Bullying steps have far yet to go

Technology has extended the bullying's reach, and some victims of bullying are taking more drastic steps to respond.

In September, area schools saw how vulnerable they were when a gun was brought into Socastee High School. A school resource officer was injured and several pipe bombs were found that day. Since then, a lawyer for the 14-year-old student charged in the incident has said the boy had been bullied for years. On Friday, more details of those incidents may come to light during a hearing in which a judge will hear arguments on whether the student, who has been charged as a juvenile, should face felony charges as an adult.

"Kids have been bullied for forever," said Robin Kowalski, a professor at Clemson University and a bullying expert. "But the cyberbullying side has increased."

And with cyberbullying come a whole host of new issues, Kowalski said.

In the past, bullying was something that happened during school or at school-sponsored activities. That is not the case when it moves online.

"It's occurring off of school grounds but affecting the school day," she said.

Almost half of children who report being cyberbullied do not know the identity of the person bullying them, she said, "and that's the disconcerting part, the anonymity."

The increasing prevalence of cyberbullying means parents need to be aware of what's going on, and Kowalski said that's part of the duty of the school districts.

"The schools need to have programs in place ... to educate the parents," she said. "Most parents didn't grow up with this technology."

In the end, however, the best teachers are the children themselves, Kowalski said.

"Schools and parents can really let the kids be the experts," she said. "Put the kids in the driver's seat and let them educate about the use of technology."

Ending the cycle

But children need to be involved not only with the prevention of cyberbullying, but all bullying, she said.

"It's one thing to have a teacher stand up there and lecture about bullying. It's another to have a peer leader talk about it," she said.

In Horry County, schools have changed their security policies since the Socastee shooting. The week after that incident, schools were instructed to use metal detectors every day.

The district is also seeking ways to encourage more parent and student involvement.

The Georgetown County School District is working to initiate some bullying prevention programs.

"We're talking about going out and talking to different age groups," said Kelly Kelley, risk manager for the district. "We've got some parents who want to be involved, too."

Kelley said the district is also rethinking its punishments for bullying.

She said the current punishment for bullying is expulsion, and that harsh punishment may be preventing students from reporting incidents.

The Horry County school district is working to change the way guidance counselors work with students about bullying, and "creating a sense of civic responsibility among their peers, the bystanders," said Teal Britton, the district's spokeswoman.

Bullying was cited as a factor when a Carolina Forest High School student brought a sword to school and was shot and killed by a school resource officer after a struggle over the weapon in October 2009. That student had Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, and was misunderstood and bullied by many students, according to his parents.

Britton said the district is working on ways to better report when instances of bullying occur.

"How do you begin to document things of which there isn't much documentation for," she said.

"All of us relate to images of bullying," she said; for example, an older, bigger child pushing a smaller child into a locker.

Such instances are relatively easy to deal with, she said, since they're overt and visible.

"So much of bullying is not a physical exercise, it's emotional ... so there are situations sometimes where they are difficult to document," Britton said.

And Britton said without documentation, it's difficult to prove that anything has happened.

"We have to act based on the best information we have," she said.

In both the Carolina Forest and Socastee incidents the school district said it had no reports of bullying of those students, though people close to the students said afterward that they were bullied.

Getting any information at all about bullying is sometimes difficult, Kowalski said.

"Kids don't want to go up to a teacher and tell them about bullying," she said. "There needs to be some kind of anonymous reporting system."

The Georgetown County School District has an anonymous 1-800 number students or teachers can use to report bullying. But there have been no anonymous tips from the hot line regarding bullying since it started in 2007, Kelley said.

"I do feel like it's going on," said Kelley. "But we don't get a lot of formal notices."

A total of 24 students have been recommended for expulsion due to bullying since 2007, according to the district.

Kowalski said children don't report bullying if they don't think anything will be done about it.

"Kids typically don't believe their schools are proactive enough about bullying," she said.

Changing perspective

But that attitude is changing as bullying is tied to more incidents of school violence, locally and across the country.

The S.C. Department of Education is also working to give schools more tools to deal with bullying.

At the end of October, the S.C. Association of School Administrators put on a seminar about bullying prevention. Part of it is a partnership with the Department of Education to launch the S.C. Bullying Prevention Initiative.

The initiative will select test schools for the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, a highly researched school and community program that reduces or prevents bullying.

Molly Spearman, the association's executive director, said they are looking for eight to 10 schools to try the program, which includes a survey to find out where incidences of bullying occur. But the program costs about $4,000 to implement, so the association is working with schools to figure out funding sources.

Apart from the money, she said the entire community needs to buy in to make a bullying prevention program work.

And the stakes are only getting higher, Spearman said.

Lawsuits against districts that don't respond to bullying are becoming more and more common across the nation and there is a lawsuit pending in South Carolina.

In mid-October parents of a student of Sumter's School District 17 filed a lawsuit against the district for not responding to their claims of bullying.

The lawsuit says their son was repeatedly bullied while on the school bus and the district did not take adequate action to prevent the bullying from continuing.

The parents are seeking damages to be determined by a judge.

Spearman said schools need to protect themselves from all of the dangers associated with bullying.

"Most folks are doing a good job," she said. "But it's that one incident that doesn't get handled properly ... . These little things can build up and build up, and if it's not handed properly, it can turn into very serious and sometimes tragic incidences."

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Bullying doesn't end after the last bell

"A child was so upset that he went to his mother, and she came to me," said Davis, whose daughter and grandson have lived with her since he was born. "I was devastated."

