Each fall these days, as students return to school, the issuing of bullying makes the news again.
Usually, it's related to the tragic suicide of a teenager who was picked on by his peers.
This fall, the death wasn't too far from home.
Jamey Rodemeyer, a freshman at Williamsville North High School took his own life after years of being victimized by bullies.
The case has drawn the attention of Erie County law enforcment, which is a reminder that bullying isn't just cruel. It's a crime.
Yesterday morning, I spoke with Det. Rich Schauf of Batavia PD and this morning I spoke with Christopher Dailey, principal at Batavia HS, about how bullying is handled within the city. Much of the information they have to share should be applicable throughout Genesee County.
The primary laws that could be used to prosecute a bully are harassment, a violation, and aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor.
Harassment usually involves pushing and shoving or similar violent acts that do not cause serious physical injury but are intended to annoy or alarm the victim.
Aggravated harassment is phone calls, text messages and messages left in online venues that are intended to alarm and annoy the victim.
If the bully is, say, 17, and the victim is, for example, 14, a charge of endangering the welfare of a child is also possible.
The age of the bully is also a factor in what police can do with the case and how the judicial system will deal with it.
If the bully is 14 or 15, or younger, there won't be criminal charges filed. Instead intervention and counseling is used to try and change behavior.
If the bully is 16 or older, then it can become a criminal matter.
These days, bullies use electronic devices to victimize their targets -- phone calls, texting, Facebook messages and other websites are used to leave harassing notes.
In the case of Rodemeyer, the most recent abuse meted out toward him was on a blog he set up at Formspring. Among the messages left for him were:
* "Kill your self!!!! You have nothing left!"
* "Listen to us, you're a bad person, you don't belong here, jump off a bridge or something!"
* "Go kill yourself, you're worthless, ugly and don't have a point to live."
When people leave messages like that, Schauf said, even when they're determined to be criminal in nature, proving who left the message can be difficult.
"The bully might say, 'I lost my phone,' and you ask, 'Did you report it missing or stolen?' and they'll say, 'Well, a friend had it,'" Schauff said. "It's really hard sometimes to put that person in the position of having sent the messages. That's an uphill climb in these investigations."
Investigators must prove the bully was physically in control of the computer or phone used to send the messages at the time the messages were sent.
That isn't always easy, Schauf said.
However, just the intervention of law enforcement can sometimes change a bully's behavior, Schauf said, a point Dailey reiterated.
"Usually we get both parents involved (before contacting police) and that puts an end to it," Dailey said. "We get everybody together and hash it out. Usually a visit from police ends it pretty quick if our intervention doesn't work out."
Dailey said the vast majority of the time, when school officials confront a bully about hurtful and harassing cyber messages, the bully fesses up immediately.
School officials take bullying very seriously, Dailey said.
"When something like this comes up (the death of Rodemeyer), it's something all the staff talks about," Dailey said. "It's a reminder to pay attention to this. We don't want it to happen here. We don't want to be the next headline."
Four years ago, the school started a mentoring program for freshmen which includes an orientation day before classes start and mentoring for the freshmen by upperclassmen.
Since the program started, Dailey said, bullying in the school has dropped 22 percent.
"I'd be lying if I said it was gone totally, but it has gone down significantly," Dailey said.
In October, teachers and staff will receive additional training on dealing with bullying.
It's important to take seriously, Dailey said, because unlike with previous generations when somebody might get bullied at school, but then go home and be away from it, in a safe environment, now the bullying follows the victim across the internet and through mobile phones and text messages.
"If I were bullied as a kid, I could escape it," Dailey said. "Now, for these kids who get caught up in that web they cannot escape it, which is why we have to be more vigilant. The old 'boys will be boys' attitude doesn't fly any more."
Schauf said anybody can report bullying to the police, even just a witness -- such as somebody who sees harassing messages online. But in order to press charges, the victim must be willing to cooperate. If there isn't a cooperating victim, police won't be able to complete an investigation and file charges.
That can sometimes be hard to get, Schauf said, because some victims just want the problem to go away and be left alone.
(Schauff encouraged witnesses to call the BPD's confidential tip line, which will go straight to investigators, rather than emergency dispatch when reporting possible bullying. The number is 343-6370.)
The difficulties in prosecuting bullies, Schauf said, are why a good relationship between the police and the school is so important.
Investigators trust that school officials will bring serious cases to them and handle appropriately those cases they can handle internally.
"Schools have a bit more leeway to take action on the punishment aspect," Schauf said. "We work really well together to mete out the best consequences we can get, working between the two styles."
Further reading: Tips on avoiding cyber bullies.
My Daughter has been bothered
My Daughter has been bothered by a another Freshman at Batavia H.S. through text messages and spreading rumors at school. The Staff at the High School has told us, " If the behavior is not happening on school ggrounds, then there's nothing we can do about it". This attitude is what led to the problem, and subsequent death of the young man in Williamsville! I decided to inform the boys parent ( Gee, only one, what a sshock!), that I will file suit in Civil Court to resolve the problem.
Bruce, I hope you go to a
Bruce,
I hope you go to a School Board meeting and tell them publicly about the staff.
Actually, that is something I
Actually, that is something I should have included in the article. The school's jurisdiction doesn't extend beyond campus. If the harassment isn't happening on campus, the school can't touch it. That's not "attitude." That's the law.
The text messaging off campus is a matter for the cops. The "spreading rumors at school" would be another issue that personally, I'd keep pushing on with the administration.
The text messages could be considered aggravated harassment 2nd, though if the bully is 15 or younger, it would not be handled as an adult criminal matter.
