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Parents voice concerns about bullying in WCPS

The Herald-Mail - 3/26/2018

On an all-too-regular basis, Chastity Blickenstaff's daughters came home from school with tears in their eyes.

Blickenstaff said her twin middle-schoolers have been victims of bullying for nearly three years in Washington County Public Schools and the school system has not done enough to remedy the situation.

"I've had to put my kids into therapy because of this," she said, saying that one her daughters now deals with post-traumatic stress disorder, in part, due to bullying that has consisted mainly of persistent name-calling and threats, both in school and on the bus.

"My child comes home every day crying because something has happened," said Blickenstaff, who recently removed her kids from the situation and is home-schooling them instead.

"She has told me that there's no reason to go on."

Several more parents of county students have shared similar stories with Herald-Mail Media, saying they, too, don't believe the issue is being taken seriously enough by school administrators.

"It's not one of their top priorities," parent Amber Sheffler said. "It's sad and something needs to be done."

Sheffler said she was "at wit's end" over the school system's handling of bullying against her son, who had been hit, kicked and smacked by another student on the bus multiple times over a period of weeks earlier this school year.

Another parent, Carrie Boward, went as far as removing her son from county schools in January due to bullying, which persisted from fifth grade until his freshman year at Smithsburg High School.

"Unfortunately, what my son has been subjected to has resulted in him being no longer a vibrant, funny, outgoing kid," Boward told members of the Washington County Board of Education during a public-comment period at the Feb. 6 meeting.

"Now, he walks the halls with his head hung down, praying to get to his next class without a problem," she said. "Hoping he gets to eat his lunch in the cafeteria before it's spit on or taken from him."

As she spoke before the school board, Boward held what she said was a letter written by her son on his last day at Smithsburg.

"I wholeheartedly believe that if I pushed him to continue through his school years, this would be no longer be just a note to Smithsburg High School," she said. "It could have been his suicide note."

WCPS officials said they cannot comment on specific instances or cases of alleged bullying to preserve confidentiality for those involved.

Increase in bullying?

According to statistics, there were a total of 240 reports of suspected bullying across all grade levels during the 2016-17 school year, the most recorded since a Maryland law required county school systems to begin tracking such data in 2005.

Reported incidents have risen significantly since the 2005-06 school year - when just 14 reports were logged - as students, parents and school faculty members become more aware of bullying and harassing behavior and their effects on children, said Rick Akers, WCPS executive director of secondary instruction.

Akers said increases seen in recent years, specifically, can be tied largely to advances in technology that have given rise to cyberbullying and harassment through electronic communication.

"It creates new opportunities, and by their nature, they're more likely to repeat themselves and more difficult to go away," he said of electronic forms of communication, like texting and social media websites.

"Those things are permanent," Akers said. "Something that was posted on the first day of school can be reposted on the last day of school. To me, the big challenge now is the whole social media, online thing, in that it can just keep recurring over and over again, even if the original bully is no longer the owner of the original publication."

Asked about parents' frustrations over perceived inaction by the school system, Akers said he's found that some parents have an expectation that, once a bully is reported, "that student's just going to go away."

"That's just not reality," he said. "The reality is we take steps to get them to stop that behavior."

Some parents contend that the district's "no tolerance" policy against bullying isn't strictly followed and procedures for investigating and mitigating bullying do not work.

"They don't want to go back to school," Blickenstaff said of her daughters. "They don't trust anybody at school. They're done filling out bullying reports because nothing gets done."

Akers disagreed.

"It isn't always a permanent, forever solution to any particular problem, but I believe our administrators are very good at investigating and then following through and getting students to change behaviors or stop behaviors," he said. "... We're talking about human behavior here. I don't think anyone takes it lightly."

Case-by-case

The most common instances of reported bullying in WCPS happen among middle-school-aged students on school property, involving teasing, name-calling or physical aggression by other students who most often do it "just to be mean."

That's according to the county's most recent set of data collected, detailing alleged bullying incidents from this past school year.

The statistics, compiled and sent to the Maryland State Department of Education each year, are presented to state lawmakers annually in accordance with the Safe Schools Reporting Act of 2005.

The law mandates county school boards to compile information about reported incidents of bullying, harassment or intimidation, as well as establishes reporting procedures, including a standardized reporting form, and subsequent investigative measures and corrective actions.

In most instances after a report is made, the victim and alleged offender are interviewed, but steps beyond that vary as they are handled on a case-by-case basis, according to WCPS officials.

"That investigation could include, depending what it is, but it could include going back and looking at hallway video," Akers said. "In any event, it's investigated, then we make a determination as to whether or not it's bullying, harassment, intimidation, or it's a conflict between two students.

"There's a tendency now that, because the awareness of bullying has increased and concerns about it have increased, sometimes we categorize just about anything, any kind of negative interaction we have with somebody, as bullying," he said.

Fifty reports last year were found to be a conflict between two or more students rather than bullying, while dozens more were found to be either false allegations or determined to not be bullying, harassment or intimidation as initially reported.

When bullying is found, district officials have various corrective actions at their disposal - from having a student sit down with a counselor or holding a parent conference to an out-of-school suspension or even alternative placements, like being moved to Antietam Academy.

"You step it up and you step it up as you need to, because you want both kids to continue being successful with their education," Akers said.

Despite reports hitting an all-time high, Akers said he doesn't believe kids are more likely to bully than in the past.

"Essentially, I don't think human nature has changed," he said, although he also acknowledged that it's likely that bullying happens far more often than statistics show.

"And sometimes, probably most of the time, students are able to work out those situations on their own," he said. "So we never even know about them."

Problem cases

While some situations work themselves out, others do not.

That is evident after speaking with several Washington County parents who described frustrating interactions with school administrators and a lack of communication about what was taking place to address their children's situations.

Blickentaff said the bullying of her daughters began in the fourth grade when another student started making threatening comments, and the behavior has persisted, despite her attempts to communicate and fix the problem with school staff.

"I was in the office so much that these people knew me by the first name when I walked in that door," she said. "And nothing was ever done."

Other parents have criticized the school system for essentially punishing the victim in some cases, like changing class schedules to separate two children that ultimately results in the victim being moved and the offender staying put.

Another parent, who asked not to be identified out of fear her child would be treated worse as a result, said a two-year ordeal with her daughter being bullied was not addressed until she was physically attacked by other students.

"It's like you really have to fight to get anything done," she said, adding that she ended up getting a peace order against one of the students.

Other byproducts of bullying include slipping grades, anxiety in public places and panic attacks, all things Boward said her son experienced despite "countless hours" filling out bullying reports that seemingly went nowhere.

"We are getting the help that he needs, and most importantly, we're removing him from the problem ? which is unfortunately Washington County Public Schools," she told members of the school board.

Stay in touch

Akers encouraged any parent who feels their child's situation isn't being adequately addressed to stay in touch with school-level administrators and fill out incident reports to ensure issues are being investigated.

"I understand parents' frustrations, (but) ... I've never found a case where a school was ignoring evidence about what was going on," he said.

Sometimes, an original issue can be resolved, but then a new one arises later. And if a child doesn't communicate with their parents about it, Akers said that can contribute to a parent feeling that nothing has been done to correct the original bullying situation.

In any case, if a parent feels their child's situation isn't being handled appropriately or in a timely manner at the school level, Akers urged them to contact central-office administrators.

"I don't have a problem going and looking into the case," he said.