HOPEWELL: Mom shares concerns at state’s session on bullying

New Jersey Commission on Bullying is expected to deliver its report in July

By Lea Kahn, The Packet Group
   Seeking to crack down on bullying in New Jersey’s public schools, Gov. Jon Corzine signed legislation last year that created the New Jersey Commission on Bullying in Schools.
   Recently, a handful of commission members spent three hours at Lawrence High School in the second of a series of three public hearings designed to get input on the effectiveness of current bullying laws and policies. The commission is expected to deliver its report in July.
   One by one, audience members took the microphone at the Feb. 18 meeting and unloaded their fears and frustrations with schoolyard bullying as the commission members listened quietly.
   Among those who spoke was Hopewell Borough resident Fay Reiter, who told the commission that her son, who attends Hopewell Valley Central High School, has been taunted by other boys because he does not dress the same way they do.
   Ms. Reiter said that when she and her husband met with school officials to discuss a fight between her son and another boy that was initiated by that boy, they did not take the issue seriously. She said the officials told them they did not think of the incident as bullying.
   ”I think it’s important to explain that I was told by the vice principal, ‘We don’t have problems at this high school. It’s a wonderful place,’” Ms. Reiter said, adding that there is a “tremendous amount of denial” by school officials.
   Stephen Reiter added that his son does not feel safe and he is afraid to go to school because there is no one to control the students. He attributed the lack of control to improper training, or the lack of training.
   ”Either get your act together to guarantee the safety of the children or open a cigar store. You are not doing the job you are supposed to do (to ensure that children feel safe in school),” Mr. Reiter told the commission.
   Several other parents from other school districts in the region spoke, but parents were not the only ones to weigh in on the issue of bullying.
   Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education, said that “in our work, we see the outcome of bullying. It’s not just words, but actions.”
   Terrorism and bullying have many of the same components, Dr. Winkler said. Whether it is on the playground or in the world, it involves picking on someone else and putting them down and hurting them, he said.
   Afsheen Shamsi, the public relations director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NJ), said Muslim students are bullied by other students and occasionally by teachers.
   Muslim students have been called terrorists by other students, Ms. Shamsi said. Some children threw a porcelain piggy bank at one Muslim student in the school bus and when he tried to defend himself, he was suspended for 10 days, she said.
   To combat bullying, Ms. Shamsi suggested educating students and parents about bullying laws. Parents should be taught to look for signs to determine if their child is being bullied, and teachers should be trained to identify the students most likely to be bullied — Muslims, overweight children or skinny students, for example, she said.
   ”There should be role playing at assemblies to demonstrate the different forms of bullying,” she said. “The consequences of bullying should be clearly spelled out and the adult or counselor that a bullied student can go to should be clearly identified.”
   Attorney Barry Fulmer of Freehold Township pointed out that although state law provides guidelines for school districts on how to deal with bullying and harassment, the statutes and regulations “lack enforcement teeth to compel compliance by a school district.”
   Mr. Fulmer said state law requires school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies and to provide training on the anti-bullying policies “to the extent that funds are appropriated for these purposes.” It is up to the districts to provide funding — or not — to provide training, he said.
   Under state law, school districts also are “encouraged” to establish bullying prevention programs and other initiatives involving staff, students, administrators, volunteers, parents and police — but they are not required to provide them, he said.
   And even if a school district does adopt anti-bullying policies, Mr. Fulmer said, there is no requirement that the school board should submit its policy to the state Department of Education or to the county superintendent of school for review.
   Schools must be required to provide mandatory programs to administrators, teachers and students that teach tolerance, understanding and respect for those who are perceived to be different from the majority, Mr. Fulmer said, adding that the programs should be available to parents, as well.
   ”Cosmetic changes alone will not end the harm children suffer in the school setting when they are singled out for bullying and harassment because they are perceived to be different,” Mr. Fulmer said. The key is educating children and adults about the different cultures, religions, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and gender identification that students represent, he said.