When Push Comes to Shove: Texas’ Response to Bullying

M.J. dealt with it every day. Kids calling him names. Physically tormenting him. Once, a girl kicked him in the face on the school bus; another time, a kid threw insects in his face; still another, a student whipped him with a towel. The harassment in the halls of Marion High School in San Antonio was so bad that M.J. habitually arrived 10-to-15 minutes late to his classes.

For four years, M.J.’s parents petitioned the district to do something about the bullying. Administrators dismissed their complaints, saying M.J., who had bi-polar disorder, was misinterpreting his classmates’ playfulness — or simply imagining things. They advised M.J. to ignore the taunts.

On March 10, 2009, a student beat M.J. so badly that he suffered a fractured nose, which required surgery to remove bone chips and a blood clot.
Angry and frustrated, his parents decided to sue the district.

Austin attorney Martin J. Cirkiel took the case and, on Dec. 7, 2010, filed suit in federal court. M.J.’s story isn’t the first —or the worst— Mr. Cirkiel has heard: he also was the attorney for Asher Brown, a Houston eighth grader who shot and killed himself after enduring years of bullying. When asked to review the bullying cases he’s handled over the years, Mr. Cirkiel says one things stands out: “Rather than promote a school climate that was sensitive to the issue of bullying, harassment and discrimination based upon disability, the school defendants actually fostered a climate where bullying was rampant and when it occurred, did not know how to respond.”

High Risk, Low Response

The most recent Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey, done in 2009, found that 33.3% of male students and 23.9% of female students in Texas admitted to physically fighting on school campus; 18.7% of high-school students said they were bullied on school property.

Those numbers, however, may be seriously low.

Dr. Sandra Harris, a professor at Lamar University and the author of The Bullies, The Victims and the Bystanders, recently conducted her own study of bullying in Texas schools, which found that for 72% of high school students, bullying happened at least sometimes in their school; for middle schoolers, that number was closer to 90%.

The high prevalence of bullying isn’t lost on schools. What is, however, is a comprehensive curriculum to address it: although myriad anti-bullying programs exist, few schools choose to implement in them.

Linder Elementary School in southeast Austin is the exception.

In 2005, the school’s discipline referrals skyrocketed to more than 1,000. Administrators knew that something serious had to be done to bring that under control. Because the school has a mobility rate of roughly 40% —meaning, some 500 kids come and go each year— officials knew the key to success would be building relationships among the students so that everyone felt part of the community. Linder implemented three strategic programs to do this: peer mediation, positive behavior support, and No Place for Hate. The latter program is a free, school-ready curriculum created by the Anti-Defamation League that instructs teachers and students how to handle bullying. It worked like a charm: in 2010, discipline referrals shrank to just 24.

“[No Place For Hate] includes activities such as having every student sign a Resolution of Respect form,” says Assistant Principal Lina Villareal. “This resolution includes an active role for the bystander, a person who witnesses the bullying. The bystander promises to report when someone is being bullied.”

The school posts all of the Resolution of Respect forms around the building, to remind the kids that they have signed a pledge not to bully, or to report it if it happens.

So far, Linder is the only school in Austin to participate in the No Place for Hate program.

Bullying & The Law

Bullypolice.org, a national organization that works to strengthen anti-bullying laws, gives Texas a C- grade for its current legislation. Texas law requires school districts to enact student codes of conduct that prohibit bullying and harassment; it further requires administrators to enforce these codes of conduct. However, the law provides no punishment for those who violate it. Indeed, Texas law only guarantees students the right to be transferred to another classroom or campus if they are being bullied — but only after school officials have verified that a student has, in fact, been the victim of bullying.

For many Texas parents, this simply isn’t good enough.

A new study released by Equality Texas asked parents the following question:

Currently in Texas, if a student in a school is bullied by other students physically, verbally or electronically, there are no uniform statewide requirements in place for how teachers should deal with the situation. Would you support or oppose legislation that would provide direction to Texas teachers on how to protect all children from bullying, harassment and discrimination in school, including the children of gay and lesbian parents or teenagers who are gay?
 
68.1% of Texas respondents said they would strongly support this kind of legislation.
 
