By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
In the Lawrence Township public schools, there is no hiding place for students who intimidate or bully their classmates.
Instead, students are encouraged to come forward and report incidents — no matter how small — to avoid more serious ones in the future, according to Superintendent Philip Meara.
That approach has been reflected in the number of bullying incidents reported to school district officials in the past three years — from three incidents in the 2005-06 school year to nine incidents in 2006-07 and to 33 incidents in 2007-08, according to the annual violence and vandalism reports filed with the state Department of Education.
“Across the board — but especially at the Lawrence Middle School — we anticipated a rise (in the number of reported bullying incidents),” Mr. Meara said. “Our plan is to get students to come forward to share (incidents of) bullying before it becomes more severe.”
The school district has put programs in place that seek to identify the issue early on, he said. All of the schools conduct workshops on bullying and how to identify a bully, and all of the programs have a “very strong component” urging students to share incidents of bullying, he added.
“There is a tremendous reluctance to share,” Mr. Meara said. “Some children view it as being tattle-tales. The workshops we have done are helpful to explain to children that (behaviors) that were considered in the past to be minor and a part of growing up are not OK. It could lead to more serious things and the children have to tell us.”
“One thread that runs through (the anti-bullying workshops and programs) is that incidents have to be reported,” he said. “The only way that bullying occurs is if the children let it happen. A bully needs an audience. If we can get the other students to report it, we can help to shut it down.”
When an incident of bullying occurs, the school district’s approach is to stress intervention and not punishment for the offender, Mr. Meara said. If there is a child who is beginning to bully others, the guidance counselor will work with that child or put the child into a group of other children to talk about it, he said.
“Only if it gets severe, do we punish,” Mr. Meara said.
Acknowledging that bullying is not just about physical confrontations anymore, Mr. Meara said the school district has included information on cyber-bullying into the lessons taught by the district’s technical resource teachers.
“Cyber-bullying is very difficult to identify and pin down,” he said. “There are no separate statistics on cyber-bullying that I am aware of. We don’t have access to Facebook or MySpace. When we become aware of (cyber-bullying), we turn it over to the Police Department.”
Students and their parents are made aware of the school district’s policy on bullying and cyber-bullying, which is contained in the Policy and Regulations of the Board of Education/Student Conduct and Discipline handbook, he said.
In September, each student takes home a copy of the 48-page handbook. Parents must sign a card acknowledging they have read the handbook and discussed its contents with their children within the first week of school, he said, adding that each principal makes a concerted effort to gather the cards.
Turning to the pro-active steps taken by the school district, Mr. Meara pointed to programs such as “The Responsive Classroom” in the elementary schools. The program emphasizes that children are responsible for their own actions. Every morning, they get together in their classrooms and discuss a variety of topics, he said.
Teachers also reinforce positive behavior shown by the students, Mr. Meara said. When a child shows kindness toward a classmate or is respectful to others, the teacher makes it a point to comment on that behavior, he said.
The elementary schools also emphasize character education, the superintendent said. In fact, the Lawrenceville Elementary School and the Lawrence Intermediate School have been named as New Jersey Schools of Character, he added.
At the Lawrence Intermediate School, students are also exposed to the DARE program — Drug Awareness and Resistance Education — through the Lawrence Township Police Department, Mr. Meara said.
And at the Lawrence Middle School, students learn about the GREAT program — the Gang Resistance Education and Training — which also is taught by a police officer. There are statistics indicating that children are often bullied into joining gangs, Mr. Meara added.
Lawrence High School also offers positive programs and activities for students, he said, pointing to the Cardinal Club and the Student of the Month program, which recognizes students who act responsibly and positively.
“Children who are responsible are succeeding and acting positively. There is something happening in every single school,” Mr. Meara said.

