Educators and policymakers can learn more about school climate research, measuring school climate, the relationship between school climate and bullying, and climate and dropout prevention through a set of 11 new briefs published by the National School Climate Center.
via New Briefs Connect School Climate to Bullying, Dropouts, More.
The school yard attack that left LaDonna Williams’ daughter with a concussion last year lasted just a few minutes, but Williams and her family still deal every day with the aftermath.
“I’ve got every shutoff notice there is — water, utilities. I can barely feed my family,” said Williams, a single mother of six who quit her job to care for her injured daughter.
For years, bullying has been an ongoing issue at the Vallejo City Unified School District. Recently, parents of bullied children re-ignited the conversation by appearing at a string of school board meetings in January and February demanding that more be done to protect their children.
The Vallejo school board revisited Wednesday the steps the district has taken in the last two years to combat bullying and improve safety.
“The fact that bullying is all too common in our society does not mean it’s inevitable in our schools,” Superintendent Ramona Bishop said.
Her lengthy presentation comes after two months of vocal agitation from parents of bullied children. However, none of those parents who accused the Vallejo City Unified School District of failing to protect their children attended Wednesday’s meeting.
School safety has been at the forefront of every public school board meeting this year due to a group of bullied children’s parents who have pressed the issue at meetings during public comment.
Guest blog by Sarah D. Sparks. Cross-posted from Inside School Research
For a teenager who has been bullied, it can feel like everyone is against him, and every comment can turn into a snide remark. Yet research shows middle and high school social dynamics are constantly in flux, and today’s victim may be tomorrow’s harasser and next Monday’s staunch defender. A new study suggests that helping teenagers understand how people change in different situations can reduce their own hostility.
In “Implicit Theories of Personality and Attributions of Hostile Intent: A Meta-Analysis, an Experiment, and a Longitudinal Intervention,” published this morning in the journal Child Development, researchers led by David Scott Yeager of the University of Texas at Austin, and including Adriana Miu of Emory University and Joseph Powers and Carol S. Dweck of Stanford University, built in part on Dweck’s work on how a student’s mindset affects how he or she experiences the world.
Over time, bullying subsides for young people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual, a first-of-its-kind new study of more than 4,100 British young people has found.
The study, published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, tracked the youths experiences from 8th grade through about age 20 by interviewing them annually. Over the years, they reported a significant drop on being bullied or victimized.
via Bullying of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Young People Drops Over Time.
Vallejo parents advocating for their bullied children say they’re pleased that district officials are finally meeting with them — but cautioned that much remains to be done to address the problem.
Superintendent Ramona Bishop and board members have been meeting with parents of bullied children in private two weeks after frustrated parents aired their grievances at a special school board meeting.
Among them was LaDonna Williams, whose daughter was attacked last year at Hogan Middle School. The incident was videotaped and posted to social media.
via Vallejo parents push for better response from schools, district.
Seventh grade students at Bridge to Success recently participated in an anti-bullying presentation.
via Seventh grade students at Bridge to Success recently participated in an anti-bul….
So let’s just start, with a conversation about bullying: It’s at the top of list of concerns for many educators these days, and a recent article in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics shows that the topic should be of particular concern when it comes to students with autism. The study surveyed 1,221 families of children with autism spectrum disorders, and 38 percent of them reported being bullied in the past month. Twenty-eight percent said they were bullied frequently. The study also found that about 9 percent of children with autism were perpetrators of bullying, with about 5 percent described as “frequent” perpetrators. Close to 70 percent of the victims of bullying reported having experienced emotional trauma as a result of their treatment.
Parents of bullied children briefly disrupted a special Vallejo school board meeting Wednesday as they tried to take the stage and air their concerns.
“I want to address the issues we’re here for,” said LaDonna Williams, whose daughter was attacked in April.
The disruption came after several hours of presentations from various schools, part of the Vallejo City Unified School District’s series of school showcases.
via Vallejo parents challenge school board, parents to address bullying.
VALLEJO (CBS 5) — Angry parents seized control of a school board meeting in Vallejo Wednesday night, saying their children have been bullied and neither the schools nor the district are responding to their complaints.
Almost four hours into an extended school board meeting, frustrated parents couldn’t take it any more.
“We want to be heard,” Trini Lopez said. “We’ve been waiting here all night.”
via Frustrated Parents Confront Vallejo School Board Over Bullying.
VALLEJO (CBS 5) — More complaints have surfaced following a CBS 5 investigation into bullies terrorizing students in a Bay Area school district.
