Schools

Beating Bullies to the Punch

In a proactive measure, theThe Troy school district is planning a special hotline for students to call about bullying.

Recently, 13-year-old Nadin Khoury made national headlines when seven schoolmates videotaped beating him up.

After reoccuring bullying, they kicked him, dragged him through the street, stuffed him in a tree and hung him on a fence.

Here in Shorewood, Troy schools are going the extra mile to help kids safely report bullying.

Find out what's happening in Shorewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We are trying to set up a special hotline number that only kids can call," explained Superintendent Don White.

The biggest challenge is that bullying happens when adults are not around to witness it, White explained. Often students fail to report it.

Find out what's happening in Shorewoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Just this week, we had an administration meeting about it," he said. "We are in the very early stages."

The hotline will be a special phone number for students to call. It will have an answering machine where students can leave an anonymous message. The district is considering routing the hotline to a counselor during the day, White said, but the goal for now is to have a vehicle of communication where students feel safe to release the pressure of what they are struggling with.

"To me, this is my personal observation, there seems to be a heightened level of frustration all around," he said. "It almost seems relentless now.

"We used to have playground bullies when we were growing up, laughed about it and moved on," he explained. "It's not OK."

Today, bullying is something that they, as educators, want to stay on top of, he said. Not only do they want to help the child being victimized, they also want to educate the bullies in order to alter their behavior as well.

The first step when listening to the messages is to understand what the call is, he said. The staff can start asking questions while protecting the person who left the message. White said they will not start accusing anyone just because a message was left.

He explained that they can approach a student with a question along the lines of, "Can we talk about why someone would make that kind of statement?"

A student could also simply leave a message requesting that teachers watch a particular stairwell, for example, during this time frame.

If staff determines that bullying is occurring, the next step could vary depending on measures outlined in the school handbook. Consequences range from conflict resolution to school suspension and expulsion.

"If there was bullying at the level of threats of death, we would be leaning toward the expulsion type of thing," White said. "If we have a third grader calling someone overweight, that is a different kind of angle, especially if that third grader hasn't had a repetitive pattern."

The presence of a repetitive pattern is an important component in determining appropriate consequences, he said.

The next phase of getting the hotline in place is to get it mechanically set up, White said. Then they need to market it, so that it is kept in the forefront of the students' minds. No hard deadline has been established.


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