School District To Crack Down On Bullying With New Policy

With the school year now underway, bullies will have a close eye on them as the new signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie in January takes effect.

“We’ve got a pretty good plan in place,” Assistant Superintendent Vanessa Clark said.

Strauss Esmay Associates, a company that develops regulation manuals for schools, updated the district’s anti-bullying policy so that it is in compliance with the new law, Clark said.

“They have redefined what a bullying incident is,” she said.

The new policy will apply to in school, near school, outside school, on school busses and online. It deals with harassment, intimidation and bullying, Clark said.

The bill requires schools to implement staff training in suicide prevention, harassment, intimidation, and bullying; appoint a school liaison to law enforcement; establish bullying prevention programs; respond to actions that occur off school grounds; form a school safety team; and appoint anti-bullying specialists and coordinators.

The major change is the requirement to identify an anti-bullying specialist and the reporting process of bullying, she said.

Thomas Dorso, Supervisor of Special Services, will serve as the district’s anti-bullying specialist. Guidance counselors at will serve as anti-bullying specialists at each of their respective schools.

Dorso and the district’s guidance counselors participated in anti-bullying training and school administration recently held a meeting regarding the new policy, Clark said.

One lesson from the training was including the community in addressing harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB), Guidance Counselor JoAnne Applegate said.

"It's a collaboration with parents, clergy, community leaders, schools and school staff. It's the need to develop a school culture that does not tolerate incidents of HIB," Applegate said.

But this is nothing new to the Lacey Township School District, she said.

"The whole school community is now involved in this. That's always been the case in our district, fostering a good environment in our schools," Applegate said."I think in our school we've already been doing a pretty good job in educating our students on these things."

A big part of the policy is prevention, Applegate said. Harassment, intimidation and bullying can be emotionally damaging to children.

"It can last a lifetime," she said.

As an Anti-Bullying Specialist, Applegate's role will be to coordinate school education programs and foster respect within the school community. She will also investigate and report incidents.

"I'm look at all of this as a positive. It's a positive step in bringing about a good school culture," Applegate said.

The district still needs to do a first and second reading at the school board meetings and then adopt the policy, she said.

“That’s not to say we’re not implementing the policy yet. We're prepared,” Clark said.

The district will continue to be pro-active in anti-bullying training beyond the policy, Clark said.

Administration was recently invited to apply to participate in the 2011-2012 Bullying Prevention Institute (BPI) hosted by the Center for Applied Psychology (CAP) at Rutgers University.

The BPI will assist school districts in developing a comprehensive anti-bullying plan that effectively addresses the prevention, detection, and intervention of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. The district’s Bullying Prevention Leadership Team would attend four workshops at no cost to the schools.

“The more information we can get, the better,” Clark said.

For more information on the school districts anti-bullying policy, read “.”