DALTON, Mass. — Bullying allegations reported have increased, but that is likely due to Central Berkshire Regional School District's improved reporting system, the administration says.  

 

There was a presentation on the district's discipline and bullying data during the School Committee meeting last week. 

 

According to the presentation, the total number of student offenses in the 2023-2024 school year was 280, whereas in the 2022-2023 school year, there were only 212 student offenses.

 

"I would have anticipated [the increase], to be perfectly honest with you, because I think our systems are better. I think our systems are more sensitive, and I think we're catching more incidences in our buildings," Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said. 

 

According to the presentation, the state required the district to report on these categories: alcohol, attendance, drugs, harassment, obscene behavior, criminal offenses, non-criminal offenses, school theft, theft, intimidation, tobacco, vandalism, and weapons possession. 

 

The number of bullying allegations went from 15, with five findings in the 2022-2023 school year, to 27 allegations, with three findings in the 2023-2024 school year. 

 

"I truly believe this is an indication of the easier access to our reporting systems," Blake-Davis said. 

 

The district does not find a lot of actual bullying; however, Blake-Davis emphasized that incidents not deemed bullying after an investigation are reported under a separate category. 

 

Blake-Davis touched on what was discussed in depth last year — how bullying is an unwanted aggressive behavior that involves a pattern and power imbalance. 

 

"I will say that between peer conflict and bullying and that power balance is sometimes not always easy to determine when you see, particularly when you see groups of students at the high school," she said. 

 

The principal determines whether an incident is considered bullying. However, both Blake-Davis and Assistant Superintendent Michael Henault can see when a bullying incident has been filed and the process as it is happening. 

 

"This school year, I sign off on all bullying investigations, so if I look at the data and I feel like I'm questioning the outcome, then I contact the administrator so we have a conversation, but it's really a principal determination," Blake-Davis said. 

 

Behavior that does not meet those requirements falls under a different category, like physical fighting or non-violent offenses.

 

When the district updated its cell phone policy last year, it also implemented a monitoring system for student emails that red flags keywords that might indicate "a student was planning or had some indication that" they might harm themselves or others, said the superintendent.

 

It also picks up things like threats, substance abuse, and weapons, which all the administrators can see. 

 

"I will tell you that since we have had that system, we are picking up a lot more than what we used to, and that's not a bad thing," Blake-Davis said. 

 

Sometimes, it's just a student writing a social studies paper about gun control, which has happened multiple times. However, when there is a sign of a threat, the district responds to it immediately. 

 

The category with the most significant increase in the 2023-2024 school year was drugs, as vaping falls under that category.

 

"There's a large jump in drugs, and that is almost exclusively due to marijuana vaping. We've partnered with two different organizations to combat vaping," Henault said. 

 

One method is to install vaping detectors in the bathrooms of Wahconah Regional High School.  This has increased the school's response to vaping but it also increased the number of incidents, Henault said. 

 

"But we're catching it, which we feel is a good thing," he said.

 

The district has several anti-vaping programs that they are doing, particularly at Wahconah. 

 

"We're trying to have those educational sessions at times when we have families in the building, such as Open House [and] sports orientation," Blake-Davis said. 

 

Wahconah's Dean of Students and Athletic Director, Jared Shannon, "is really on top of all this," she said.  

 

The district is also intensifying its Brien Center at Wahconah. They started the program at the middle school but are now also starting a more intensive one at the high school, Blake-Davis said. 

 

Another thing affecting this year's data is that the district implemented a more consistent code of conduct and disciplinary process across the schools, which led to an increase in in-school suspensions rather than out-of-school suspensions. 

 

In September, the district shifted its focus to restorative practices and away from exclusionary action. 

 

The data shows that in the 2023-2024 school year, the district had 168 in-school suspensions, compared to only 102 in the previous school year. 

 

It also showed that the number of out-of-school suspensions went down slightly. In the 2023-2024 school year, the district had 111 out-of-school suspensions, compared to 112 the previous year. 

 

"I think that some of this is related to our code of conduct and being more consistent about what an in-school suspension looks like. I think we're more likely to do an in-school suspension than we are the out-of-school suspension because we really want to keep our kids in school," Blake-Davis said. 

 

"When a student has an in-school suspension, they still have access to their teachers. They still have access to mental health support, [and] they still have access to restorative services."