One more reason to homeschool

The court held 9-5 that despite compulsory education laws the school did not have a "special relationship" with its students that would give rise to a duty to protect them from harm from other students.

District Not Liable in Student Bullying, Appeals Court Rules
Mark Walsh | June 06, 2013

abstract: bullying

Bullying and Victimization: The Role of Conduct Problems and Psychopathic Traits
Kostas A. Fanti1,*, Eva R. Kimonis2
Article first published online: 7 JUN 2012
Journal of Research on Adolescence

Bullying and victimization occurring in adolescence can have a long-lasting negative impact into adulthood. This study investigates whether conduct problems (CP) and dimensions of psychopathy predict the developmental course of bullying and victimization from ages 12 to 14 among 1,416 Greek-Cypriot adolescents. Results indicate that initial levels of bullying were highest among adolescents scoring high on narcissism, impulsivity, or CP—particularly for those also showing high callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Bullying behaviors were also more stable among youth scoring high on narcissism. Further, youth high on impulsivity showed more stable victimization by peers across development. Importantly, adolescents high on CP+CU were at greater risk for engaging in bullying across development compared with those scoring lower on CU traits or CP.

This is a case of synchronicity.

We had friends over for the fourth of July, and I was trying to remember what I'd read about kids who are bullied more than other kids.

I still don't remember, but I found this today while I was looking for something else.

teachers in the hall, lockers in the homeroom

from The Fragile Success of School Reform in the Bronx
By JONATHAN MAHLER
Published: April 6, 2011

Upon arrival at 223, students pass through a gantlet of smiling teachers. González requires that faculty members stand outside their doors at the start of the school day, part of his effort to set the school off from the grim streets surrounding it. “In our location, kids have to want to come to school,” he says. “This is a very sick district. Tuberculosis, AIDS, asthma rates, homeless shelters, mental-health needs — you name the physical or social ill, and we’re near the top for the city. Which means that when our kids come to school in the morning, when they come through that door, we have to welcome them.”

There’s another, no less compelling reason for this policy: posting teachers outside their classrooms helps maintain order in the hallways. It’s one of a number of things, like moving students’ lockers into their homerooms, that González has done to ensure that kids spend as little time as possible in the halls, where so much middle-school trouble invariably begins. (Chaotic hallways also tend to make for chaotic classrooms.)

I went to an NEA session on bullying in schools a couple of weeks ago. The presenter stressed that the adults in the school - including "ESPs" (education support personnel, I think) - are the ones who must deal with bullying.

You can't leave it up to the kids and their parents. Kids aren't grownups, and parents aren't on site.

bullying stats

I seem to be on various edu-p.r. lists these days, which is interesting. Today's "Media Advisory," from "The National School Boards Association's Council of Urban Boards of Education," contains this result from a survey of "10,270 parents in 112 urban schools from 17 states":

Bullying continues to be an issue at school. Little more than half of the parents surveyed felt that teachers had the ability to stop bullying, with close to 30 percent not sure if this was possible. More than 25 percent of parents have spoken to an administrator about bullying. Parents with students in the middle grades (6-8) were the largest group (nearly 11 percent) to report that their child was bullied during the school day at least once per month.

I'd love to know what figures you'd see in a survey of suburban, parochial, & private school parents.