This year, Davis' grandson has faced more bullying on his bus ride to middle school, and Davis said that despite all the recent attention about bullying - October was National Bullying Prevention Month - "unfortunately, it is still alive and kicking." According to STOMP Out Bullying, a national anti-bullying program of nonprofit Love Our Children USA, one of four teens is bullied and a child is bullied on a playground every seven minutes.

With a spate of teen suicides linked to bullying in the national news and a recent school shooting locally, bullying and its effects have the attention not just of school officials, but of parents and of students seeking to make a difference.

With more awareness of the problem inside school buildings, spots outside of class - such as on the bus - present bullying opportunities. Computers and cell phones become portals - STOMP Out Bullying says 97 percent of middle schoolers are bullied while online - and students don't always want to talk about it, whether out of embarrassment or fear of retribution.

In Horry County, bullying came front and center after a shooting incident at Socastee High School in September. Police say a student fired at the school resource officer. Two pipe bombs also were found in the student's backpack, and according to the teen's attorney, his behavior stems from being bullied. The teen will have a detention hearing in Family Court on Friday.

Bus-bound bullying

Davis has been working with the school administration on her grandson's behalf, but she said she spoke up because she is concerned about bullying in and out of the classroom. Her grandson was reticent to report what was happening, and Davis is concerned about the impact of such incidents on children.

"Right now, kids on that bus are experiencing damage that could last a lifetime," said Davis of taunting and name-calling that her grandson and other students have experienced this year. "Have parents not talked to their kids about bullying others? ... I don't want any child to be damaged."

In the first incident, the mother told Davis that the bus driver promised to report the bullying, but when Davis contacted the school, no one had been made aware of the situation.

"Last year, [the bullying] was physical," Davis said. "There were three of them who would gang up on him. ... I think it's because he's quiet, and we just don't do violence in our house. He won't come back at them.

"The vice principal told me that because of the crackdown at the school, [the bus is] where they feel they can do it freely," she said.

This year, her grandson moved up to Ocean Bay Middle School and, when she inquired about the bus ride, he told Davis that two older students were verbally abusive to him and using extremely foul language.

"My grandson won't even tell me the words that they use, but I don't know if he's telling me the whole story," Davis said. "He is so afraid of this; he won't tell what's going on."

Davis said she had been on alert once school started and had noticed on several occasions that her grandson would come in after school, say he had a really bad day and go to his room. She wanted to put an early stop to the problem and called school officials.

Teal Britton, spokeswoman for Horry County Schools, said calling the school was an appropriate action and that parents should be persistent in bringing problems to light. She said the bus driver can be addressed directly and that each attendance area also has a bus supervisor, whom parents can find in the parent/student handbook.

"If we know and if we are aware [of a bullying problem], we are ethically bound to react," Britton said.

Britton said that school bus drivers have a tremendous amount of responsibility in operating large vehicles filled with students in hectic traffic areas and also having to be aware of what's happening in all directions, despite inherent distractions.

But the drivers also work with minimal contracts, a small amount of authority, prohibitive schedules and no paid days provided for specific training in areas other than getting their license, she said.

Britton said there are video cameras on the buses, but there is no audio to record what is said.

Bus drivers have the authority to reprimand students on the bus for disruptions, and some use systems such as assigned seating to keep order, but if a problem persists, the driver must make a formal report.

"As far as discipline, that is handed down from the base school," Britton said, which typically includes days off the bus, and parents are notified. "It is the administration's responsibility to investigate."

She said some assistant principals have ridden on routes to observe and that other students could be interviewed, but as with any situation, there has to be some verification before they can act.

"Bus transportation is a privilege," Britton said. "If students cannot manage their behavior, then they are forfeiting that privilege."

Davis said that with the elementary school incident, the boys in question were brought together with her grandson to talk. They were allowed to ride the bus home that day but were expelled from the bus for the few days left in the school year, which Davis didn't feel was adequate.

With the most recent incident, Davis' call prompted a principal to talk with her grandson and get names, while promising to reprimand the students without using his name. Davis said the reassurance didn't calm her grandson, and she even received a call from his teacher that day because the boy was so distracted in class.

Neither boy was expelled. Two days later, one was on his best behavior on the bus, while the other chose to pick on someone else, Davis said. Davis said a new bus driver also was on duty, and the driver pulled the bus over to settle the matter.

"So maybe we're getting somewhere," she said.

Britton said that if a problem on a bus escalates, there could be other consequences for an unruly student, because the bus ride is still part of their school day.

Students speak out

Some students are speaking out to raise awareness and encourage their peers not to tolerate those who abuse others.

Patrick Kohlmann, a sophomore at St. James High School, is a teen ambassador for the Stomp Out Bullying program, and in October, he spearheaded Blue Shirt Day at St. James to get out the anti-bullying message.

"I wanted everyone to know that bullying isn't right," said Kohlmann, who said then that he had experienced bullying. "I don't want anyone to go through what I went through."

Kaitlon Camper, a senior at North Myrtle Beach High School, took action by organizing A Ride to Save Lives, a ride for motorcycles and cars to benefit suicide awareness programs and bullying prevention in schools. The event, part of Camper's senior project, was held Nov. 6 and raised just over $2,000, more than their goal, she said.

Camper said the money will go to Mental Health America of South Carolina and that she hopes the ride will become a yearly event. She said her focus for the run came after two of her friends attempted suicide in separate incidents after being bullied because they were gay.

"[Students] would talk about them behind their back and in front of them," Camper said.

She said that while some of their friends would stand up for them, others just watched, probably from fear of retribution.

Britton said more work must be done to lessen the intimidation factor for students so they will feel comfortable doing the right thing.

"We have to help instill civic responsibility in kids to stand up for themselves and others," Britton said. "Silence gives authority. Students are the most powerful deterrent to negative behavior."

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