Brownsville school board addresses school bullying
BROWNSVILLE – Questions about how bullying is addressed at Brownsville Area School District took center stage at the school board’s monthly meeting.
Director Andy Dorsey told the board he recently heard from nine parents who are not satisfied that the district is doing enough to address this issue.
“This seems to be a recurrent problem at Brownsville,” said Dorsey. “It was going on when my stepdaughter was a student here and it’s still happening now. But no one seems to be getting back to those parents.”
Superintendent Dr. Keith Hartbauer said his office is reaching out to parents to talk about their concerns and, if necessary, he will conduct a further investigation. Hartbauer added that he often isn’t aware of every case because an investigation into the claim begins at the school where it occurred.
“For instance, if bullying is taking place at the elementary school, the elementary school principal will start collecting the facts,” he said. “Then we will get the school resource officer and guidance counselor involved. Quite often, things get resolved at this level. As a result, I may not know what took place right away. But we take bullying very seriously and investigate every case.”
Hartbauer said that students and parents can file complaints by calling the “Safe to Say” hotline or contacting his office directly. He pointed out that investigations are time consuming because bullying is such a nebulous term.
“Almost anything can be classified as bullying these days,” he said. “And bullying has changed from the days when the bully was usually the big, tough kid. Today, we’re seeing more kids are doing their bullying on the web, where they can hide behind technology. It’s important to investigate each case to determine if bullying did actually take place.”
The district handles student discipline in a variety of ways, ranging from a verbal warning to detention to in-school suspension to out-of-the-school suspension. In severe cases, the district may expel a student.
Despite Dorsey’s concerns, Hartbauer contended the district is seeing a decrease in reported cases of bullying.
“We have many programs in place to prevent bullying and identify those kids who are having issues,” he said. “We provide support to kids who are experiencing problems through our Best Program. Kids who need assistance are referred to a social worker or an outside program. In addition, our teachers routinely walk the hallways and check bathrooms to make sure there aren’t any problems. We have made a lot of positive strides and bullying is on the decline throughout our district.”
In other business, the board:
n Approved a second reading of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
n Approved an agreement with Vector Security for the purchase of security cameras.
n Approved an estimate of $2,391 from Fast Signs for the school district’s directional sign.