According to Northampton and Easthampton school policies, bullying is defined as a situation where "one or more students tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove or hurt another student over and over again." It is not bullying when two students of about the same strength or power argue or fight or tease each other in a friendly way, according to the policy.
By OWEN BOSS
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - What is the difference between hazing and teasing? What constitutes cyberbullying? And when is it plain old-fashioned conflict?
Those were just some of the questions educators grappled with Tuesday at seminars designed to prepare staff from two area school districts for the added responsibility of complying with the state's new anti-bullying law crafted in the wake of the January suicide of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old South Hadley High School student.
In a scene played out in similar sessions around the state, faculty and staff from Easthampton and Northampton schools met separately for workshops that included frank discussions about what constitutes bullying and how to react if confronted with an incident at school.
Teachers talked about how to identify which students are likely to be targets, how best to reprimand aggressors and how best to encourage students to stand up and report incidents they witness.
Northampton's professional day, held in the auditorium at Northampton High School, included two three-hour sessions that allowed more than 400 teachers, paraprofessionals and clerical staff members to brainstorm thorny topics such as: What should a teacher do if a student tells her she saw derogatory things written about a fellow student on the social networking site Facebook? What if someone notices a racist or homophobic message scribbled on a bathroom wall? If two boys of equal size and strength are seen roughhousing at recess, is that considered bullying or is it all in good fun?
The presentation was led by Karen Jarvis-Vance, the director of health services, health education and safety for the Northampton public schools, and Randy Ross of Northampton from the New England Equity Assistance Center, an organization that assists with the professional development of teachers across the region.
Both Jarvis-Vance and Ross spent months crafting the local policy, which the School Committee approved in July.
"Today, we had all of our teachers, paraprofessionals and assorted office staff members come in for training and I will be following up within the next week or two with the rest of our clerical staff, custodians, bus drivers and food service workers," Jarvis-Vance said. "Because anyone who comes into contact with our students can report a bullying incident."
Ross said the goal of the session was to help teachers handle situations that can confound even experts in child behavior.
"In 10 years of doing this, I've come to find that teachers and administrators really care about the problem, but before now they weren't equipped with the tools and a step-by-step procedure to make sure that kids don't end up falling between the cracks," Ross said.
Meanwhile, Easthampton Superintendent Nancy Follansbee said more than 300 school employees - including bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers - attended a similar seminar at White Brook Middle School led by Meghan McCoy, program director for the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University.
They reviewed the district's policy on bullying and discussed how to react if they witness any of the tell-tale warning signs.
"Ms. McCoy gave a very comprehensive presentation on bullying prevention," Follansbee said. "We believe it is important for everyone in the district to hear the same message about how to recognize the difference between bullying and conflict, how to intervene when bullying is suspected, and how to provide a school climate that keeps all of our students safe."
According to policies at both schools, bullying is defined as a situation where "one or more students tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove or hurt another student over and over again." It is not bullying when two students of about the same strength or power argue or fight or tease each other in a friendly way, according to the policy.
For more information about Northampton's bullying policy or to print incident complaint report forms, residents are encouraged to visit a recently created website, http://npssafeschools.northampton-k12.us.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
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