Imagine a child sitting alone at her school’s table, other children sitting other places throughout the school’s cafeteria.
This child always sits alone. Other kids avoid her, not as if she’s invisible, but as if she has some contagious deadly illness.
When she sees bullying, Manning Primary School Counselor Elizabeth Briley says that this type of exclusion and avoidance is the most prevalent behavior children use to purposefully hurt other children.
Everything from in-school suspension to expulsion are used as remedies for bullying in Clarendon’s three public school districts, its charter schools and its two private schools, whether it involves exclusionary behavior, physical violence or online and verbal threats.
Clarendon School District 1 has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying of any kind, according to Interim Superintendent Barbara Ragin-Champagne.
“(This includes) physical aggression, threats, teasing, harassment and cyber-bullying. The Board of Trustees believes that bullying is an unacceptable anti-social behavior.”
Board Chairman Tony Junious said that bullying and harassment undermine the quality of the school environment “by affecting students’ academic performance and social well-being.”
“The learning and work environments of all of the district’s students, employees and volunteers will be safe, secure and free from harassment and bullying of any kind,” Junious added. “This is our core believe, that health and safety of our district family is paramount and will always be protected.”
Briley said the staff at Manning Primary utilize a proactive and preventative approach to try and combat bullying before it begins and avoid such negative consequences.
“What I teach our children through the program we use — stopbullying.gov — that bullying is when someone says or does something on purpose and over and over and over again to hurt you or someone else,” Briley said.
Briley said that a lot of students and parents misunderstand bullying.
“They think it’s something like taking your lunch money or being pushed down,” she said. “That’s certainly inappropriate behavior, but it may just be a one-time thing. We, of course, will deal with it and take care of it.”
Manning Elementary School Principal Allyson Goff agreed.
“We address any type of this behavior immediately,” Goff said. “A lot of times what people think is a bullying situation, it’s not necessarily. You’ve got two children who are usually best friends, and they have a disagreement and they hate each other for a day. Then, you go to talk to them and, most of the time, they’ve worked everything out between themselves.”
Goff said that the school has had one or two isolated incidents that turned out to be true bullying.
“We don’t really have a big issue with that,” she said. “It’s mostly just children being children.”
Goff said that her school uses the same preventative approach applied throughout the year at Manning Primary School. Briley said that stopbullying.gov features 10 lessons about bullying. She said each of the school’s 18 homerooms go through the lessons.
“I teach 180 lessons per year,” Briley said. “By our being proactive, we don’t see a lot of bullying. Again, what we do see, when we see it, is this exclusion of one child from another child or group of children.”
Goff said that it’s the teachers and the guidance counselors who serve as the front line in the fight against bullying.
“Guidance counselors especially are very involved with our classes and any issues that may arise,” Goff said.
Manning Early Childhood Center Principal Otis Reed agreed.
“One of the first things we stress at all time to our teachers is that supervision is always important,” Reed said. “We have to make sure we’re always supervising our children, whether it’s in the hallways, the cafeteria, the classroom or the playground.”
Reed said that the faculty and staff are “the first to see what’s happening.”
A lot of times, you don’t know exactly what’s going on until we see it for ourselves,” Reed said. “So I stress that we make sure we’re on our post. The guidance counselor does classroom sessions where he talks about different topics with the children, such as bullying.”
Reed said MECC also utilizes the Clarendon School District 2 school-wide and county-wide Character Development program.
“We have this program where a different character word is taught to the students each month,” Reed said. “These teach the children to be respectful at all times.”
Like Reed, Manning Primary School Principal Brenda Clark noted that “the teacher is most of the time the first line.”
“If there’s anything going on, the teachers are our eyes,” Clark said. “If something is going on, we use our counselor and intervene with the school counselor.”
As for discipline, Clark said it depends on the severity of the situation. Many times, the incident is resolved by the school’s counselor.
“If it’s something beyond what she feels she can handle, she will come to the administrator, either me or the assistant principal, and we will intervene and take it from there,” Clark said.
The school also relies on the district’s Character Development Program.
“We integrate our character words each month in our preventative approach,” she said.
Reed said his school also utilizes a Unity Day each year in the fall.
“Oct. 25 is Unity Day at Manning Early Childhood Center,” Reed said. “That’s the day we use to show our stand against bullying and our unity against bullying,” Reed said.
He said the children wear orange to show such unity.
“Unity Day is about standing together against bullying and being united for kindness, acceptance and inclusion,” said PACER National Bullying Prevention Center Executive Director Paula Goldberg. “What are your true colors when it comes to bullying? If you care about safe and supporting schools and communities, make your color orange on Unity Day. That’s the day everyone can come together - in schools, communities and online - and send one large orange message of support, hope and unity to show that we are together against bullying and united for kindness, acceptance and inclusion.”
Goldberg said that the color orange “provides a powerful, visually compelling expression of solidarity.”
“When hundreds of individuals in a school or organization wear orange, the vibrant statement becomes a conversation starter, sending the unified message to kids to know that they are not alone,” she said.
As for bullying behavior, Briley said that when she sees such behavior, she will talk to both children.
“I will talk with the child doing the bullying and find out why he or she is doing it and what his or her motivation is,” said Briley. “As far as the child who has been bullied, I want to make sure they feel safe at our school and they know such behavior isn’t tolerated. We do whatever we can to stop that.”
Briley said it’s important that the child who is being attacked, in whatever way, knows that teachers and staff are watching. The school personnel also make sure both perpetrator and victim’s parents know.
Briley said that her lessons give the children instructions about how to handle bullying.
“We tell them that if they’re being bullied, they need to tell the grown-up closest to them,” Briley said. “We tell them to let us know. We need them to tell us here.”
Briley said a lot of children will go home and tell their parents, but the teacher will have absolutely no idea anything has happened.
“We want you to share with your family, but we need to know here at school,” Briley said. “We let them know that, if they say something to a grown-up, and that grown-up doesn’t get you help, or you don’t think that grown-up believes you, then go to another adult until you get help.”
Briley said she also talks with the children about being “bystanders.”
“Maybe you’re not the one doing anything, but if you’re watching it and not doing anything to stop it from going on, you’re being a bystander,” Briley said. “In my eyes, that’s being just as bad as the bully.”
Briley said she also likes to talk with the bully about his or her motivation.
“If you’re the one against another child, we want to figure out why you’re doing these things,” she said. “I’m always available to talk with a child.”
Ragin-Champagne said that Clarendon School District 1 has implemented several programs and activities as preventive and corrective methods.
“Since bullying is a learned behavior, it can also be unlearned with the necessary and proper support,” she said. “The district offers counseling sessions for those who have been bullied. Swift and decisive actions, in accordance with the district’s policy, will be used to address any infractions that are of a bullying or harassment nature.”
