Sean C. Morgan
Members of the District 55 School Board and Supt. Don Schrader said Monday night that the district won’t tolerate bullying after a district resident complained about a situation at the Sweet Home Junior High.
That complaint follows on the heels of another situation in the past month involving Instagram, a sharing website for photos and video. Sweet Home police are investigating that case.
“We received a report about a malicious Instagram site that named several students,” Police Chief Jeff Lynn told The New Era. “We initiated an investigation and interviewed several. The site came down, was taken down by the creator, shortly after the investigation began.
“The investigation is still ongoing, and we are hoping to identify the author and hold them accountable.”
Scott Wroot told the School Board he was frustrated with the response he has had from the Junior High regarding a different incident. He cannot find out what happened to others involved in the incident because information is confidential, and he’s “not real happy.”
Wroot said that children are afraid to report bullies because they’ll get it 10 times worse from the bully if they do.
Board Chairman Mike Reynolds informed Wroot of the proper channels to follow with complaints in the district, starting with the building principal then the superintendent and then the board. Wroot said he would go visit the superintendent.
Noting the complaint, with which he wasn’t familiar, and the Instagram incident, the superintendent gave a planned presentation to the board about bullying and the district’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Support program and provided copies of the district’s October newsletter, which also addressed bullying.
The district has policies on bullying, harassment, hazing and cyber bullying, Schrader said. “We are actually reacting and acting on incidents where there is bullying, where we have kids being disrespectful and disruptive.”
Bullying may be physical, emotional or social, Schrader said, and the district is attempting to promote an atmosphere where students will report it.
School officials want the 95 percent of students not involved to stand up and say it’s not OK to be mean or disrespectful, Schrader said. The district is teaching them not to stay silent when they see it.
Any student may call a bullying hotline to report bullying, Schrader said. The hotline is (323) SAFE-043.
If employees don’t respond to reported bullying, they are subject to disciplinary action, Schrader said.
“There’s action we can take,” Schrader said. “It’s not seen by the community, but there’s action we have to take.”
If the police are involved, the district will wait until the police investigation is complete before it investigates or takes its own action, Schrader said.
The district has a continuum of ranging from calling parents and creating behavioral plans to expulsion, Schrader said. On the other side of the coin, traditional responses to bullying, punitive action and counseling, for example, don’t reduce really reduce the level of bullying.
The key is to focus on the school environment proactively creating a place where all students feel safe, Schrader said. Through the PBIS program, the district teachers students to “Be Safe. Be Responsible. Be Respectful. Be Caring.”
The district provides positive instruction and clearly posts the expectations it has for students, Schrader said.
This year, all staff are to be retrained to recognize, report and take action against bullying, Schrader said. That will include professional development on Nov. 21 and Safe Schools training.
“We’re not OK with bullying,” Schrader said. “We’re not OK with violence in schools.”
Wroot said the student was injured by violence.
“I’m not wanting to get down on you guys,” he said. “I want to get my point across that coddling bullies is not acceptable to me.”
“I do agree that we can never do enough,” said Chanz Keeney, board member. “I had an experience last year. As board members we are parents and it does affect us. Our superintendent stated it very well, everybody should be safe in our schools.”
He said board members have been discussing hiring a student resource officer in partnership with the Sweet Home Police Department to address bullying.
Present at the board meeting were Keeney, Jason Van Eck, Chairman Mike Reynolds, Leena Ellis and David VanDerlip. Absent were Dale Keene, Jason Redick, Jenny Daniels and Kevin Burger.
In other business, the School Board:
n Accepted the resignation of board member Dale Keene.
“It has become increasingly difficult for me to carry out my duties as a board member, and so with much deliberation I have made the decision to step down,” Keene said in his resignation letter.
n Accepted the resignation of Debbie Barron, fourth grade at Oak Heights Elementary. She has taught in Sweet Home for 24 years. She has taught for 28 total.
She resigned for medical reasons, she said, and she requested early retirement.
The board voted to provide early retirement to her in a single lump sum of $30,000. Business Manager Kevin Strong said that early retirement would have cost $37,000 over seven years otherwise.
n Heard a report from Strong about the loss of federal Title VI-B funds, which fund after school activities and staff technology training. The district usually receives about $40,000.
The Oregon Department of Education altered the way it assessed districts for the funding, Strong said, and the Small Area Income Poverty Estimate it used this year determined that Sweet Home students were more affluent than the state average and more affluent than students in Lebanon or Albany.
Strong noted that Sweet Home has one of the highest homeless rates of Oregon districts its size or larger, about 10 percent.
The board will need to make decisions about the affected programs, Strong said. The General Fund could possibly provide funds for them.