Features

TAKE A STAND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We read with interest Matthew Artz’s article “School District Fails to Protect Bullying Victim at MLK,” (Daily Planet, March 25-29). 

In our professional opinion, it is clearly time to take a firm stand and approach to address “hostile school environment harassment” and bullying. 

Current initiatives follow in the footsteps of a more than two-decade struggle in the workplace to end not only the instrumental and procedural forms of employee aggression but to also eradicate the more subtle interpersonal hostilities that create an atmosphere of disrespect. What can we take away from this history to guide us in the effort to improve the climate in schools? 

We are psychologists with a specialization in harassment and discrimination—in the workplace and in the schools. From more than 25 years of experience, we know that teaching employees the do’s and don’ts is not a very effective way to change culture. Students are still more complicated: Children and adolescents are not just “little adults.” It takes more than policy to change behavior. 

We know, because we have been doing it. 

Steven Dranoff and  

Wanda Dobrich 

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ESCAPED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This year, it will be exactly 30 years since I escaped the Berkeley public school system into private school. I had suffered three bladder infections in my two years at Willard Junior High School, because I was afraid to go to the bathroom—girls did their clandestine smoking there, and though all I really wanted to do was mind my own business, pee and get out, because I was a smart, “weird,” fat kid who liked my teachers (who, in fact, generally liked the company of adults better than my that of age-mates) the smokers assumed that I was going to rat them out. They would therefore gang up on me to abuse me physically and verbally. 

I stopped going to the bathroom at school, with the result I mentioned. My doctor wondered aloud what was wrong after the second infection; I told him and my mom I wasn’t going to the bathroom at school, and why. Mom told the school administration. And nothing changed. I went to the bathroom, I got beat up, I quit going. 

Let’s face it: Kids are hideous to each other. (Yes, adults are hideous to each other too, but let me at least make the point.) It’s a fact of life, and nobody does anything about it because nearly all of us adults either bullied or were bullied by some other kid in school. Most of us grow up and get over it; at the other end of the spectrum, there’s Columbine. The little girl I once was is personally in favor of corporal punishment for bullies, but I don’t see that happening in our (ahem) enlightened, modern Berkeley milieu. 

Meanwhile, I nourish a sweet daydream of standing across the street from my old school (any of them, really) in broad daylight on a school day and screaming at the top of my lungs, “F**K YOU, (LeConte/Malcolm X/Willard Jr Hi) School, f**k you all and everything you stand for, the Berkeley public school system sucks, it turned me into a f**king basket case and crippled me emotionally for years, so f**k you, f**k you, F**K YOU!!” 

But since I’m all grown up now—and actually have made considerable strides in my adult life to get over that damage—I just cherish the idea rather than acting on it. My school experience didn’t kill me, so it made me stronger? Maybe. But it sucks no less for that. 

Mad props to Dominique for having the guts I didn’t have, to stand up to the bullies, but I’m afraid that if in 30 years no real change has been made to address bullying in the BUSD middle schools, it’s not likely to be made anytime in the foreseeable future either. 

Leigh Ann 

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OUTRAGEOUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I feel very angry about the non-protection of the bullied girl by the Berkeley School District. Why was not the bully kept in at lunch time, instead of the victim? Was the bully also suspended? No supervision at lunch time seems outrageous. 

Julia Craig 

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ZERO TOLERANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for bringing this difficult issue to people’s attention. Though you talk about middle school, our problem actually started in elementary school (Berkeley Arts Magnet). According to my kids, the bullies threatened, teased, mocked, pushed, punched and kicked as far back as kindergarten. The problem was never dealt with properly in the lower grades, so it continued to grow and worsen. In my experience, only one or two teachers ever dealt with the problem by confronting situations when they occurred and discussing the issue of bullying with the class. For the most part, when I talked to teachers and administrators about the problems my kids were having with bullies, the usual response was, “Unless I see it happen, there’s really nothing I can do about it.” 

In your article you wrote, “One policy that is uniform in the district is that any student who fights, even if it is in self defense, is suspended for at least one day.” Unfortunately that is not true. Children who fight are not always suspended (in the lower grades suspension is left up to the discretion of the teacher), and children are frequently suspended for more minor infractions. 

The victim is often blamed for provoking the bully’s “attack.” In fifth grade my son had to sit next to a boy who threatened every day to beat him up. The teacher refused to change his seat, so I went to the principal about the matter. She said my son was at fault for probably provoking the threats. In fact, most times when I approached the principal about my son’s problems with bullies, she found a way to hold the victim responsible. It’s easier to blame the victim than to discipline the bully. 

By middle school, the bullies were bigger, stronger and meaner. My son has been threatened, physically assaulted, had his basketball stolen, had a garbage can thrown at him and had a knife held to his neck—all this in his first year. 

When Dominique (the girl in your article) was denied outside lunch recess to protect her from her abusers, she was the one being punished. The bullies are the ones who should have been denied lunch recess. Instead of disciplining the bullies, the school punished the victim. 

