By GREGORY T. CROFT

Sept. 18, 2006 — For many kids, returning to school is an exciting time, but for some, going back to school means returning to a dreaded ritual: Facing school bullies again.

A new study shows just how big a problem bullying is and how helpless teachers can be to stop it. 

The National School Boards Association's Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) reported that many students commonly witnessed other children being bullied, physically or psychologically intimidated or belittled.

The CUBE study was the result of a nationwide survey of 32,000 students to gauge their feelings on safety and bullying in their school environments.

The students who participated in the study ranged in grades 4 to 12 and were from 15 urban school districts.

Brian Perkins, the chair of CUBE and the principal investigator of the study, says two of the most worrisome findings were that more than half of the students surveyed said they saw children being bullied at least once a month, and that almost 40 percent said teachers and schools could not stop the bullying.

The study indicated that as students got older, their confidence in their school's ability to stop the bullying declined.

The study showed younger students reported the most bullying: The number of students in grades 4 to 6 who said they were bullied regularly was more than double the number of similar reports from students in grades 9 to 12.

The study showed gender did not seem to matter, as boys and girls seemed to think and feel similarly about bullying.

However, Perkins said that bullying was a significant concern because of its great influence on student academic performance.

Trying to Address Bullying

In recent years, schools have focused more attention on bullying, and many states have tried addressing the issue through legislation.

However, according to the students in this survey, bullying is still a frequent occurrence in schools.

A child's feeling of safety, or lack thereof, is linked to his or her academic performance, the study shows...

"When students do not feel safe at school, they are more likely to become truant, distracted from school work, and experience lower levels of achievement," Perkins said.

If students are worried about their safety in school, their focus gets diverted, making it exceedingly more difficult to succeed academically. 

Anne L. Bryant, the executive director of the National School Board Association (NSBA) agreed: "Climate is especially important in urban schools, which enroll almost 25 percent of public school students."

Bryant added that safe school environments were critical to the academic success of students.

Another report analyzing school safety released last year by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) also found a dramatic negative impact that bullies had on the psyches of the children they harassed.

Students tormented by bullies worried more about their safety and, as a result, did much worse academically than their counterparts who were not bullied, the study showed.

The NCES report, like the CUBE study, found that younger children were victimized more by bullies.

The NCES study also concluded that those students who were bullied feared attacks at school, avoided certain activities and areas of the school, and received much lower grades.

Of the students who reported lower grades, those who were bullied were more likely to receive D's and F's than students who were not bullied.

This research indicates that bullying threatens the safety environment and that the more students feel less safe from bullying, the worse they will do in school.

Therefore, the primary focus for schools following these studies is to maintain a safe environment and students' confidence that officials will address safety issues, the studies argue.

The NSBA compiled advice from education experts for students who are bullied or see others being bullied.

Some of the tips for students include finding an adult at school to trust to be able to discuss what has been seen, to never physically react or bully back, support friends who are bullied, and if there is no system in place at school to deal with bullying, to try and start one.  

Experts say parents should be encouraged to role-play with their children to prepare them to react appropriately to bullies, keep an open line of communication, and instill confidence in their children that it is OK to approach adults if they witness bullying.

These measures can be a helpful start to try to begin to lessen the amount of bullying incidents in schools.

One part of the solution, experts say, may be to increase supervision by hall monitors inside the school or police officers around the school.

NCES points out that schools with more security monitoring had students that reported less bullying.

Schools that don't, NCES says, will face mounting challenges this fall to try and stop bullying.

History of the Incident Command System in the

United States

 
 

The incident command system (ICS) resulted from the obvious need for a new approach to the problem of managing rapidly moving wildfires in the early 1970s. At that time, emergency managers faced a number of problems.

PROBLEMS

·        Too many people reporting to one supervisor.

·        Different emergency response organizational structures.

·        Lack of reliable incident information.

·        Inadequate and incompatible communications.

·        Lack of structure for coordinated planning between agencies.

·        Unclear lines of authority.

·        Terminology differences between agencies

·        Unclear or unspecified incident objectives.

