Anti-bullying efforts show some progress
SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 2010 AT 12:05 A.M.
BULLYING ON LOCAL CAMPUSES
The California Department of Education has collected data on bullying-related incidents since January 2009; to date, statistics have been compiled only for the first six months of that year.
In San Diego County, a total of 13 suspensions and one expulsion occurred at these schools:
Hidden Valley Middle School, Escondido Union: one suspension
Monte Vista High School, Grossmont Union High: one suspension
Grossmont High School, Grossmont Union High: two suspensions
La Mesa Middle School, La Mesa-Spring Valley: two suspensions
Tierra del Sol Middle School, Lakeside Union Elementary:one suspension
Mt. Carmel High School, Poway Unified: two suspensions
Olive Peirce Middle School, Ramona City Unified: two suspensions and one expulsion
Nubia Leadership Academy, San Diego Unified: two suspensions
Even before the January suicide ofPhoebe Prince, a 15-year-oldMassachusetts girl who had been tormented by classmates, parents in San Diego County feared for the lives of their bullied children.
“My prevailing thought when I wake up in the morning is, ‘I don’t want to find my son hanging from the rafters,’ ” said the mother of a Lakeside middle schooler who has been bullied for three years. She asked that her name not be used for fear of further assaults on her son.
He has been punched, slapped, hit with rocks, called names. Asked about transferring to another campus, he declined. What if the same fate — or worse — awaited him there?
“And why should he have to leave?” his mother asked. (The students and parents interviewed for this story asked that their names not be used for fear of further assaults.)
For bullies, opportunities have never been greater. While some studies show that the American schoolyard is safer than it was just seven years ago, bullies have found new places to ambush kids. With text messaging and social-media sites, they can attack at any time, any place.
And even if physical violence is declining, there’s still no shortage of victims. Just ask David Bristol, a Solana