Well it has finally occurred enough to warrant my venting about it... The new HIB laws and Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights allows students to continue to identify incidents they feel are bullying. Most are not. Most end up being code of conduct violations or conflicts between two students. However, the offshoot of the new law, that many educators saw coming, is that when we tell parents that we are looking into an allegation, we are automatically branded as unreasonable, over-reacting and in some cases-- liars.
This has happened because in previous instances here at OCS, prior to the Bill of Rights, we could look into the conflicts, talk to the students and the teachers and let the parents know what we found out. Now with a different path of investigation that might take a few days to resolve, we are seen as stalling, fabricating or lying. That is the shame of this. When the previous laws allowed for us to resolve conflict, now we are investigating HIB. When told we are looking into a case that is alleged to be HIB, we are told we are blowing it out of proportion or wrong, since no one's child is capable of bullying, even though the students tell us they still see it occasionally happening.
Just a rant of disappointment from a school leader who has seen the winds of change on this issue change many, many times...
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