Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Parents: Speak Up to the Administration and Becom...":
I atteneded the bullying meeting last night and heard some very disturbing stories. A presentation followed on the district is working on changing the climate of school, etc. What boggles my mind is the best solution of all is sooo very avail, and guess what folks its free. It won't cost the schools a dime. You don not have to hire new staff and new laws will not have to be passed. The solution is called .."Having the bully get in deep trouble". There, it is that simple. If these kids (no matter how old they are) know that there are severe repercussions, they will stop. Its that simple. Why are we going around in circles trying to stop this disturbing trend, when all you need is a straight line? Please, someone tell me why the school is so afraid to reprimand a bully?
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I was unable to attend the meeting last night. What I would like to know is this: did they bring up the subject of teachers bullying students? this may be a rare occurence but just once is not acceptable . The problem we have in this school is that once a complaint is filed against a teacher, the administration will not give you any further information because the administrators state : "we can not tell you anything because of the privacy rights of the teachers" . The most ridiculous answer I have ever heard. What about the student's rights when they have been bullied by a "tenured" teacher who knows that it is practcally impossible to lose their job because they are protected by TENURE. How do you deal with a bully teacher when their is no possibility of them getting in "deep trouble"?
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?
ReplyDeleteThe post regarding teachers bullying trachers tops them all! How come you have enough time to
make comments on this blog but not enough time to raise your own children and teach them to respect teachers? I am a proud parent of this
school district... I work very hard with my children to teach them right from wrong and no one ever said it was easy... However, the teachers here in Plainview should be left alone... YOU ARE THE BULLY HERE! Let them teach our children and stop trying to get people upset with your comments. It figures you didn't attend the wonderful meeting... You would of learned how people can help people. It was a great meeting, It all starts with the parenting here, You are the bully, All you want to do is blame the tachers... Look in the mirror.
"The solution is called .."Having the bully get in deep trouble". There, it is that simple. If these kids (no matter how old they are) know that there are severe repercussions, they will stop. Its that simple."
ReplyDeleteIt certainly appears that this administration has done its best to avoid the issue and/or is afraid to confront the bullies (and their families). However, your answer, while I would love to see it fully implemented, is somewhat naive. It may work for some of the trouble kids, but some of the extreme ones wouldn't be phased. What if the parents endorse the child's behavior? (Don't laugh)
More unfortunate is that expelling kids is extremely difficult.
Isn't one of the Board members an authority on Bullying? What is the purpose of this committee
ReplyDeletewhy aren't they making their concerns heard through our PTA. Is the board now going to recognize everyone who comes up with a committe for a problem that they want to air??????
"why aren't they making their concerns heard through our PTA."
ReplyDeleteThis has been an extremely serious problem for several years and the PTA (and Administration and B of E for that matter) has done nothing.
Your question ought to be, why hasn't the PTA dealt with this issue before a group of parents felt compelled to do so?
Regarding the "are you kidding comment"
ReplyDeleteHow about you look at the facts instead of the uneducated name calling. google "teacher bullying" and you will see that it is a FACT that it does go on. I know for a fact that this has occurred in Plainview on more than one occasion . I hate to burst your golden bubble about teachers. how ever you may want to put it, 70%,80%, or even 90% of the teachers in this district maybe very good teachers. There are teachers who are are not fit to teach. What happens to these teachers ? they get moved around from school to school . Why ? because you can not get rid of them because of TENURE.As it was stated earlier, It may be a rare occurrence , but it does go on whether you like it or not. I can only figure that you are a teacher by your reaction.
Yes there is an expert on bullying on the board . Unfortunately what they excel on the topic of bullying , they lack in fiscal responsibility with regard to the financial soundness of our out of control school budget that has been out of control for years
ReplyDeleteTo the person who posted at 8:11 regarding the Teacher Bullying. Are you kidding?
ReplyDeleteWow...You are calling this person names and Who's the "Bully here"? Maybe some Anger Management Classes will help because you are obviously angry. Sometimes you should look at yourself in the mirror and go back and re-read your angry post.
The post was not to blame teachers but to realize that bullying not only stems from the home and values but with the teachers and school. You are quick to judge... You are also DEAD WRONG! This is an issue.........
Children spend more than 50% of their time in school and mean and angry teachers (like yourself) do not make for a good teaching and values either. And yes...I was at the meeting also..
If you did not experience the wrath of a situation like this, you should not be so quick to judge as NOT all teachers are nice and promote kindness. You should not automatically assume that a child in this situation is disrespectful. As I see time and time again in this town adults (including teachers) can also can be "disrespectful" as we can see with your angry name calling and your tone in this post.
I guess your kids are perfect also? Did your children also read your post?
PS. I am not a bully.....
Very well stated..This is why we have such a bullying problem in this community. Maybe we should start with the parents.
