Bullying is in every school except those that have a pro-active program to prevent it. Blaine County schools do not. If it is your student who is being taunted and threatened every school day, to the point that he or she is afraid to go to school and is being emotionally affected, you're probably feeling very frustrated. It does no good to tell your kid to "suck it up," and you also know that the school offers no help.
Sen. Shawn Keough (R-Sandpoint) has introduced Senate Bill S1105 to "help define harassment, intimidation or bullying." (You can read the bill at www.legislature.idaho.gov.)
If it passes, the legislation is one step toward solving the problem. But what is really needed is a preventive, proactive program throughout Idaho schools.
I personally know of students who are bullied, but wouldn't dream of reporting it to a teacher or principal because they know nothing will be done and they'll be the target of even worse bullying. Until there is a district-wide program in place for teachers to identify kids who are bulliers and for those kids to be required to attend an anti-bullying program; and for kids who are being bullied to be able to report anonymously, bullying will go on.
Any school district that wants to get started on an anti-bullying program only needs to go to the Internet and search the word "bullying." A hundred websites will come up, and many of those will provide the tools and protocols for starting a program. There are schools in the U.S. that have already developed an anti-bullying program. I'm sure they'd share their program. It's not rocket science. Parents can do the same search to help them help their child cope.
School districts cannot use the excuse that there's no funding for an anti-bullying program, because it's not very costly to get it going. Begin by admitting that there's a problem. Use some teacher in-service training; do some awareness campaigns. Get the PTA to help; get some parent volunteers; have a student assembly. By not taking action, the district is essentially condoning harassment of its students. The result is that many bullied students will be emotionally harmed, and the bullier students aren't getting the help they need to address their need to intimidate and hurt fellow students. Why are we allowing this to go on?
Kathryn L. Olson
Hailey