Recently, two 10-year-old girls who attend a Vallejo elementary school told CBS 5 they are constantly being sexually harassed, and their school isn’t doing anything about it. Now we’re hearing from victims of bullies at a middle school in the same district.
Cellphone video posted on YouTube showed a brutal attack in a schoolyard at Hogan Middle School in Vallejo. The video shows a girl struggling to defend herself while other students watch and even laugh.
via More Vallejo Parents Say School District Not Responding To Bullying.
VALLEJO, Calif. —
Parents in a Vallejo school district are accusing officials of not doing enough for the victims of two bullies.
One of the parents told KTVU her daughter wrote a suicide note because she’s so upset over being bullied at Cooper Elementary School and she said district intervention has only made the matter worse.
via Parent of bullying victim upset over district response to problem.
It started last year with some stolen snacks and some shoving.
But by November, the bullying had gotten so bad that a 10-year-old girl at Cooper Elementary School in Vallejo thought there was only one way to end it.
“The night before last, I found a suicide note in her bedroom because of what’s going on at school,” said the mother of “Jane,” a Cooper fifth-grader.
via Police investigate bullying at Vallejo elementary school.
FAIRFIELD — Solano Community College’s Ethnic Studies Program will host its Fall Peace Summit from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday at the Vallejo campus, 545 Columbus Parkway.
The event will feature remarks from Karen McCord and Rischa Slade and a presentation on bullying.
Building a Safe School Climate – a bullying and positive behavior support workshop was held for local educators on October 15 at SCOE. The workshop was designed to teach concrete, immediate, and experiential prevention and intervention skills that deal with the issues of conflict, anger, and bullying. Educators learned what triggers conflict and anger, examined various conflict styles, and explored competition as a possible root of conflict.
via Building a Safe School Climate – a bullying and positive behavior support worksh….
Amy Erin Borovoy (aka VideoAmy) Edutopia Digital Media Curator
October is Bullying Prevention Month, and schools and families across the country are having frank discussions to raise awareness about bullying. It’s a subject that’s grown increasingly complex and troubling over the years: while in-person teasing and harassment has never flagged, new technologies have given rise to cyberbullying, which can be equally as damaging — and even more public. And news of tragic consequences stemming from cases of both kinds spreads quickly through social media.
Most statistics say that one out of four kids report being bullied, with numbers much higher for kids in certain groups, like LGBT teens or children with special needs. So it’s more important than ever that parents and educators are vigilant in encouraging kids to be empathetic, and to become “upstanders” rather than bystanders. While it’s easy to go down a pretty dark road when sharing stories about bullying, I wanted to mix up this collection with positive messages to share with your students, and introductions to some of the amazing organizations out there that offer tools for fighting back against bullying. Hopefully these videos will provide some good entry points for more discussion.
Solano County Office of Education’s Facebook Wall
Register today for Building a Safe School Climate: Bullying Prevention and Conflict Management on Monday, October 15.
This workshop is designed to teach concrete, immediate, and experiential prevention and intervention skills that deal wit
h the issues of conflict, anger, and bullying. Educators will learn what triggers conflict and anger; examine various conflict styles; explore competition as a possible root of conflict.
Registration deadline is Monday, October 1. For more information: http://www.solanocoe.net/apps/events/2012/9/15/1276629/?id=0&REC_ID=1276629
via Register today for Building a Safe School Climate: Bullying Prevention and Confl….
Solano County Office of Education’s Facebook Wall
Register today for Building a Safe School Climate: Bullying Prevention and Conflict Management on Monday, October 15.
This workshop is designed to teach concrete, immediate, and experiential prevention and intervention skills that deal with the issues of conflict, anger, and bullying. Educators will learn what triggers conflict and anger; examine various conflict styles; explore competition as a possible root of conflict.
Registration deadline is Monday, October 1. For more information: http://www.solanocoe.net/apps/events/2012/9/15/1276629/?id=0&REC_ID=1276629
via Register today for Building a Safe School Climate: Bullying Prevention and Confl….
Trainer Helen Perdue was in full teaching mode by 11:10 a.m. Thursday and she had everyone’s attention.
In a small quad area between classrooms at Vacaville’s Callison Elementary, she laid down a 30-foot line of white duct tape. Some 40 students — fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders — gathered on one side and responded to her questions. If the answer was yes, they crossed the line; if no, they stayed in place.
“I have been teased or insulted because of my religion?” Twelve students crossed the line.
via Anti-bullying program taught at Vacaville’s Callison Elementary.