provides the following definition for bullying, which school districts have included in their policies: “Any intentional written, verbal or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once.”
“You have to look at each situation,” Zane Trace Superintendent Richard Spindler said. “Is it harassment? Is it bullying? Is it an argument? It becomes subjective for each principal.”
Spindler said each principal in his district potentially could arrive at a different conclusion on the same incident.
“Everybody has different criteria,” Union-Scioto’s Garrett said.
The key is that there must be a pattern or repetition of the treatment in order for a student to be considered a bully, Garrett said.
“If you get in trouble and then go back and do it again, you’re a bully,” he said.
As Union-Scioto officials face a barrage of criticism for their handling of the Oct. 17 incident, they also are evaluating how they will handle bullying and promote tolerance in the future.
The school initially reportedly gave the alleged attacker a three-day suspension, but reviewed the discipline Oct. 28 in light of a cellphone video of the incident that contradicted the initial investigation. Citing privacy of student records, Garrett has not disclosed the final discipline that was meted out.
Garrett remained mum on the topic Friday, but generally speaking, he said they try to be proactive in the discipline process and, if more evidence later comes to light, they will revisit the discipline that was handed down.
“I think this was an isolated incident, but we know we’re going to have to work harder. ... We know we can do better,” he said.
Garrett said that process will be ongoing, but already there are talks of teaching sociology classes on acceptance as well as diversity training. Student council will be involved, too, he said.
Role of social media
A common complaint among Ross County school administrators is that the ever-growing popularity of social media such as Facebook, YouTube and even text messaging leads to bullying that does not occur under their watch.
“Social media has opened a whole new window for schools to deal with these issues,” Spindler said, adding that it’s creating problems that did not exist 10 or 15 years ago.
Pickaway-Ross Superintendent Dennis Franks said the majority of issues at his school are the result of problems that originate outside of school and on social media, then affect the school because that’s where students having problems with each other are in physical proximity to each other.
Chillicothe Superintendent Jon Saxton said his administrative team uses bullying protocols and enforces bullying policies, but sometimes that’s not enough.
“We deal with each situation when we know about it,” he said. “Problem is, we don’t always know about it.”
The mandate calls for every district in Ohio, twice per year, to post on its website a summary of all reported acts of bullying. It’s part of a 2007 law requiring the districts to adopt policies prohibiting bullying, harassment and intimidation.
While local school districts’ handbooks show they have enacted policies against bullying, some of their websites show they lag behind when it comes to reporting the incidents to the public.
Four districts in Fairfield County — Amanda-Clearcreek, Liberty Union-Thurston, Fairfield Union and Lancaster — currently have bullying incident reports on their websites. Following the Eagle-Gazette’s request for information, Lancaster brought its link for the bullying report to its home page in an effort to make the information easier to find. They also are found under the “staff” and “parents and students” tabs.
A search of the Bloom-Carroll, Walnut Township and Berne Union websites did not turn up any bullying reports. Bloom-Carroll interim Superintendent Jan Broughton said district officials do post the reports online in January and June each year, but they’re not kept there all year. She said the law doesn’t specify how long they have to be online.
Berne Union and Walnut Township Superintendent Dale Dickson, who started for both districts this fall, said in an email response that he is reviewing the data from the previous school year to determine the number of cases that can be classified as bullying, and will work to provide bullying resources and reports on both districts’ websites.
Other counties had lower compliance rates. In Ross County, for example, Chillicothe City Schools has the report posted on its website, along with its bullying policy, protocol and procedures that administrators are expected to follow.
Zane Trace has a report online, but it’s outdated.
Huntington Local Schools and the Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center have their reports on their websites, but cached Google snapshots of those websites show that on Oct. 29 and Oct. 15, respectively, the reports had not yet been posted.
Paint Valley and Union-Scioto officials confirmed Friday their reports were not available online, but they pledged to post them. The reports also appear to be absent from Adena’s and Southeastern’s websites.
Despite the fact several school districts in Ross County are not — or in the case of Huntington and PRCTC, were not — compliant, all of them except for Paint Valley reference the mandate in their own bullying policies.
Because the districts are not only in violation of their own policies, but also state law, they could be reported to the Ohio Department of Education’s area coordinator, ombudsman, legal counsel or Office of Educational Reform, said Patrick Gallaway, ODE spokesman.
