by Frances Laing

Created on: November 24, 2010

School boards can easily become school bullies. Here's why. School boards exist to uphold the educational and financial progress of a school as well as to promote good public relations in the community. The public relations aspect of their role is often closely related to the school's performance and any funding the school might receive - and this partly explains why some school board members shy away from tackling bullying head on. Even worse - they may fail to listen to victims of bullying and apply inappropriate sanctions to prevent reports of bullying meeting the light of day.

Reports of bullying in a school present a school board with a huge challenge. If school board members deal with the issue with honesty and integrity - they have a chance to join the thousands of other educational institutions who have created and upheld an effective anti-bullying policy that is more than just 'spin' - and worth far more than the piece of paper it is written on in terms of protecting vulnerable students and staff.

But people make mistakes. Fear and a lack of integrity can cause school board members to seek to ignore the problem of bullying in schools. The attitude can be summed up in the belief that "bullying doesn't happen in our school". Any school board member who holds this belief isn't just being naive. They are propagating a mistaken and dangerous belief which can be nothing short of fatal for their students and staff. Bullying can result in self-harm and suicide. As responsible citizens we simply cannot allow school boards to prioritise public relations over the welfare of our children.   

Formulating an anti-bullying policy should be just a starting point for any school. It is merely a declaration of intent which must be tested and re-examined on a regular basis. Too often a victim of bullying still struggles with making themselves heard and is often not believed when they report an incident. A child or young adult comes home with bruises. The parent phones the school and a staff member says the child fell over. The child tells the parent they were pushed. With proper recording procedures at the school - which document such incidents and with proper monitoring - it is possible to nip the problem in the bud, remain vigilant and prevent the issue arising again.  

Sadly, a vast number of school boards do not appear to have engaged effectively with the issue of bullying - and the shortcut they are taking is a cruel one: instead of supporting the victim of a possible incident of bullying - too often a school board seeks to minimise the problem and silence the victim and their family. Since bullying thrives on silence - this effectively means that school boards can easily become bullies too.

  

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