School district changes bullying policy after child suicide

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 12:38 pm, Sunday, January 7, 2018

CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio schools district changed its policies concerning bullying, but its superintendent hasn't directly said whether those changes were influenced by the 2017 suicide of an 8-year-old boy who was reportedly bullied.

Cincinnati Public Schools Superintendent Laura Mitchell discussed the changes in a recent interview with WCPO-TV. She said the district website has a prominent new link for reporting bullying, that teachers and staff will receive more training and the district has hired a social worker with stress management expertise.

Reports about bullying nationwide and in Greater Cincinnati area showed that the district needed to pay closer attention to the issue, Mitchell said. While Mitchell did not connect those changes to Gabriel Taye's suicide in January 2017, she said his death "rocked our entire community."

. . .

Gabriel hanged himself two days after a surveillance video showed him being knocked unconscious at the entrance of an elementary school restroom.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/School-district-changes-bullying-policy-after-12479727.php

[7962]

1. Too many school systems are scared to punish bullies. For whatever reason.

Probably because mommy will come running down tot he school yelling and screaming about how "good" her kid "Really" is and she's gonna sue, etc.
Discipline has vanished in so many school systems. Troublemakers MUST be dealt with to the point that THEY are shamed into following the rules

[MichMary]

3. My aunt taught in one-room schools

many, many, many years ago. If a kid acted up in school, the siblings went home and told their parents. The parents ALWAYS backed up the teacher. Sometimes made the kid apologize to the teacher in front of the entire school.

For whatever reason, that dynamic has changed. The teacher is sometimes seen as out to get the poor, innocent little baby. I don't know why this happened, but it has made the education field frustrating and often dangerous for teachers.

[7962]

5. Thats right. It definitely has changed. Most see their kids as NEVER wrong.

Just goes along with the "everyone gets a trophy" syndrome that has infected our society. Leaving kids not prepared for the real world at all

[Magoo48]

2. School systems are driven by their fear of litigation rather than the common welfare of children...

[Farmer-Rick]

4. An 8 year old commits suicide after being beaten unconscious at his school

They have it on video and yet the current superintendent denies the boy was bullied. They told his parents he fainted at school. The parents found out from a police email. They have filed a law suit.

The school claims this is NOT a school problem, it is a society wide problem. But as a kid, the only place I was ever bullied was at school. There is something about how our school system works that encourages bullying. In summer camp and other youth events, I was never bullied. At home and among my peers in the neighborhood, I was never bullied. Schools are a hotbed of bullying because adults allow and encourage it.

[NCDem777]

6. Start expelling bullies

Better yet. Kill the term bullying. Had the person who punched this kid out been an adult, he'd be in jail because it's assault.

Give the kids the same protections we give adults.