Contact then would be made with the appropriate district official and corrective measures would be developed and implemented, Gallaway said.
Several superintendents owned up to the error but also said they feel overwhelmed by the number of state mandates that are handed down to them. In light of the recent alleged assault caught on video at Unioto High School — which created a national firestorm after the victim’s mother said her son was attacked because he’s gay — the local school officials also offered insight into the challenges they face when investigating and verifying claims of bullying.
Compliance lacking
As it turns out, the non-compliant school districts in Ross County are not alone.
An unofficial survey of district websites by several of the Eagle-Gazette’s sister publications revealed a lack of compliance elsewhere in Ohio. The Zanesville Times Recorder found that just one of 13 districts in Muskingum, Perry, Morgan and Coshocton counties appeared to have a bullying report posted online, and it was from 2009. Similarly, the Mansfield News Journal found that one of nine districts in Richland County appear to have made the reports public on its websites.
In some other cases, the reports were made available but were difficult to find on the website.
Union-Scioto Superintendent Dwight Garrett said his district’s principals meet with the board of education twice per year to review all disciplinary incidents. Still, he said the district dropped the ball in not posting its summary online. He promised it would be posted no later than Monday.
Paint Valley Superintendent Gary Uhrig acknowledged his district had made a mistake in not posting its report online and said, “We’ll put it up.”
“It’s another one of those mandates that can cause a lot of problems for schools,” Uhrig said.
A large number of bullying incidents in a district’s report might dissuade a family from sending their child to school there, he said.
That’s unlikely to be the case for Paint Valley, considering just two reports of bullying have been filed this school year.
Tough to track
Even the way administrators report the number of bullying incidents varies from district to district and school to school.
When House Bill 276 became law in 2007, each school district could choose to adopt the model policy or its own policy, as long as it aligned with the model, ODE’s Gallaway said.
The State Board of Education adopted a policy that limits reporting to verified acts, but some school districts opted to include all reported incidents in their reports, Gallaway said.
“There are likely some districts that may not have any verified acts to report,” Gallaway said.
To muddy the waters further, a parent’s idea of what should be reported might be different from the school’s.
“Some parents will argue that a fist fight is bullying, but it might not be,” Uhrig said.
State law provides the following definition for bullying, which school districts have included in their policies: “Any intentional written, verbal or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once.”
“You have to look at each situation,” Zane Trace Superintendent Richard Spindler said. “Is it harassment? Is it bullying? Is it an argument? It becomes subjective for each principal.”
Spindler said each principal in his district potentially could arrive at a different conclusion on the same incident.
“Everybody has different criteria,” Union-Scioto’s Garrett said.
The key is that there must be a pattern or repetition of the treatment in order for a student to be considered a bully, Garrett said.
“If you get in trouble and then go back and do it again, you’re a bully,” he said.
As Union-Scioto officials face a barrage of criticism for their handling of the Oct. 17 incident, they also are evaluating how they will handle bullying and promote tolerance in the future.
The school initially reportedly gave the alleged attacker a three-day suspension, but reviewed the discipline Oct. 28 in light of a cellphone video of the incident that contradicted the initial investigation. Citing privacy of student records, Garrett has not disclosed the final discipline that was meted out.
Garrett remained mum on the topic Friday, but generally speaking, he said they try to be proactive in the discipline process and, if more evidence later comes to light, they will revisit the discipline that was handed down.
“I think this was an isolated incident, but we know we’re going to have to work harder. ... We know we can do better,” he said.
Garrett said that process will be ongoing, but already there are talks of teaching sociology classes on acceptance as well as diversity training. Student council will be involved, too, he said.
Role of social media
A common complaint among Ross County school administrators is that the ever-growing popularity of social media such as Facebook, YouTube and even text messaging leads to bullying that does not occur under their watch.
“Social media has opened a whole new window for schools to deal with these issues,” Spindler said, adding that it’s creating problems that did not exist 10 or 15 years ago.
Pickaway-Ross Superintendent Dennis Franks said the majority of issues at his school are the result of problems that originate outside of school and on social media, then affect the school because that’s where students having problems with each other are in physical proximity to each other.
Chillicothe Superintendent Jon Saxton said his administrative team uses bullying protocols and enforces bullying policies, but sometimes that’s not enough.
“We deal with each situation when we know about it,” he said. “Problem is, we don’t always know about it.”
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