ReplyDeleteOK folks her goes...
1) Bullying is a very big problem among our students. Our schools have to start having some backbone with this issue...When I was in school your heart would skip a beat if you got called down to the principles office..now its a joke.
2) We have some EXCELLENT teachers, we also have some that are not fit to work in McDonalds. (Teachers, please do not reply with a nasty comment, if you are a good teacher, Thank you, if you are not..please leave the building).
3) I've had friends who are teachers in this district who have complained to me about fellow teachers that they know are not fit to teach, but "nothing can be done".
4) Lastly, look at some of the parents in the playground, their kids are pushing and shoving and bullying other kids while the mothers are busy talking away (similar to our schools). Our community is know for this. It seems you have to be aggresive to be taken seriously, maybe thats why the school has no backbone..they dont want to get a bully in trouble because they dont want to deal with the nagging parents...Sad.
in response to 4:45pm
ReplyDeleteIt is the BOE's job to recognize individuals from our community. They are elected officials and are supposed to be representing the needs and concerns of those who voted for them. PTA is not the only voice the BOE should be listening to. Everyone is entitled to have a voice. There is nothing prohibiting people to create a group. This is America. Special interest groups are a large and successful part of our political culture. Why wouldn't you want the BOE to be part of an educational anti-bullying presentation that was going on in their community? I would be disappointed to find that the BOE ignored something like this happening in their own backyard.
The Anti Bullying meeting was one of the most organized,informative and moving meetings I have been at since I moved to Plainview 10 years ago. It was refreshing to see a grass roots organization be able to bring the boards attention to a problem in our district. Hopefully they will keep the fire to our molasses moving BOE and provoke speedy changes in the way they currently deal with this issue. I was not alone in wondering why the PTA hadn't pressed this issue long ago, as many of my friends asked if they presented at the meeting as well. While my children have aged out of this problem I would like to be proud of the school district that my taxes are paying for and know that children in my neighborhood are safer.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the BOE being part of the process.You wonder why some residents may be skeptical of the BOE. Lets look at their history. For several years we had a defective math program that even the teachers hated. Why beacuse we had a Superintendent who wrote a book on the subject and seem to care more about selling books . That is why he kept it in the disrict. The board would not get rid of this program until someone started a petition and hundreds of residents had to go to the board month after month about something that the board could not see. Why did it have to go that far. Then we fast foward to last year when the Board CAVED in to the teachers demands for a contract that was obscene when compared to the current economy. If that is not enough reason to be skeptical of a board that does not always listen to the concerns of the parents and residents then I do not know what is. .How about 2 ideas. First is that we lest this group do the work on bullying without the board. The group can first publicly put their ideas out in the open for all to see then go to the board with a proposal for what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteI am the person who started a bullying thread on this blog back in the spring. There were some excellent comments made. Hopefully, we can use meetings like the one this week, blogs like this and various other community initiatives to effectively deal with this issue.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the comments posted about "teachers bullying students," I'd like to offer some ideas that perhaps might clarify some of what I think is crossing people's minds.
First of all, there are many dedicated and hard working teachers here and elsewhere. Sadly, as in all professions, there also exist some (again here and elsewhere) who, for whatever reason, do more harm than good. There also exist a very many teachers, with only the best of intentions, who simply have not been properly trained to appropriately handle the bullying issue. In some cases, they feed into the problem, not even realizing it.
As I have stated before, the educators role in the bullying issue, whether in how to deal with it, what unrealized comments and procedures that might perpetuate it, or in how a failure to effectively address it will oftentimes make the situation much worse, is an area that has gotten little attention in the field of educational research.
Very well Said... thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteI do feel however that it does start with the
parenting here, you can't blame teachers for everything. Teachers do take alot of abuse from students.(I know for a fact) I learned a great deal from the
meeting.
P.S. I'm not a teacher
I was at the meeting last night. When the first parent began to tell his son's story, I had to turn to the person next to me and ask her what district the speaker was from. I couldn't believe this is happening in Plainview. Four years of bullying, Four years. He was attacked so severly that at one point his insulin pump was knocked out of him (he is a diabetic). What an an immense failure of our school. Four years to stop this and now this mans son is at home, while the bullies are at school. His son cant be in extracurricular activities, I guarantee the bullies are. Four years, what a disgrace. How can that be justified? Another speaker had a son in kindergarten. Her son was pushed down the stairs, punched in the stomach, and made to fall down by classmates sticking their feet out, because the bully told them to, it went on with other disturbing and heartbreaking details. Not one phone call home to the parents of the bully by the teacher. Unbelievable. This is a teacher that still has a job. I dont know what is more upsetting, not contacting the bullies parents or the teacher still being employeed by our school. Yes our school. Dont forget we are paying their salaries. I think with all the school taxes we pay, our children deserve to be in a safe environment. Please parents lets stick together in this and demand changes. Their is power in large numbers.
