Florida Reports Instances Of Bullying Ranging From 0 to 4,000, Calls For Reform

New anti-bullying legislation popping up around the country may need retooling, new reports show.

The nationwide crackdown on bullying in the wake of highly publicized suicides like Massachusetts student Phoebe Prince and Florida's Jeffrey Johnston, have inspired a series of state laws mandating that instances of verbal, physical and cyber harassment be taken more seriously by educators. The new rules state that schools must not only directly address acts bullying, but report incidents to districts so accurate numbers can be gauged. In both states, complaints are logged based upon the affected students age, race, color, gender and sexual orientation.

Florida instated its anti-bullying law, the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act known simply as “Jeff's Law”, two years ago. Since then, the state's 67 districts have reported wildly divergent numbers related to instances of bullying: Nine districts reported zero cases of bullying over the last two years, while the Palm Beach County School District reported nearly 4,000, The Tampa Tribune reports.

The story is similar in Massachusetts. In the year since its anti-bullying law was put in place, the Associated Press reported that:

Some districts, including Boston, did not know how many complaints were lodged because the cases were handled by each school rather than the central office.

Debbie Johnston, mother of Jeffrey Johnston and a Florida school teacher, lodged a similar complaint against her own state, asserting that leaving reporting instances of bullying up to the individual districts rather than opening state investigations prevented serious action from being taken against aggressors.

“[The schools are] playing games with the law and they're playing games with kids' lives,” Johnston told The Tampa Tribune.

The increasing focus on cyberbullying has also become controversial, raising questions on whether a school is responsible for what happens beyond school grounds.

“I have parents who thank me for getting involved,” Mike Rafferty, a middle school principal from Connecticut told The New York Times, “and parents who say, ‘It didn’t happen on school property, stay out of my life.’ ”

Watchdog organization Bully Police reports that 47 states have passed anti-bullying laws so far. The three exclusions are Michigan, Montana and South Dakota.

Comments

[sergal stew]

10:42 PM on 07/25/2011

What about people bullied in customer service jobs?

[rltballer]

10:29 AM on 07/20/2011

i think they need a zero tolerance policy. first instance of bullying, ISS for a month. 2nd instance, ISS for a semester, 3rd instance, expelled for life from school district and let parents move and see then how they like their precious kid. rediculous that schools allow this to go on. regardless who is doing it.. if its the star quarterback, he needs to be suspended and kicked off team.

[DanInAustin]

01:02 PM on 07/21/2011

Great idea. ISS is a great tool for keeping kids from coming to school in the first place. Let's get those kids out of the classroom and onto the streets where they belong. You don't mind if they sell drugs to your precious little former bullying victim, do you? Or break into your house? Or carjack you?

It's easy to oversimplify a complex problem if you ignore the real-world consequences of your decisions. Taking away someone's future as a form of draconian punishment can only create more problem down the road.

[rltballer]

01:44 PM on 07/21/2011

Iss only separates these badly behaving kids from the rest of the good kids. They still go to school. Still do school work. If they skip too much the parent will get fined or go to jail for not doing there job as a parent. Your postt has no merit. I am a school teacher myself. Iss does work.

[bfre]

06:58 AM on 07/20/2011

What do you do when the school administrator is a bully? Teachers are far less likely to stand up and talk honestly about what is going on if they themselves are being targeted by a bullying principal. Bullying of teachers is rampant. People just don't associate it with adults in education.

[f2900]

12:22 AM on 07/22/2011

I hear you. My principal is a little tyrant. His nastiness makes it even more important to stand up, speak up. We serve as examples to our students. We have to model this behavior for them.

[bfre]

06:47 PM on 07/22/2011

Too many bullies invoved in school administration.My despot has run all of the smart teachers out, and has retained those "yes" men that are the weakest teachers at the school. Sad state of affairs for education.

[Cammy Anderson]

04:17 AM on 07/20/2011

I'm glad to finally see people interested in changing the bullying status in schools now. Innocent lives have been lost because of this. We've pressed hard to protect kids from predators. Now let's protect them from themselves.

[beninabox1]

02:04 AM on 07/22/2011

"Now let's protect them from themselves­. "

Protect the vulnerable from the predators among them. Ever read Lord of the Flies?

[Larsami1]

10:42 AM on 07/22/2011

Good book with reality of youth behaviors. Thanks.

[PixieGirl0731]

11:26 PM on 07/19/2011

What do we do when the Parents are bullies? I have worked with many troubled students and I can tell you this starts at home. It is something that they come to school in pre-K with. The histories often go back to the first week or 2 of school.

[poeticjustice4all]

06:15 PM on 07/19/2011

The lead is so deeply buried -- I can't find it.

[Hlynn]

05:41 PM on 07/19/2011

More laws will not help. What will help is more parents taking responsibility for their own children.

If someone is cyberbullying, the parents of the student should be responsible for it because they pay for the technology used. I don't know any students who pay for their own cell phones and internet service. And parents of students who are bullied have the responsibility to contact the parents of the bullies and get the police involved, if necessary.

The school staff can be a partner in this with anti-bullying education, but the ultimate responsibility is that of the parents, whether their child is on the giving or receiving end of bullying. Politicians need to stop trying to make schools responsible for what parents should be doing.

[Cammy Anderson]

04:14 AM on 07/20/2011

Hell some of the school staff are letting it happening and sometimes encouraging it. It's all about how popular the bullies are and who they are bullying. If a popular cheerleader is bullying a school nobody, who cares? Gives new cause for updating the "No child left behind" goal. All students need to abide by anti-bullying rules and laws. Just leave the school nobody alone. How is bullying going to make her a somebody unless she retaliates? I would worry where the school staff would stand if she did.

[LynxAlexiaBlack]

11:11 AM on 07/21/2011

As much as I agree with you how do you make the parents take the responsibility? To many didn't have kids for the right reasons or didn't have a good role model in the first place to know any better. Many honestly look at the kids as a burden and nothing more so they don't care. How do you make some one care?