Georgia Law on Bullying Needs to Be Enforced
A Contributor Perspective: Georgia School Leadership Must Stop Bullying
McDonough, GA 30252
United States of America
There were dog bones in my desk, broken windows at my house. And, the wonderful, little children who got their thrills from tormenting me nearly blew up our house when they tossed sawdust down our gas dryer shoot.
Yes, I am still bitter. Not as much for the bullying as for the fact that the adults, who should have protected me, did not. Teachers time and time again chose to turn a blind eye to the situation, regardless of how grievous the assault.
Why? Primarily because I was not bullied by the usual "bad eggs" at school. I was targeted by the so called "good kids." The boys breaking out our windows were on the football team. Their mothers were in the PTA. As a result, when certain boys revealed themselves as the dog bone culprits, my fifth grade teacher Ms. Hogan did nothing.
As I've parented six children through public and private school systems, I see nothing much has changed in the last 40 years, except perhaps that some of the bullying has gone high tech. Bullying is one of several reasons that my children are homeschooled in the upper grades.
Given this background, I am sure you can see why I would be excited that Georgia passed a law on bullying, O.C.G.A. 20-2-751-4.
Unfortunately, bullying continues. There is the heart-wrenching story of a 9-year old boy in Texas who finally committed suicide after neither he nor his mother could get his school teachers to care about his plight as a bullied child.
It's going to take more than the mere passage of this law to stem the problem.
Recently, many schools have adopted the nationwide OWELUS program, including the schools in the district where I live. That Georgia law requires all school districts in Georgia to implement some form of official program by August, 2011.
The problem that I see is that the handling of bullying continues to be at the local school level without any apparent oversight. Due to privacy issues, parents are not allowed any information related to discipline other than as it concerns their own child. As a result, no one outside of administration, the bully and his/her parents know the outcome of the disciplinary actions for the situation.
And, sometimes there are none.
Administration and teachers still make special accommodations for the "good kids." A counselor, who no longer works in the Georgia public school system , last year admitted to me in relation to a disciplinary issue: "Well, there are certain kids that we allow special privileges."
Now, she was not saying that the school allows these children to "bully" others; however, they are not disciplined equally and many forms of bad behavior are simply overlooked if the child is considered a "good" student. This is especially true of those children whose parents work for the school or in the school system.
As is evidenced by the Texas case, allowing individual schools to handle the situation without any oversight can have devastating results when a school chooses to ignore the issue
I believe adopting the OLWEUS system is a step in the right direction for ensuring that Georgia law is enforced and our children are protected; and, Georgia must be recognized as the first state, back in 1998, to implement a school safety hot-line for issues, including bullying.
Still, I also believe our school system has the responsibility to go further to provide a safe environment for every student. One step would be that each incident of bullying is reported and reviewed at a county level rather than leaving the issue contained solely at the school.
The November 2nd election in Georgia will bring a new state Superintendent of Schools; it will also bring new leadership to local school boards across the state.
This new leadership must implement an oversight system to ensure that enacted law is enforced, and each school is properly handling each and every case of bullying - without exception or privilege.
Sources:
Published by Martha Fry - Featured Contributor in Business & Finance
Martha Fry works as a freelance writer and editor. An accountant who worked at Peat, Marwick & Mitchell and Price Waterhouse, she also does financial consulting and often writes on business and personal fina... View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentWonderful writing ♥ thanks for sharing :)
Many, many school systems have adopted the Olweus anti-bullying methods, and are making headway on changing school cultures. It takes everyone in the school, especially the kids, to think differently. I understand where your heart is, but I disagree that an additional layer of paperwork should be added to report bullying to the county. All that will likely do is make it more daunting and time consuming to report bullying incidents.
I’m surprised Georgia enforces anything! Georgia and Alabama standards are a combination of how superiors feel at the moment and what they think a certain action will do for them materially. I was beaten in jr. high while my gem teacher read his news paper. I dealt with this kind of abuse all through school until I started beating the crap out of everyone around me. Then they wanted to throw me in juvenile. Psst! Whatever! I’m getting my baby out of Georgia. If you want to give your kids a productive and successful life, move north. Or at least get them out of Georgia and Alabama!
I agree with you that these bullying laws should be mandated in every state. There has been too many news of suicide due to bullying and it needs to be stopped now.
Bullying laws need to me made in every state and thoroughly enforced. It has gotten beyond mean spirited. Now it is just plain dangerous.
I wish something like this would have happened back when I was in school. I'm sure it's worse these days, but I went through hell as I'm sure many others did too.
Sorry that you were a victim of bullying. This is an unfortunate thing that is sweeping our nation. Schools, parents, children and the community must work together in eliminating this senseless and horrible crime. Hope it will pass and that steps are put in place on a nationwide basis. Great writing.
I hope it passes, but also that people remember -- bullying today not only goes on against kids and teens in "politically correct" backgrounds, but also those who are considered "politically incorrect," as well as disabled, etc.
that is a sad thing. thanks for sharing!
Well done - very good article.