 

Designing a standard emergency management system as a remedy took several years and extensive field-testing. ICS was developed by an inter-agency task force through a cooperative local, State, and federal effort called FIRESCOPE (Fire Fighting Resources of Southern California Organized for Potential Emergencies).  It is interesting to note that the characteristics of these wildland fire incidents are similar to those seen in many situations.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS

  •  No advanced notice
  •  They develop rapidly
  •  Unchecked, they may grow in size and complexity
  •  They can become multi-jurisdictional
  •  Often have high public and media visibility
  •  Personal risk for response personnel can be high
  •  Involve many agencies with some on-scene responsibility
  •  They can become multi-jurisdictional
  •  Risk of life and property loss can be high
  •  Cost of a response is always a major consideration

 

The early developmental process recognized and keyed on several requirements for the system that exist today.

NEEDS

1. The system must be organizationally flexible to meet the needs of incidents
of any kind and size.

2. Agencies must be able to use the system on a day-to-day basis for routine situations as well as for major emergencies.

3. The system must be sufficiently standard to allow personnel from a variety
of agencies and diverse geographical locations to rapidly meld into a common management structure.

4. The system must be cost-effective.

 

National Incident Management System

On February 28, 2003, President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)–5, Management of Domestic Incidents, which directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop and administer a National Incident Management System (NIMS). This system provides a consistent nationwide template to enable Federal, State, local, and tribal governments and private-sector and nongovernmental organizations to work together effectively
and efficiently to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity, including acts of catastrophic terrorism.

The NIMS includes a core set of concepts, principles, terminology, and organizational processes to enable effective, efficient, and collaborative incident management at all levels. All Federal departments and agencies are required to adopt the NIMS and to use it in their individual domestic incident management and emergency prevention activities.

 

TRAINING WEBSITE AND COURSE RECOMMENDATIONS

All courses are free of charge and can be taken online by connecting to the following website:   http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/crslist.asp

 

Recommended courses are 1S-100, an Introduction to Incident Command System; IS-700, National Incident Management System, an Introduction;
and IS-362, Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools.

SCHOOL TABLETOP SHOOTING INCIDENT

 

ACT I

 

MODERATOR states:

 

On Friday night four boys are sitting together talking about their school.

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states: 

 

I hate my science teacher and some of the students in my class.  I hate them so much, that I plan to get rid of them.   I’m going to steal my uncle’s AK-47 and some of his handguns and bring them to school next week.

 

ACTOR (Alex) states: 

 

Johnny, are you really going to shoot someone or are you just joking?

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states:   I’m not kidding and all you need to do is be in my science class next Tuesday and you will see that I mean business.  

 

 

ACT II

 

MODERATOR states:

 

At 11:00 p.m. the boys break up and Alex and his friend Mike leave together.

 

ACTOR (Alex) states: 

 

Mike, what are we going to do about Johnny bringing some guns to school?   We need to tell someone.

 

ACTOR (Mike) states: 

 

Alex, I wish we had a phone number that we could call and tell someone what Johnny wants to do.  We can’t give our names and be called “rats.”

 

ACTOR (Alex) states

 

I don’t dare tell my parents about this because they are going to think that I’m part of Johnny’s plan.  I wish I had a teacher who I could talk to.

 

ACT III

 

 

MODERATOR states:

 

Monday during lunch break, the four boys get back together.

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states: 

 

I already stole the guns from my uncle I still plan to bring them to school.  You just watch me and I’ll show you who the boss is around this place.

 

ACTOR (Alex) states: 

 

Johnny, you are going to get in big trouble by bringing those guns to school. 

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states: 

 

I don’t care because the guys who always pick on me will get what they deserve.  I don’t have much to live for so why not go out with a bang.  I also plan to disconnect the gas line in the science class and blow up the place.

 

ACTOR (Joe) states: 

 

Johnny, we can’t let you do this because you are going to hurt or kill innocent people.

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states: 

 

I told you guys that I don’t care and, if anyone tells on me, I’ll get that person too. 

 

MODERATOR states:

 

The boys return to their classes and none of them tell anyone about what Johnny is planning to do.

 

Tuesday, Mike and Joe failed to go to school and told their parents they were sick.

 

Alex returns to school and goes to see Ms. Brown, his guidance counselor, before he’s scheduled to attend science class with Johnny.

 

ACTOR (Alex) states:  (he is acting nervous and disturbed)

 

Ms. Brown, I can’t go to my science class today, I just can’t!  So please give me a note that it’s O.K. to skip it. 

 

ACTOR (Ms. Brown) states: 

 

Alex, I just can’t give you a permission note without having a good reason to do so.  Tell me what is wrong.  You seem to be nervous and bothered about something.