Several of the texts were
Several of the texts were sent during "school hours", but because no staff saw him send them, then they were deemed as not having been sent on school property. So Howard, in my opinion, it does boil down to a "I don't want to get involved attitude"! I guess I need to remind these alleged professionals that they work for me, and all the other tax payors, and not their union.
Bruce, I follow your concerns
Bruce, I follow your concerns up to the point of disparaging the teachers' union. How and why you connect the union to your argument is not clear or justified. For the record NYSUT does have a position on school bullying and recommends a social justice curriculum to address it - http://www.nysut.org/rfk_10661.htm.
Since you inject a provocative jab at the union; I will take some liberties with your general statement, "these alleged professionals ... work for me, and all the other tax payors (SIC)..."
I worked for a school district for over two decades. I recall a parent calling the high school principal and asking for help getting her son out of bed to attend classes. The principal suggested dousing the kid with water. The parent actually envisioned the principal making a house-call.
Parents and taxpayers offer mixed messages in terms of what they expect out of public school educators. On the one hand there is a demand for less, lower taxes and rollback to teaching the basics- nothing that requires hikes in tax bills. Yet, parents seem to want a pseudo-boarding school, expecting an educational program that addresses behavioral issues (not to be accomplished with any punishment or treatment that might impute personal responsibility or lack, thereof). These expectations run diametrically opposed to one-another.
Yes, we require safe environments within which our children can learn. Yes, criminal activity occurring on school property or under the umbrella of school sponsorship should be prosecuted. ...But what are the limits on involvement in students' lives and how much of parental responsibility should be shifted to schools and/or the public agencies (DSS, Mental Health, GCASA, Sheriff's Department, Department of Health, etc.)?
I see a disturbing trend; parents who neglect aspects of parenting, expecting school officials, social agencies and law enforcement to pick up the slack. Our Tea Party/Libertarians seem perturbed by the socialist implications of social security, Medicaid, single-payer health programs; where is the perturbation over public-funded parenting?
I recognize that corporate America has abandoned working class families; shedding jobs, stagnating wages, slashing benefits- widening the gap between income and cost of living, forcing multiple wage-earners, complicating parental supervision and family involvement. One need only chart the steady increase in juvenile crime rate since the 1930s. Youth under age 18 account for about 15 percent of all arrests. 200,000 youth are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults every year across the United States. ...Not to ignore: Forbes reports that Corrections Corp. of America saw a 37% profit increase in the 4th quarter of 2006. For the full fiscal year, Corrections Corp.'s profit more than doubled to $105.2 million, or $1.71 per share, from $50.1 million, or 83 cents per share in 2005. Incarceration is profitable for some. (If you wish to invest: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=CXW:US)
Schoolyards and bullies part company when the provocation takes place on social networking sites such as Facebook. The school makes computers/internet available to students. I have no problem with expecting schools to 'block' access to sites such as Facebook on school-provided IT equipment. I also have no problem with schools banning use of personal cell phones, laptops and iPads etc. during class-time. If social networking sites will not cooperate in protecting individual users from online harassment, wherein does the school district become implicated in that role? Who provided or gave permission for the minor child to possess/use personal equipment to access the internet? Why aren't parents monitoring what their children are doing online?
I'm a taxpayer. I DO NOT consider teachers or principals babysitters or surrogate parents. No more do I expect a high school principal to roust kids from bed; I certainly do not expect teachers to follow kids home and peek over shoulders while they text-message or post on Facebook.
Obscure post script... After contemplating a worn truism from the past, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," I couldn't help find comparative irony in 21st Century street politics. The urban protocol, extending maximum penalty for dissing, may not have bled beyond suburbia yet. Far removed, in the never ending quest to demonize liberalism, it was G. H. W. Bush (Harvard) who in 1991 adulterated a term (political correctness) aligned with a movement scrutinizing political agenda in academia. Former executive Bush apparently construed the admonition, "If you can't say anything nice, say nothing at all." ...Besides, it was likely a Berkeley thing. The hue and cry he generated confirmed- freedom of speech (heaven help anyone who might stand in the way of repeating a joke that had some minority as butt) precedes politeness. Arguments for PC have come to be embraced, and respectful speech is an issue singularly-liberal no longer (if ever it was). The issue having made its way 'round Robin Hood's barn. Salutations to Mark Zuckerberg, et al (Harvard), for creating a dating service for university level nerds which degenerated into a tool allowing teenagers to expensively accessorize AND remotely partition their microcosm ala insiders and outsiders. Kudos, not for outfitting mass self-expression (oxymoron?), but for inadvertently exposing the wages of self-absorption.
I agree with you C.M. to a
I agree with you C.M. to a point. The teachers are not babysitters nor surrogates. They are teachers and I expect that they are in control of their respective classrooms and teach my children something while they are at school. Not just stuff from the white washed books but they should be setting and example for their students. They should be someone that the children can look up to as a role model. The teachers and school do not exist in a vacuum. It is not the parents or teachers responsibility alone to set examples for the kids. The two groups should be working in tandem to reinforce each others lessons. Isn't that the whole "it takes a village concept" touted by Hilliary Clinton.(curiously enough that concept was used in China where both parents would go to work in the communes for the betterment of China and drop their kids off to be raised and taught by other members of the party). What of the children not fortunate enough to have parents that set a good example for them to follow? Who do these children look to for guidance? Who do they look to emulate? Celebrities? Politicians?Professional athletes? etc... School is suppose to play a large part in the development of the youth in our community, it's not just a place to warehouse the kids while the adults go off to work. As social media and communication technology continues to expand, then the schools, parents, and communities are going to have to address the negative aspects together and not pass the buck.