Bullying: State Law Revisions

School districts in the state are taking a hard look at their policies prohibiting bullying and harassment. New state rules will make it mandatory for school boards to adopt revisions to current policies by August of this year.

New requirements will mean tougher rules on reporting instances of harassment and bullying, a community outreach component, changes in the definition of bullying and harassment, and more specific requirements for prevention and intervention .

Andy Maheras, the "new guy on the block," as he puts it, hopes to get a jump on some of those coming requirements. As new principal of Dayton High School, Maheras has already begun enacting change at the district. Two weeks ago he had Columbia County Sheriff's Deputies present a workshop on drugs as a push to begin educating school staff and community members about that problem in the county.

Last week, Maheras coordinated a seminar on antibullying and harassment prevention at the high school. Classes began an hour late while Mark Thompson, an employee with McDonald Zaring Insurance in Walla Walla, spoke to staff and teachers Thursday in the morning, students during the school day and coaches and community members in the afternoon.

Thompson, a loss-prevention specialist and insurance agent, has worked on bullying issues with school districts and businesses around the country for the last 10 years. Maheras was counting on that expertise to begin his process for changing the community mindset on bullying.

"I've been here just four or five months, and a majority of the issues I deal with are bullying and harassment," Maheras said. "Part of the problem is that a number of parents think it's not a big deal."

It is a "big deal," Maheras told community members during the seminar. And new state mandates will require that school districts cooperate more extensively with the community, with coaches, bus drivers, parents and others who work with kids to pay more attention to the issue.

"With the students, I told them, 'This is our school. Let's try and put a stop to it, let's do something about it,'" Maheras said.

A workshop with student leaders Thursday focused on teaching them to get proactive, not bystanders - to get involved, report and try to help.

"Our message today with the kids was, 'Don't just let it happen. Have empathy," Thompson said.

"It's a difficult situation," said Doug Johnson, Dayton School District superintendent. "Stopping bullying is important, but unfortunately people's behavior is not something that can be changed with a mandate. We're certainly obligated to do what we can to stop and prevent it, but I view it a little bit as an impossible task to be 100 percent effective."

The parents the district would like to target with community meetings, Johnson said, are those least likely to attend the workshops.

"The parents of victims are going to be there," he said. "But those with kids who are bullies, they don't come to these meetings."

Community meetings aren't the only tack the district has taken. Students have selected 12 of their peers to be trained as "Natural Helpers" who will take on a campcounselor kind of role.

"These are kids the students themselves, in a survey, indicated they'd be comfortable talking to about harassment or bullying issues," Maheras said. "This way the students can start reporting and stepping up. If it's a bigger issue they can't deal with, then they can come to me."

Which gets at some of the root of the problem in many schools, not least in Dayton: "If I don't know that it's happening, I can't do anything about it," Maheras said.

Training for teachers, students, coaches and parents begins with learning what bullying is, and is not.

This can be tricky. Thompson explained to the handful of parents and coaches who attended his seminar last week that bullying and harassment issues are not black and white. "And anyone who says they are is not representing the law."

According to the current state mandate in effect at local districts, "Harassment, intimidation or bullying means any intentional written, verbal or physical act, including, but not limited to one shown to be motivated by any characteristic (known as protected classes in our society, said Thompson) including race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or mental or physical disability, or other distinguishing characteristics, when the intentional written, physical or verbal act:

"Physically harms a student or damages the student's property; or has the effect of substantially interfering with a student's education; or is so severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating or threatening educational environment; or has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school."

The very nature of this definition, Thompson said, is meant to be open to interpretation. It gives district leaders room to interpret on a case-by-case basis. "Is it persistent? Is it pervasive, meaning - is it a defining condition to have to put up with the bullying or harassment in order to go to this school?" he explained.

By August, Dayton will have to adopt the revised policy handed down to them by attorneys with the Washington State School Directors Association. Waitsburg School Board members have already begun that process. They had a first reading of the revisions during their meeting last week.

"It's required," said Waitsburg Superintendent Dr. Carol Clarke. "The new policy puts a lot more requirements on the board, creates timelines, and just like Dayton is doing, we'll need to implement a greater level of community awareness."

Clarke said the board hasn't decided how they'll tackle that new requirement yet .

M aheras, in Dayton, doesn't want to wait. He's seen in Columbia County a community that's ready to admit it has a problem but hasn't moved to fix it yet.

"I'm trying to get that going," he said. "A lot of people see it as the way things have always been. They don't know that what's going on is bullying. We have to change that."