 

ACTOR (Alex) states: 

 

I can’t tell you because I’ll get in big trouble if I do.  If you don’t give me a note then I’m leaving school and won’t attend class anyway.

 

MODERATOR states:

 

At 10:00 a.m. Johnny enters the science class with the assault rifle and handguns under his jacket. 

 

ACTOR (Johnny) action:  (pulls the assault rifle from under his jacket along with the handguns)

 

ACTOR (Johnny) states:

 

I’ve had it with all of you and I’m going to pay you back for making fun of me!

 

ACTOR (Johnny) action:

 

He shoots the teacher and then shoots two students. One student is able to escape from the classroom.  Johnny then orders the rest of the students to stand against the wall.  He goes to the propane gas line and disconnects it from the fitting.  Propane gas starts leaking into the classroom.   He then takes a lighter out of his backpack.

 

BLACK SLIDE AND SILENCE FOR 30 SECONDS

 

MODERATOR TAKES OVER

 

 

MODERATOR states:

 

You have just observed a dramatic scene that hopefully none of our schools will ever experience. 

 

We have prepared a facilitator to help debrief the tabletop using the following questions.   We encourage you to take an active role in processing this exercise.  As a group, please identify what could have been done to prevent such an incident and how your school leaders and emergency responders would deal with an active shooter in this situation.

 

We would also like you to focus on how well your school and community is or isn’t prepared to deal with a major incident of this magnitude.

 

 

 

FACILITATOR’S QUESTIONS:

 

  1. How do you encourage students to come forward with information relating to potential crimes that are believed to about to occur or have already taken place? (i.e. peer counselors, posters, school resource officer…)

 

  1. What communication system does your school have to assist students to report potential or actual crimes that have already taken place?

 

  1. How often is this system reviewed?

 

  1. What system is available for students who wish to report possible or real crises on weekends or holidays?

 

  1. How does follow-up occur when the school receives a report from a student?

 

  1. What kind of plans are in place if your school evacuates students and staff? (class roster, coats in winter…)

 

  1. Who oversees this plan?

 

  1. How are teachers and staff made aware of crisis plans and what kind of training do they receive?

 

  1. How often do you hold practice drills in your school and what do the drills involve? (i.e., “Clear the Hall”, “Secure the Building” or “Evacuate the School”)

 

  1.  Where would staff and students go if you had an extended evacuation in the winter time? 

 

  1.   How far from the school is the designated relocation site(s)?

 

  1.   Is the relocation site within walking distance or do you need transportation? 

 

  1.   Have you ever practiced moving your school population to the relocation site?

 

  1.  What do you have in place at the relocation site? (i.e. bull horn, playing cards,   VCR, DVD player, games)

 

  1.  Who in your school knows how to shut off the gas line(s) to the science   classroom and other areas of the building?

 

  1. Do you have a School Crisis Team and if so who are the members?  (i.e. principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, school nurse, custodian, school resource officer or youth officer)

 

  1. Does your school and community have a Public Safety Committee and, if so, who are the members?  (i.e., fire, police, rescue, school administrator(s) and transportation provider)

 

  1.  Have members of your Public Safety Committee ever participated in a tabletop exercise? 

 

  1. How will you communicate with parents and community members during a school crisis?

 

  1.  Have you established an incident command system for how decisions will be made during a school crisis?

 

  1. Have you identified a communications coordinator who will deliver information to the media?

 

Vermont 2-1-1 scripting procedure

 

If Vermont 2-1-1 is part of your emergency plan, use this form to notify the Vermont 2-1-1 Director/call specialists of the appropriate protocol to use when calls come into the Call Center during an incident or time of an emergency. 

 

Date:                           Time:                          Reported by:                          Contact #:

 

 

Incident/Emergency:

 

 

 

 

 

Priority Procedures:

 

 

 

 

 

Principal or designee contact information:

CEO/Director/Principal

Public Information Officer

School Nurse

Relocation/Evacuation Officer

 

 

 

Please send this information to Vermont 2-1-1 at one or more of the following locations:

Email: maryellen@unitedwaycc.org and a copy to info@vermont211.org

Fax:  802-864-7401

Bulk materials or information best provided in hard copy format can be delivered by mail or in person to the office of Vermont 2-1-1, 95 St. Paul St., Suite 210, Burlington, VT  05401

Attention: MaryEllen Mendl, Director