That’s as good as a mandate for Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin).
 
Rep. Strama says he recognized the need for tougher anti-bullying legislation when he participated in the Principal for A Day program at a middle school in his district. The experience opened his eyes to the problem of bullying — and the problem school administrators face in addressing it. He said he realized public schools needed better tools, and more authority, to protect students from bullying.

He hopes HB 224 will give them that.

The bill, if passed, would require school boards to create anti-bullying policies that include cyber bullying, which is not currently codified by Texas law. The bill emphasizes the importance of training school staff and students on ways to prevent, identify and report incidents of bullying, and requires school districts to provide a safe means for students to report bullying to school staff.
 
HB 224 also includes two provisions that might particularly appeal to parents: a requirement that parents be notified of a bullying incident within 48-hours, and the right to request that a bully be moved to another classroom or campus.

“The hope is that, if the parents are notified early in a bullying situation, the parents of the bully will make it known to their child that this is not acceptable behavior,” Rep. Strama says. “And, the parents of the student who is being bullied can take steps to protect their child.”

Rep. Strama’s bill isn’t the only anti-bullying legislation making its way through the Legislature this session: lawmakers have filed nine bills that deal with bullying. Of particular note is SB245, filed by Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth). Similar to Rep. Strama’s bill in the House, this Senate bill would expand the current definition of bullying to include cyber bullying, while also requiring all schools in the state to have anti-bullying programs in place — and the training to enforce them.

 
Act Up!

Until new laws force schools to enact anti-bullying programs —or until schools choose to create and enforce them on their own— kids need to know how to handle teasing or other kinds of bullying.

For many years, the conventional wisdom held that teaching kids to ignore bullies —or, if pushed, to fight them— would protect them from being harassed. But at least one successful program in Austin suggests it may be a matter of teaching kids how to act.

At first glance, the Theatre Action Project seems an unlikely place to learn how to deal with bullies. Comprised of artists and educators, the organization teaches acting to children during classroom and after-school programs. Its mission is simple: to instill critical life skills in children through theatre arts. To do this, TAP partners with Dr. Nina Fredland, an assistant professor of nursing at UT-Austin.

“We have a great collaboration through which we both bring our expertise: ours in using interactive theatre to help young people deal with real-life problems they face everyday, and hers in researching and understanding how bullying can affect the health of young people,” says Karen LaShelle, TAP’s executive director. “We create the interventions and she measures their efficacy.”
 
All of TAP’s programs encourage students to understand the roles they assume in their school and the greater community, as well as how they can stand up for others who are the targets of bullying. Instructors use theatre to present stories of real and fictional characters who are involved in difficult situations; they then allow the kids to brainstorm what they would do in those situations. Through the theatrical presentations, the students develop a connection to a variety of characters, allowing them to experience how it feels to be both the bullied and the bully. This connection nurtures their empathy and understanding of the affects of cruel and disrespectful behavior, Ms. LaShelle says, and inspires them not only to avoid bullying, but to encourage their peers not to do it.

The program seems to work: 90% of the kids who have participated in TAP’s programs say they have increased their knowledge of either bullying, dating violence, or conflict resolution, according to TAP’s website.

“As a school nurse and health director, I observed complaints of a physical or somatic nature as well as psychological and behavioral issues that were a result of such exposures and experiences; these common occurrences can affect school performance,” Dr. Fredland says. “The play helps change the school climate by helping children to recognize unacceptable, unkind behavior and gives them skills to change behavior and make better choices.”
 
Moving On

None of the schools M.J. attended had anything like TAP. Not even the beating prompted Marion High School, where it took place, to distribute any kind of anti-bullying literature or hold any kind of assembly to discuss the problem, according to the court filing. When M.J. returned to school, the insults and physical harassment continued.

Following the school's investigation, M.J.’s parents decided that Marion High School was not willing to provide their son a safe educational environment. They removed him and enrolled him in a private school.
 
M.J. reports that the new school is “extremely welcoming” and that he is friends with “practically the whole school.”

The new school has a firmly enforced anti-bullying policy and addresses issues of harassment immediately. It has no problems with bullying.