In line with information examined by the Herald, 91 out of 396 college districts in Massachusetts reported no bullying incidents to state officers within the 2023-24 college 12 months.
The broad swath of no stories left not less than one skilled questioning whether or not native officers have been clear on what sort of bullying must be reported underneath the state’s stringent anti-bullying legislation.
“Any school that says they have no bullying, I would say they’re lying, or they have an absolute failure to understand what bullying really is,” stated Barbara Coloroso, writer, speaker and guide on bullying.
For simply over a decade Massachusetts has had probably the greatest rating anti-bullying legal guidelines on the books.
Annually, Massachusetts faculties are required to report bullying allegations to the state. At school 12 months 2023-24, the state Division of Elementary and Secondary Schooling reported 8,421 complete bullying allegations at public faculties. The pupil inhabitants of Massachusetts public faculties was slightly below 900,000 within the 2023-24 12 months.
The state’s information reveals a complete of 739 public college students within the 2023-24 college 12 months have been disciplined for bullying by way of suspension, expulsion, elimination or arrest.
The identical 12 months although, 91 of the overall 396 college districts, constitution faculties and vocational faculties reported zero allegations of bullying incidents, in accordance with DESE information.
These figures raised the query of whether or not there could also be a difficulty of underreporting.
Massachusetts state legislation defines bullying as “repeated use by one or more students or a member of a school staff of a written, verbal or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture” leading to penalties like bodily or emotional hurt, injury of property, a hostile surroundings or infringement on the goal’s rights.
Coloroso highlighted the “repeated” side of Massachusetts’s definition, noting she recommends states embody repeated behaviors but additionally permit consideration of one-time occasions.
“It can be a one-time significant event,” stated Coloroso. “Bullying in itself, is about arrogance and contempt for another human being, dehumanization, and the like. It doesn’t have to be repeated over time.”
If a child’s head is dunked in the bathroom, she famous, “you need to treat that as bullying, not wait for it to happen twice.”
A 2023 federal survey of the state estimates 15.9% of private and non-private college kids in Massachusetts report being bullied, in accordance with the CDC Youth Danger Conduct Survey (YRBS) information, which might equate to about 150,000 college kids in Massachusetts based mostly on the 2023-24 inhabitants.
Massachusetts state legislation additionally mandates faculties conduct a survey every year together with matters of security and bullying, reported yearly within the Views of Local weather and Studying (VOCAL) Survey Venture.
In 2024, 16% of tenth grade college students stated it’s “always or mostly true” they’ve stayed house or averted faculties as a result of they don’t really feel protected. About the identical share answered it was “always or mostly true” they’d been teased or picked on about their sexual orientation and race or ethnicity greater than as soon as.
Requested if they’d been known as names or made enjoyable of greater than as soon as in class, 43% of eighth graders in 2024 answered within the affirmative classes. Shut behind, 29% answered affirmatively they’d seen rumors or lies unfold about them on social media greater than as soon as.
Within the youthful 4th and fifth grades, 8% and 12% of children respectively indicated they really feel unsafe in school within the 2024 survey.
Meghan McCoy, supervisor of applications on the Massachusetts Aggression Discount Heart, stated their analysis has proven persistently about two-thirds of initially reported bullying usually “doesn’t align” with outlined bullying even in situations when it’s not an “ok behavior.”
“There may just be schools and districts that have a lot of prevention in place, and so are addressing things before it rises to the definition of bullying involving the repetition, power imbalance, and intentionality of the behavior,” McCoy stated, noting a shift in Massachusetts to districts understanding a “role of protecting the mental health of students.”
Just lately, McCoy stated, the middle has been much less inundated with requests from districts, as faculties have handled “a lot on their plates,” particularly with funding and sources.
The Massachusetts anti-bullying legislation, which was first handed in 2010 in response to the loss of life of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince and later up to date with a 2014, mandates college districts develop “bullying prevention and intervention plans” assembly strict necessities.
Below the legislation, districts should additionally report bullying allegation, substantiated incidents, punitive actions to the state, and a survey on bullying to the state. The districts are required to inform victims of bullying and their households of DESE’s Downside Decision System, which can additionally examine incidents of bullying.
Outdoors of DESE, the Lawyer Common’s Youngsters’s Justice Unit has responded to not less than 151 college bullying complaints since 2016.
In a single incident — involving a “mock slave trade” organized by eighth graders on Snapchat in February 2024 inside Southwick Faculty District — the AG unit issued an motion plan mandating trainings for events from district management to the perpetrators and continued oversight via 2026.
Regardless of continued incidents and low reporting amongst districts, Massachusetts has some of the thorough anti-bullying legal guidelines on the books, specialists stated.
Massachusetts’s legislation meets all 13 of the elements outlined in federal pointers for state anti-bullying laws, together with critiques and updates of native insurance policies, reporting and investigations, and prevention training. In simply the New England space, Connecticut and Rhode Island additionally meet all the standards, whereas New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine miss not less than one.
“You complied with all of it,” stated Coloroso of federal pointers. “The key is, do they follow through? That’s been a weakness throughout because, for instance, a state may keep track of bullying incidences, but if you don’t consider it bullying to begin with, or you categorize it as a conflict when indeed it isn’t, then you don’t have to report it.”
Massachusetts has trended down when it comes to bullying because the implementation of the primary legislation, in accordance with the CDC’s YRBS information, dropping from 19.4% of scholars reporting being bullied on college property in 2009 to fifteen.9% in 2023. The state stays nicely beneath the nationwide common of 19.2% of faculty children in 2023.
Because the panorama of bullying modifications, the stories of cyberbullying within the states are trending the wrong way. From 2013 to 2023, college students who reported being electronically bullied rose from 13.8% to fifteen.3%, in accordance with the CDC YRBS information.
“The future of really creating a shift is, I really think it’s going to have a lot to do with bigger shifts in the sense of managing the time that our kids are spending on their phones and on social media, and helping to give them time to practice their social skills early on,” stated McCoy. “There are pretty deep structural changes that can’t be ignored.”
