William Kritsonis, School Law, Ch 10 Bullying

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Student Harassment

• William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

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What Is Harassments?

• Harassment is a form of repeated aggression that
  is directed by one or more people towards another
  person.
• Also, harassment is some of the most serious
  forms of peer harassment involve groups. People
  often do things in groups that they would not do
  alone. They may be fearful of losing the group's
  approval if they don't go along. 

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Forms of Harassment

• Physical
• Verbal
• Relational
• Cyber

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What is Harassments ?

• Physical Harassment
• where a student uses physical force to hurt
  another student by hitting, pushing, shoving,
  kicking, pinching or holding them down.

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What is Harassments ?

• Verbal Harassment
• is when a student uses words to hurt another
  student. This includes threatening, taunting,
  intimidating, insulting, sarcasm, name-calling,
  teasing, slurs, graffiti, put-downs and ridicule

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What is Harassment ?

• Relational Harassments
• occurs when students disrupt another students
  peer relationships through leaving them out,
  gossiping, whispering and spreading rumors.

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What is Harassments ?

• Cyber Harassment
• refers to the use of cell-phones, text messages,
  e-mails, instant messages, web blogs and postings
  to bully another student in any of the ways
  described above.

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The Affects of Being Harassed

• Low self-esteem
• Poor grades
• Loneliness (the need to stay home
• They become introverted
• Faking sickness (because they dont want to face
  the bullies)

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Who do Bullies Target?

• They target Children that are
• Smaller
• Younger
• Weaker

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Locations of harassment in schools

• Playground (recess)
• Classroom
• Hallways
• Lunchroom
• Off campus

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Whos More Susceptible to Being Harassment ?

• In a study of 15,686 students 6th- 10th found
  that 13-23 of boys experience being bullied.

• Also, the same study concluded that 4-11 of
  girls experience the same torment.

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Common Characteristics of Harassment

• A good student who normally loves school suddenly
  hates school
• A student becomes fearful of coming to school
• A student becomes depressed and is unable to
  concentrate
• A formerly good student has a noticeable drop in
  performance, resulting in poor grades.
• A student who was formerly content considers
  suicide.

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How to Educate Teachers and Fix The Problem

• Create an anti-Harassments program for
• Elementary School
• Middle School
• Junior high School

• Interventions for
• Students Identified as bullies
• Victims of harassments

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Court Cases in Student Harassment

• Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, the
  Supreme Court, in a 5 - 4 decision, held that
  such monetary damages may be recovered only where
  the district has "actual notice" of the
  harassment and is "deliberately indifferent" to
  the harassment. The Court also noted that the
  harassment must be so "severe, pervasive, and
  objectively offensive" that it deprived the
  student victim of access to educational
  opportunities or benefits provided by the school
  district.

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Court Cases in Student Harassment

• Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District.
  In Gebser, which was decided in June 1998, the
  Court held that monetary damages can be recovered
  under Title IX where a school district employee
  sexually harasses a student, if a school district
  official who has the authority to take corrective
  measures has actual notice of and is deliberately
  indifferent to the employee's misconduct

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Court Cases in Student Harassment

• Henkle v. Gregory, 150 F. Supp.2d 1067 (D. Nev.
  2001)Constant harassment, discrimination,
  intimidation based on his sex and sexual
  orientation, name calling, assaults, punched in
  face, lassoed around the neck, threatened,
  transferred from school to school and told to
  keep silent about his sexual orientation, put
  into adult education program.

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REFERENCES

• Burstyn, B. N., Tallerico, M. (2004).  Politics
  and Paradox!  The Case of Urban Alternative
  school.  Planning and Changing, 35(1), 22-55.
• Dedman, B. (2000). Bullying, torment often led
  to revenge in cases studied. Chicago Sun-Times,
  October 15.
• Center for the Prevention of School Violence
  (1995) Last retrieved November 10, 2005, from
  http//www.ncdjjdp.org/cpsv/

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REFERENCES

• Snell, L., Volokh, A., School Violence
  Prevention Strategies to Keep Schools Safe
  (2005) Retrieved November 2, 2005, from
  http//www.rppi.org/ps234/
• Svoboda, E. (2004) Everyone loves a bully.
  Psychology Today. (pp. 1-20).
• Espelage, D. (2001). Schoolroom torment. People
  (pp. 91-92).