Central Berkshire Urged to Address Bullying in Schools
DALTON, Mass. — A parent and community leader called out the Central Berkshire Regional School District for how it handles the safety and wellness of students.
Joseph Diver, chair of the Select Board, said he was speaking as a resident at Thursday's School Committee meeting. He expressed his disappointment on how bullying incidents are reported and how the district handled recent anti-Semitic harassment that led to a teacher's resignation.
This is not the first time Diver has brought up the issues with the committee. Approximately six years ago, he and his son went before the board following bullying incidents directed toward his son.
When Diver got word of the anti-Semitic harassment, he made public records requests to determine how critical the district takes student safety. He said he found the Safety and Wellness committee has not spoken about bullying at all this past academic year.
"The Safety and Wellness committee was designed by one of your prior chairs after my son presented it to you guys, you're not doing the job," Diver said
The topic fits in both the curriculum and Safety and Wellness committee, Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said.
"I think that the concerns themselves are going to be addressed throughout the implementation of our code of conduct," Blake-Davis said, adding that an equity audit recommended that the district implement a more consistent code of conduct so that there are more accountable interventions and expectations.
Although in some cases it may be more appropriate to address the issue of bullying in Safety and Wellness, this time it will be addressed during the code of conduct presentation at the curriculum committee meeting, she continued.
Curriculum subcommittee Chair Ellen Lattizzori proposed that they invite members of the Safety and Wellness committee to the presentation. Whether or not this will happen was unclear.
One committee member recommended having the Safety and Wellness committee discuss bullying again now that the pandemic is over and to start reviewing threats of bullying, threatening behaviors, and reporting on a quarterly basis.
Diver said, based on the open records request, the School Committee has only discussed the safety and wellness of students twice in the last two years.
One of these discussions was initiated by Diver two years ago and the second time was when Blake-Davis talked about the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Diver said.
In 2018, the committee also had to add teacher safety because teachers expressed feeling unsafe, he said.
"When looking at the schools allegations for bullying for 2021 to 2022, there were five bullying allegations and zero findings. That data is incorrect," Diver said. "My own son, there were three. Your data collection is incorrect. There were three findings of bullying, he was a target. Three."
According to the Massachusetts Student Discipline Data Report for 2021 to 2022, there were 93 students disciplined for a range of reasons including bullying, physical fighting, battery, threat of physical attack, illegal substances, and sexual harassment.
There were also students disciplined for vandalism, having a weapon on school grounds, other violent or substance related offenses, and other non-drug, non-violent, and noncriminal related offenses.
The data showed that there was one student disciplined for bullying, 14 for physical fighting, nine for battery, three for threat of physical attack, 12 for illegal substances, and three for sexual harassment.
It also showed that four students were disciplined for vandalism, three for having a weapon on school grounds, nine for other violent or substance-related offenses, and 61 for other non-violent, and noncriminal related offenses.
Diver urged the committee to have the data for bullying practices externally audited.
"Dive deep into the data, dive deep into the process," he said.
The state requires that both allegations and findings of bullying are reported, Blake-Davis said. It's difficult because the district does report these findings but the state's definition of bullying is very specific.
"That doesn't mean there are other things that are happening in the building that are not OK and not appropriate. They just don't fall under bullying," Blake-Davis said.
Following the meeting, Diver said he was "completely disgusted" with how the School Committee addressed his concerns and that it is not doing its job or taking the issue seriously.
"After seven years of advocating and highlighting issues and concerns, not one School Committee leaned in to ask to audit the bullying prevention program and data collection. Not one. They should all resign," Diver said.
Tags: bullying, CBRSD,