ReplyDeleteI want to applaud & thank the parents who put together the bullying meeting this week. It was well organized, thought provoking and apparent that they put in a lot of time preparing for the meeting, as well as creating a proposed action item list. I also want to commend them for inviting the Adminstration and BOE to make their efforts transparent. The parent who moderated the meeting also did an excellent job of setting the an appropriate tone of the meeting to faciliate constructive dialog. This is a great start. Thank you again!
ReplyDeleteParenting comes into play and I don't deny that there are some bullies that are disrespectful to teachers also. However, the message seems to repeat that kids report a problem to their teacher and it is ignored. Not good. There are reports of students of all ages feeling that they were bullied by teachers in our district. Not good. Parents feel that administration is not responsive when these problems happen. Not good. I'm not sure that a the best written stand-alone bullying policy is going to fix what to me is a corporate culture problem - "school climate" is the wording I believe. That has to start at the top - central administration and the BOE, and filter through principals who have to manage their staff and make it clear bullying not allowed and it's a serious problem and student concerns should not be ignored, especially in an ongoing situation. This could and should be happening without any policy. It's best practices and common sense and our kids deserve no less.
ReplyDeleteWhy wasn't the teacher who didn't contact the parents of the bully confronted. If this was any other work environment other than a school you'd be called in by your superiors for not doing your job. Meanwhile, these "employees" are entrusted with our children. Something is wrong here. We should start from the BOE and work our way down. The shop has to be cleaned.
ReplyDeleteThe shop can not be cleared . TENURE prevents the administration from doing that . When was the last time that you heard of a teacher being let go ? It is impossible to get rid of tenured teachers unless they do something illegal. This is not meant to knock teachers either , this is just the reality of the very few teachers that we have that should not be employed as teachers.
ReplyDeleteI was not at the meeting and am just curious...was there a school that seems to have more bullying--or a school that seemed to have less bullying-than the others??I would add that the administrators of the schools where there IS a lot of bullying should be on the chopping block as they are their to enforce rules and set the tone...
ReplyDeleteTo the parent whose comment was posted on September 30th at 10:39PM, my comment that appeared just before yours was meant to clarify what's been brought up about the educator's role in the bullying problem. I agree that they are not the only ones with any responsibility here.
ReplyDeleteBullying is a complex issue with many contributing factors. As far as parents are concerned, they play a significant role also. Oftentimes bullying is learned behavior, everything from outright aggression, exclusivity among peer groups, gossip, racism, the list could go on and on. There are also many well intentioned parents who unintentionally feed into the problem as well.
An effective school bullying policy must be a combined effort. Teachers are the ones who spend the most time with the children during school hours so they have the greatest influence. This is not to say that they are the root cause of the problem nor do I believe that they are alone fully responsible for the solution. They are one part of a larger issue.
Administrative support is a major factor in how bullies are effectively dealt with. Also, how support staff is trained to handle such situations warrants attention as well.
Parents need to make the school aware of problems and the school needs to address these issues seriously BEFORE they escalate.
Thank you, again... to the person whose comment was posted on Ociober 1, 2010 @ 7:35 PM.
ReplyDeleteYou have a gift for writing... a very nice tone to your effective words. It is clear your all about finding solutions and sticking with the facts(which is rare)regarding bullying. I appreciate your wisdom & I am the parent that thanked you regarding your post on September 30, 2010.
Also, THANK YOU to the wonderful folks that maintain this blog... YOU ARE APPRECIATED!!!
To the parent who posted on October 1 at 10:45PM, thank you so much. As the victim of bullying myself as a child, my career as an educator has taken me on somewhat of a side interest in researching and combating this problem.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that parents are coming together to deal with the bullying issue in this community.
Like I've said before, the situation runs very deep. If nothing else this year, I'd like to see an effective program/training/etc get off the ground at the least. It won't be solved overnight but we're off to a start that will hopefully continue to grow.
I've been thinking about writing a book about the whole subject, my personal experiences included. Maybe someday with the help of my community, I'll get around to it.
Thank you to all parents who are reading this thread on the blog. We may not all agree with each other all the time but one thing is for sure. We're using this blog to communicate with each other. It's a start.
Oh, and thank you Suzala for keeping this up so vigilantly as you do.
I will buy your book... all the best to you and thanks for your powerful words.
ReplyDeletefrom your buddy (10/02/10 @ 5:11 PM)
why aren't they making their concerns heard through our PTA. Is the board now going to recognize everyone who comes up with a committe for a problem that they want to air??????
ReplyDeletePta what for ?what do they really do? except gossip sell wrapping paper? run partys? wingo ? people wake up this has been a on going situation-stop digging your heads in the sand here! the administaration and boe and pta are just dragging their heels!