By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
Bullying may be in every school district and Manville has taken one step further to help educate parents and staff about the ongoing problem.
A harassment and bullying workshop was held Monday night at the ABIS media center.
The workshop comes after Gov. Chris Christie signed an anti-bullying Law into effect on Jan. 5. The “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” is intended to eliminate loopholes in the state’s first anti-bullying law enacted in 2002 that encouraged school districts to set up programs to combat bullying but did not mandate it.
The new law will require training for most public school teachers, administrators and other employees on how to spot bullying and mandate that all districts form a school safety team to review the complaints. School districts would be graded by the state on their efforts to combat the problem.
School administrators who do not investigate the reported incidents of bullying will be disciplined, while the students who bully could be suspended or expelled from school.
All other school employees will be required to report all incidents they know of, whether they took place in or outside of school.
The bill went through the Assembly and Senate in November 2010 and passed 73-1, with five abstentions from the Assembly, and 30-0 in the Senate.
Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), a bill sponsor, hopes that when students are in school they will feel safe from being harassed or intimidated.
The Manville workshop, led by Dr. Bradford Lerman, project director of the Rutgers Safe and Drug-Free Schools Communities Project in partnership with the state Department of Education, drew about 20 parents and staff who wanted to learn more about bullying during the two-hour session.
”We work with the Department of Education providing technical assistance and training to school districts on their bullying policies and needed practices,” Dr. Lerman said. “Tonight’s workshop is a little bit different that I usually do because parents are the audience, mostly. The idea is to go through the process of pointing out from policy to practice where parents can get involved along the way and to help make them really aware of what needs to be in bullying policies and practices and to pinpoint where their voice can really be useful in the process.”
Audrey Press, director of Special Services in the Manville school district, contacted Dr. Lerman after being given his name from the county office as a resource.
”It’s a result of the Parent Academy. It was one of the needs that was addressed by the parents who signed up for the academy. Parents were interested in gathering information on bullying,” she said.
Some of the points on bullying that were addressed were the importance of school climate and where parental involvement can impact the core ethical values that a school community selects and they build behaviors and expectations.
Parents learned what to do when they witness bullying, who they should be talking to and the requirement of policy and practice.
A friendly game of HIB (Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying), was set up like a game of “Jeopardy,” with three teams made up of nine parents and staff, gave them a chance to play and answer questions about the topics.
Questions included: “Victims of cyber bullying often do not report their experience to adults because they: A-like the attention; B-don’t want their computer or phones taken away; or C-want to retaliate against them.” The correct answer was B. A PowerPoint presentation also helped parents and staff understand more about HIB and a question and answer session ended the workshop.
Parent Janice Zujkowski attended the workshop because she said, “My kids have been bullied/harassed in school. I learned a lot of things such as how the school policy is created. Who is involved in creating the policy, and effective ways to prevent bullying. What to do and/or who to contact when your child is bullied and where to find more resources about bullying.
”I enjoyed the presentation and I thought the speaker was very informative. I now have the resources to help my children if they are ever bullied/harassed in the future,” she said. Ms. Zujkowski also said that the school district should have more workshops like this for parents.
Parent and Board of Education member Stephanie Cornelson also attended and found the workshop informative.
”I am always willing to learn how to help my kids be more successful in school, whether it be academically or socially,” she said. “There were a few surprising facts that were presented in the beginning such as the characteristics of a bully and the percentage of students (50 percent) in middle school who actually admitted that they had been a bully at least once.
”I thought the workshop was great. We started out playing a game which caught our attention with some interesting statistics. It is also reassuring to know that the state is aware of growing occurrences of bullying and that they, along with our school district are addressing the issue.”
Ms. Cornelson also said that the workshop helped understanding bullying more.
”The biggest benefit is knowledge — kind of like the saying ‘The more you know…’ Anytime you bring parents and staff together to work on issues in the school system, it is win-win,” she said.

