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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2019)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 | 7A from A1 BULLY efforts to curb bully- ing. The Oregon Safe Schools Act of 2009 gave definitions for bullying, and in 2012, the Act was strengthened to include more reporting mea- higher in Oregon. It’s stayed nearly the same over the last six years. The state has made sures for districts. The OSSCC rated districts for years on their bully- ing policies, with a “gold star” rating the goal of every district. The ratings, gold, sil- Come experience our new laser Dentistry without anesthesia Brent Bitner, DDS DENTISTRY WITH FAMILY IN MIND C ALL U S T ODAY ! 541.942.7934 350 E. W ASHINGTON A VENUE • C OTTAGE G ROVE WWW.CGSMILES.COM ver and bronze star, measured compliance with state law and whether school policy included specific lan- guage for staff training and/or gender identi- ty-based bullying and harassment. Eventually, so many schools came into com- pliance with the law that the organization no lon- ger felt it necessary to rate them, according to Joy Wallace, co-chair of the OSSCC board. South Lane School District (SLSD) achieved a “silver star” rating in 2012 and maintained that through 2014, which was the fi- nal year districts were graded; NDSD was rec- ognized as a “gold star district” beginning in 2013. However, despite the abundance of gold star districts, bullying rates have stayed almost constant. But what exactly is bullying? ORS 339.351 defines bullying and ha- rassment as any action that “substantially in- terferes with a student’s educational benefits, opportunities, or per- formance”—while tak- ing place in school or at school-sponsored activ- ities and locations, in- cluding bus stops — re- sulting in physical harm or property damage, in- stilling fear of that harm or damage, or “creat[es] a hostile educational environment, including interfering with the psy- chological well-being of a student.” It may or may not be based on protect- ed classes like race and gender. At Bohemia Elemen- tary School, they have a slightly different defini- tion: “We define bullying as something that is tar- geted harassment over time,” said Principal Heather Bridgens. “It can be physical or verbal abuse. It can be intimi- dating. It doesn’t have to be something that can be seen or heard...It’s some- thing that happens more than one time. “The key difference [between simply being disrespectful or unkind and bullying] is that it is targeted and happens more than one time.” School districts are re- quired by ORS 339.356 to have a policy on bul- lying and harassment as well as reporting proce- dures for students and faculty, but there is no statewide set of proce- dures or policies en- forced among schools. That makes compara- tive data collection dif- ficult. In fact, Oregon doesn’t collect data on bullying incidents unless it involves removing a student from school, ac- cording to Lisa Bateman, a Social Emotional Learning Specialist with the Oregon Department of Education. In addi- tion, changes in staff training and different definitions of bullying have made comparing data from year to year murky at best. “When we record be- havior as bullying or disrespect, something we recorded as bullying before we might more accurately record as dis- respect now,” Bridgens said. It’s not always easy to figure out why kids bully each other, either. “There’s a number of reasons [why kids bully],” said Dr. Linda Schmidt, a child psychi- atrist with the Oregon Health and Science Uni- versity. “The first thing that comes to my mind is low self-esteem … Not always, but oftentimes they will have parents who are bullies. That be- havior was modeled for them.” Schmidt also said bul- lies might pick on others because they’re trying to look cool, to gain social status or gain a sense of power. Some, she said, lash out because they were bullied themselves. SLSD is making efforts to track and prevent bul- lying through a more unified data collection system, a district-wide standardized report, and programs in the schools to stop it before it starts. (Editor’s Note: Next week, The Sentinel will provide a comprehen- sive report on a recent sports-related hazing incident that occured last month at Cottage Grove High School, as well as Part II of this sto- ry exploring how SLSD is addressing the issue of bullying — and how those efforts are part of a long-term goal of cre- ating a foundation of anti-bullying education from an early age.) $500 S HOPPING S PREE at any of the following businesses. Use all or part at one or several businesses Contest Runs October 2 - October 31 Winner will be announced in the November 6 Cottage Grove Sentinel To enter cut out the entry form and drop them off at the businesses for the drawing. (541) 942-1301 & & Equipment Rental )250$/$1' ,1)250$/ $1'25&2817(5+(,*+7 ',1,1*6(76,1672&. 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