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-
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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.)
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