Bullying reporting system connects parents, schools

It didn't put an end to name-calling, hair-pulling or fistfighting, but the Hillsborough County school district's online bullying reporting system works, school officials say.

"The more we talk about it, the safer our kids are," said Lewis Brinson, the school district's assistant superintendent for administration.

Nearly 400 reports of alleged bullying were lodged anonymously between the start of school in August and the end of April. The district has not determined how many of those complaints are legitimate, but administrators say none resulted in arrests.

During the first semester Hillsborough offered online reporting, school officials confirmed 41 of 199 reported incidents as bullying. The schools handled the punishments, which included reprimands, counseling and expulsions, said Judith Rainone, the school district supervisor who is compiling the reports for the state.

She won't release any findings until her report is completed. The state requires the information by July.

The online reports outline the fear and harassment many children face daily.

"My child has been traumatized and is now unable to socialize with her peers," a Madison Middle School parent wrote in March. "Other kids pick on her and call her names, and she gets sick and tries to stay home everyday."

"My child's self-worth is dropping no matter what we tell her at home about ignoring the bad stuff," a parent from West Shore Elementary wrote. "Having a crying little girl come home from second grade on a daily basis is not the way I saw this year ending."

A Riverview Elementary parent found a note in her son's backpack in his handwriting entitled "I Hate My Life."

"When asked about the note, he said that he was tired of being bullied by two classmates on a daily basis," the parent wrote. "It is not acceptable for my 8-year-old to write such a note because he is afraid of going to school.

"School is a place to learn and to have fun, not a place of fear."

The Tampa Tribune obtained redacted copies of the complaints through a public records request. Here's what they show:

• Boys most often were named as the victims - in 140 out of 378 incidents - and the bullies in 197 cases.

• Girls accounted for their share of incidents, too, with 119 identified as victims and 81 accused of bullying.

• A few of the accused bullies were identified as teachers or other parents; one was a bus driver, and another was a school resource officer.

• Parents filed the most complaints - 218 - and most reported incidents were at middle schools.

That's typical, school leaders say, because middle-schoolers are at an age when hormones are raging and everything is changing. They go to different classrooms, mingle with a larger number of students and are enjoying more freedoms.

The downside to the system, officials say, is that the majority of incidents are one-time occurrences that aren't considered bullying, defined by state law as repeated physical or mental abuse.

Parents filed complaints saying their children's teachers were mean or that other students were hitting their children on school buses. Some problems involved name-calling or hitting.

"It's what we expected," Brinson said of the reports, which are supposed to be read by the principal or an assistant principal by the following day.

School administrators started the system in response to a state law that went into effect in 2008 following the suicide of a student in Naples who had been harassed online.

Every incident is investigated, providing valuable insight into what's happening at school, Brinson said.

One thing school officials didn't expect was that the online reporting would become an easy way for parents and principals to communicate.

Walker's woes

That's a good thing, Walker Middle School Principal Joe Brown said. The Odessa school turned up in four reports, with only one or two confirmed as bullying, he said.

For the most part, Brown said, his students are focused on eradicating bullying at their school.

Many endured months of local and national media attention last year after four classmates were arrested and accused of raping another student in the boys' locker room. Students didn't like the way their school was portrayed in the community, Brown said.

"Our kids felt harassed," he said.

The school's anti-bullying programs have helped students put the controversy behind them, he said.

In addition to reporting and tracking incidents, school districts must have prevention programs at every school. Walker and eight other schools are using a national program called Olweus that teaches students not to tolerate bullies.

During a rally in March, Walker's eighth-graders took the lead and spoke to classmates about being vigilant stopping bullies, sticking up for each other and confiding in trusted adults.

"You should tell," class leader Caroline Koch told a group of students. "We don't want any of you to be afraid to come to school every day."

Next hurdle: Sexting

The district's next mission: texting and sexting, which includes sending explicit photographs or suggestive messages with a cell phone.

"We're going to have to have some kind of focus on that because it can have major impacts," Brinson said.

In September, 13-year-old Hope Witsell committed suicide following months of harassment, her parents say, after a topless photograph of the Beth Shields Middle School eighth-grader became public.

Within months, Pierce Middle School began teaching students about the ramifications of such actions. Administrators there were surprised by how frequently the boys and girls were exposed to texting and sexting abuse.

Since then, teens across the country have become victims of bullying via sexting and texting - some resorting to suicide to escape the harassment - while the culprits, depending on their age, face possible criminal charges.

"We need to teach them they can go to jail," Brinson said.