Dedham schools to review bullying policy

As a bill targeting school bullying advances through the Legislature, the Dedham School Committee has committed to a new review of its bullying policy, beginning this coming Wednesday.

John Healy said the policy subcommittee would get the ball rolling looking at the current policy at its meeting March 10 at 6 p.m. in the lower conference room of Town Hall. The full School Committee reconvenes there that night at 7 p.m.

Cyberbullying has become a hot-button topic after a 15-year-old girl in western Massachusetts committed suicide in January, reportedly after being taunted with text messages and on Facebook, and bullied in school.

“What happened out there in South Hadley, that’s every parent’s nightmare, every community’s nightmare, but it’s also every school committee and every superintendent’s nightmare as well,” said Thomas Ryan.

The Dedham school board devoted two hours of its meeting last week to bullying and cyberbullying, with nearly every principal speaking about the programs they have in place to prevent and deal with the abuse.

After more than 90 minutes of discussion, parent Laurie Reisner came to the podium, asking the board “to consider forming another subcommittee to review the policies that you have in place, take a very close look at them, and see if there is anything that we can do to improve them.”

Reisner brought up bullying at a School Committee meeting in July 2007, and then participated in a subcommittee that put new policies in place.

For example, “each incident of bullying is supposed to be documented. It seems like that is being done,” Reisner said.

“Levels of punishment are supposed to be used, so that the same bully can’t continue to wreak havoc on fellow students without the consequences reaching a higher level,” she added. “That, I think, is a concern parents still have: what exactly is being done, how much do you really step it up, and what’s the point where it get stepped up?”

School officials said repeatedly that they use progressive discipline as they respond to bullying – with corrective actions including detention, suspension, community service, and education for bullies to try and ward off future incidents.

The State House bill was approved by the Joint Committee on Education and is now before the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. The comprehensive measure would prohibit bullying at all school facilities; at school-sponsored or school-related functions; on school buses; through school technology and electronic devices; and, importantly, “at non-school-related locations and through non-school technology or electronic devices, if the bullying affects the school environment.”

“It’s noting that it isn’t just devices owned by the school, but through personal devices if indeed the bullying affects the school environment,” said Superintendent of Schools June Doe. “And, of course, I think every principal here can attest to the fact that that’s what life in school is today, just an expansion of electronic devices. I think it’s good language, and I wish a speedy vote on this.”

State Rep. Paul McMurtry, D-Dedham, said “the most significant focus of the legislation is just the act of prevention, and really to help children understand” to be more respectful of each other.

He said one negative aspect of the bill “is that the school districts will be required to have and implement a bullying prevention plan for every student every year.”

The Senate passed an anti-bullying bill last session, but it was never voted on in the House.

McMurtry said he hoped the House would take a final vote on this new bill in April.

“It’s something that the speaker, Senate president and the governor are all supporting, and in favor of, and I would imagine that the action wouldn’t be delayed,” he said.

Dedham Transcript staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.