The problem won’t go away by itself. The schools need to have a consistent, zero-tolerance policy for handling bullying in the schools. It must begin in elementary school, and it must treat the bully at the perpetrator and the victim as the victim. 

Debbie Dritz 

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KING STAFF DESERVE PRAISE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The article about bullying at King Middle School was an interesting analysis of a complex problem. However, the anecdote about the Reed family lacked many facts and focused the article on people who had problems at the school. However, my son had a recent experience with bullying at King that turned out well for him and our family. He wore a Halloween costume to school that evoked considerable teasing and eventually provoked a fight that caused him to be suspended. 

Unlike the Reed family, I found Vice Principal Sing, and my son’s teachers, to be pro-active and helpful. The administrative process and staff intervention that occurred after my son’s fight was a positive experience that helped him understand his role in the conflict and how he could prevent similar events in the future.  

Unfortunately, given the large number of students and variety of discipline problems, not every student’s issues can be addressed to the satisfaction of all. However, the staff at King should be praised for their hard work and expertise in a difficult environment. Ms. Sing in particular was wonderful with my wife, son and I.  

Name withheld to spare my son embarrassment 

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SIMILAR EXPERIENCES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wanted to write to you in response to your article “School District Fails To Protect Bullying Victim At MLK.” My children used to attend public schools in Berkeley and they encountered the same failure to protect victims at the grade school level. One memorable time when my son nearly had his thumb broken and his face had footprints on it from a bully, the then principal of Rosa Parks also tried to get my son in trouble and not take it seriously because my son tried to fight back.  

On top of that, nobody at Rosa Parks would take it seriously that this bully had attacked my son at the request of another child who threatened to have my son beaten up if he told the teacher about his harassment. Normally the police do not convict the victim if they are attacked and try to fight back to defend themselves, but the school district’s administration does not take the same attitude. There is nothing in place to help victims of bullies in the BUSD district, no tracking of who is being victimized, no paperwork trail of how often someone is attacked, so even the good administrators have no tools or records to deal with systematic abuse. BUSD’s “conflict resolution” programs only help a little bit since BUSD allows the instructors to force victimized children to work with their bullies and then get them in trouble if they object or are unable to work calmly with the same bully who calls them names, steals their things, destroys their things, and physically harms them on a regular, daily basis. The following is an excerpt from a poem I wrote in March 2002 about what my son suffered at Rosa Parks (and previous to that, at Thousand Oaks):  

“I can’t leave my oldest child/who no longer goes to school/because his nerves fire up in pain/because his body trips him up/because his classmates have been allowed/to show a face of hate/screaming him into a migraine/laughing when he falls down in pain/some trying to make him bad/because he is different and white/but he looks bewildered/when four black kids call him white boy/because they are the same color as his best friends/so they call him every other schoolyard bully name/that humans have not evolved away from.”  

To the Reed family, you have my sympathy and agreement. I chose to pull my son out of school rather than sue the school district, because I needed the energy to help my son deal with his educational and health needs. At this point, I am homeschooling both my sons through Hickman Charter School and will never force them to set foot in a Berkeley public school again. 

Debra Grace Khattab 

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KUDOS TO MATT ARTZ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Great article on Dominique Reed at Martin Luther King Middle School. Kudos to your Matthew Artz for writing it. 

John Russell Uren 

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SUGGESTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I applaud Mr. Reed for making a formal complaint to the police after his daughter’s school utterly failed to protect her from bullies. I would encourage him and the parents of other children in similar situations to consider two other measures: 

1. Enroll your child in an accredited, supportive and challenging martial art school. Such schools provide instruction in self-defense and in motor and mental skills that improve a child’s ability to perform scholastically. If your daughter has to defend herself, you should give her the ability to do so competently, in the ways least likely to result in permanent harm to herself or her attacker. Competent martial art instruction includes situational awareness and escape techniques, to allow you the means of avoiding assaults, as well as techniques for incapacitating an attacker. Make certain that the school you chose includes all of these in its curriculum. 

2. Get out of the public school system. It clearly is not teaching your child the same values you believe in. Look into private schools as quickly as possible and determine which schools refuse to tolerate student conduct like that inflicted on your child. Advocate for a voucher system and support political candidates who do likewise.  

Barry H. Bloch 

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DISABILITY RIGHTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The bullying article raises questions about the treatment of students with disabilities in our public schools. According to the article, both students—the bully and the victim—have disabilities.  

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), a national law and policy center, has been headquartered in Berkeley since 1979. DREDF is the designated Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) for Alameda, Contra Costa, and Yolo counties under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). DREDF’s PTI helps the families of children with disabilities navigate public school systems and access special education services.  

One of DREDF’s training workshops concerns how to handle bullying targeted at children with disabilities at school. The training was written by the National Alliance for Parent Centers and reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. “Is Your Child a Target of Bullying: Intervention Strategies for Parents of Children with Disabilities” addresses parents of children with disabilities and the professionals who work with them. This training is available to the BUSD and any group interested in learning to deal with the complexities of bullying. 

Susan Henderson 

Managing Director 

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund