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By LEE SHERMAN "Our schools, all of them, must be sanctuaries of
safety and civility and respect."
"All students should be treated with dignity."
It started with a few remarks traded in the hallways at a Helena public school. "What're you lookin' at, dork?" "Nothin'." "Well, stay outa my way, dork." Every time the two boys met, friction sparked. Hurt and anger mounted. One day, while the boys waited for their bus home, the verbal sparring erupted into a shoving match. By the time the assistant principal rushed to the scene, the boys were pummeling one another. When one of the boys stumbled backward, she stepped between them. "Stop, now!" she commanded, holding her arms out to block their contact. But the boy who had stumbled regained his balance and charged toward her and the second boy. Pulling a can of pepper spray from his pocket, he pressed the nozzle. The blast missed the other boy but hit the administrator's face, blurring her vision. This kind of upward spiral of conflict plays out in schools everywhere, every day. The progression from words to blows-sometimes even to gunfire-has been dubbed the "escalation-of-aggression dance" by Joe Furshong, Director of Special Services for Helena Public Schools in Montana. "The pattern I see oftentimes," says Furshong, "is stuff that seems little on the surface-put-downs, name-calling, teasing-ends up being traumatizing to kids." Furshong is a leader in the Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI), launched in 1995 to improve school climate statewide. Public officials, community leaders, parents, and educators were alarmed by the growing number of kids bringing severe emotional and behavioral problems to school. They wanted solutions for rising incidents of insubordination, aggression, truancy, drug use, and vandalism. The same urgent concerns are shared across the region-not just in Helena, huddled on the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains, but also in Seattle, bustling on salty Puget Sound. And in Bethel, shivering on the windswept Alaskan tundra. And in Eugene, glistening in the wet Willamette Valley. In these and countless communities around the nation, people are striving to make their schools safe and civil. Schools are tightening up security measures, beefing up codes of conduct, linking up with outside agencies, drumming up parental support, hooking up kids with mentors, and folding antiviolence curricula into the overall educational program. Together, these strategies form a comprehensive approach, creating a warm school climate where children can learn in peace. MBI-with funds from the Montana Board of Crime Control and the state Office of Public Instruction-zeroes in on the very heart of school climate: how students and staff treat each other. The initiative encourages schools to develop "an ongoing process of compassion and consideration for the rights, feelings, and property of others-a process of creating a welcoming, positive atmosphere throughout our schools and communities." Violence doesn't begin with punches or kicks. It begins with words. First, it's a put-down or an insult-calling someone a dummy, a fatso, a nerd, a wimp. Next are threats. Then comes the shove on the playground that leads to a fist in the face or a foot in the groin. The fear, intimidation, and anger kids cause when they taunt or hassle peers can spin quickly out of control. Suddenly, the weapon is not a cutting word but a knife strapped to a leg, a handgun stuffed in a backpack. More often, victims of teasing and bullying suffer in silence. But the impact on their lives and schooling is very real. One in seven children is a bully or the target of a bully, according to the National Association of School Psychologists. Kids who are victimized by more aggressive or powerful peers have only recently gained the attention of researchers. "Socially neglected children usually go unnoticed by their peers but may fall victim to bullying and suffer ill effects, such as low self-confidence, underachievement in school, and withdrawal," says the trainer's manual for the antiviolence curriculum Second Step. "In some cases, extended persecution has ended in suicide or violent retaliation on the part of victims." Bullies are five times more likely than nonbullies to have a criminal record by age 30. While physical bullying-bopping another kid on the back of the head, for instance, or snatching his book bag-seems to decrease with age, "verbal abuse appears to remain constant," says Ron Banks in a 1997 ERIC Digest titled Bullying in Schools. Bullying, which Banks defines as "physical or psychological intimidation (that) occurs repeatedly over time to create an ongoing pattern of harassment and abuse," appears to cut across all the demographics of school size, place, and wealth. Bullies exist in schools big and small, urban and rural, rich and poor. "Their targets tend to have lasting emotional scars and low self-esteem," Education Daily reported in October 1998. "Ten percent of eighth-grade students stay home at least one day a month for fear of another student." A CHILLING EFFECT Bullying can have a grave impact on learning-a "chilling effect," in the words of Susan Limber and Maury Nation, writing in the April 1998 Juvenile Justice Bulletin put out by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). "Not only does bullying harm both its intended victims and the perpetrators," say Limber and Nation, "it also may affect the climate of schools and, indirectly, the ability of all students to learn to the best of their abilities." "Bullying deprives children of their rightful entitlement to go to school in a safe, just, and caring environment," writes Nan Stein in Bullyproof: A Teacher's Guide on Teasing and Bullying published jointly in 1996 by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women and the National Education Association Professional Library. "Bullying interferes with children's learning, concentration, and desire to go to school." Peer harassment has played a part in a number of recent high-profile school shootings and a thwarted massacre. In November, when Wisconsin authorities were tipped off to an elaborate plot to shoot 20 high school students, the five would-be assassins said they targeted kids who'd "made fun of us" and "picked on us." Sixteen-year-old Evan Ramsey, who killed a principal and classmate in Bethel, Alaska, in 1997, was "teased and taunted by fellow students as 'brain-dead' and 'retarded,'" according to the Anchorage Daily News. A friend of Evan's "recalled kids calling Ramsey 'spaz' and other degrading names," the newspaper reported. Other school shooters, too, have cited vengeance toward unkind peers as their motive. These extreme cases are rare. Despite the recent string of school shootings that have grabbed headlines, very few students ever try to "get even" with guns. In fact, kids are carrying fewer weapons to school now than they were a few years ago. "Contrary to public perception, the percentages of students who report carrying a weapon or a gun to school has declined in recent years," states the first Annual Report on School Safety, published in 1998 by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. Weapon-toting students dropped from 14 percent of males in 1993 to 9 percent in 1996, according to the Annual Report. (Only 2 percent of female students brought weapons to school during the same period.) Nevertheless, many youths are afraid of their schoolmates. Nearly 10 percent of eighth-graders feel unsafe or very unsafe at school, and they fearfully avoid certain spots on campus. In 1984, the National Association of Secondary School Principals found that by the time kids get to high school, fully one-fourth of them fear victimization by peers. Males as a group feel more unsafe than females, a 1996 survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found. Among ethnic groups, Hispanic and American Indian students feel most fearful at school. "While the school crime rate is decreasing," the Annual Report says, "students feel less safe at school. (This) climate of fear erodes the quality of any school." LITTLE CONFRONTATIONS An atmosphere of discourtesy and disrespect can give violence a toehold, say Jim Bryngelson and Sharon Cline of the CARE Initiative of Montana, creators of the "Violence Continuum" used by MBI. The continuum is topped by behaviors that shatter communities and make the evening news-hate crimes, rape, murder, suicide. Below that are sexual harassment, theft, drugs, vandalism, and fighting-the points at which schools typically intervene. But it is at the bottom of the continuum, with the bugging and badgering often overlooked in schools, where educators often can make the biggest impact, defusing conflict before it blows up. "I think more attention has to be paid to what they call 'little confrontations' that gradually develop into more serious matters," says Kent Harding, Coordinator of School Safety in Bethel. Too many educators, he says, shrug off teasing and bullying as "kids being kids." They reason that peer harassment is just part of growing up, and reflects wider community norms and attitudes that kids bring to school with them. It's true that peer harassment has its origins outside schoolhouse walls. Children learn it from older siblings, sitcom stars, DJs, and family members. Sometimes, they even learn it from teachers. ("Unfortunately, there are some staff members who ridicule or belittle students," Furshong notes.) But if razzing is a learned behavior, so is respect. Schools have the power to shape social norms and steer students toward better behavior, research suggests. "When you create a school climate or culture that doesn't tolerate disrespect," Furshong asserts, "kids buy into it. They make it their own ethic." Drawing on effective-schools research, MBI trains local school-community teams to:
After going through MBI training, staff at Helena's C.R. Anderson Middle School adopted a number of new practices to improve school climate and encourage positive interactions. They posted teachers in hallways to greet students by name and meet them at classroom doors. They used positive reminders instead of punitive practices for minor infractions. They worked with probation officers to help kids who'd had a brush with the law slip smoothly back into school without losing credits. Results were dramatic. Hallway incidents that landed kids in the office plunged nearly in half between 1996-97 and 1997-98-from 170 to 92. Antibullying programs and curricula can help educators and students create a more respectful school climate. But to be effective, they must be used schoolwide in tandem with other strategies, Banks cautions. "(Researchers) emphasize the need to develop whole-school bullying policies, implement curricular measures, improve the schoolground environment, and empower students through conflict resolution, peer counseling, and assertiveness training." (See sidebar on Page 10 for a sampling of antibullying curricula.) In the 1993 publication Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do, antibullying pioneer Dan Olweus offers an approach for multilevel intervention. Steps for intervening at the building, classroom, and individual levels include:
Schools that have used Olweus' program report a 50 percent reduction in bullying, according to Banks. Rates of truancy, vandalism, and theft have also dropped sharply, and overall school climate has improved markedly as a result of the program. "Today, bullying is rightfully being recognized for what it is: an abusive behavior that often leads to greater and prolonged violence," write June Arnette and Marjorie Walsleben in Combating Fear and Restoring Safety in Schools, the April 1998 issue of the OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin. "Both bullies and their victims need help in learning new ways to get along in school." GLORIFY PEACEMAKING Noting that "violence prevention is more fundamental than a new curriculum … or a metal detector," J. David Hawkins of the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group says peace depends on the "social environment of the school as a whole: of the policies and practices of school administrators that support and encourage a positive learning environment, and of the way teachers manage and teach in classrooms and on playgrounds." In the 1998 publication Violence in American Schools (Cambridge University Press), Hawkins and his colleagues David Farrington and Richard Catalano identify four key ways schools can keep disruption, incivility, and violence at bay:
Hawkins' list centers on the idea of "glorifying peacemaking"-a counterweight to the shoot-'em-up imagery and macho role models that surround children today, Marilyn Richen of Portland told Oregon Public Broadcasting in December. To Hawkins' list, Richen adds a fifth key to preventing school violence: "noticing when we have troubled kids and connecting those kids to the right services." Richen, who coordinates prevention programs for the Portland School District, told Northwest Education that schools have a "long history" of detecting problems such as child abuse and substance abuse. Notifying authorities and bringing in help from outside the school is a "familiar role" for educators. What's different now, she says, is that schools are being asked to identify not only battered children, sexual-abuse victims, and drug users, but also kids with violent proclivities. Richen's office is drafting a protocol to guide teachers and other school staff who see trouble brewing. The guidelines will spell out warning signs and tell teachers when and how to engage other agencies. Almost everyone agrees that public agencies need to share information on kids who show signs of lashing out. The trick is to trade information without infringing on the student's privacy-a right protected by federal statute. In the wake of the tragic Springfield shooting last spring (see Page 12), Oregon state Representative Bill Morrisette, a former Springfield mayor and retired social studies teacher, has drafted a bill requiring schools to share discipline records with juvenile authorities. Other bills being authored by Morrisette would require teachers to notify their principal about potentially violent students and require at least 24 hours of jail time for students who bring guns to school. "What we are trying to do," Morrisette told The Oregonian newspaper in January, "is get an early indication if there is a problem." In Bethel, where staff and students are still reeling from Evan Ramsey's 1997 shooting spree in the high school commons, the district is moving toward more teacher-to-teacher networking and interdepartmental agreements to share information as kids move through the system, according to longtime Bethel teacher Terry Jennings. "We've observed nationally that some kids who are having problems go from school to school to school, and there's no tracking," he says. "There's no consistent help for them." Jennings deplores this lack of linkage among schools, law enforcement, and social services. Typically, people "start putting together the pieces" of a troubled child's background only after a tragedy occurs, he says. In the case of Evan, social service agencies had spotted signs of emotional disturbance "as early as second or third grade," says Pat Martin, a curriculum specialist with the district. Evan (a foster child) was "just pushed through the system," Martin says. "Because of confidentiality rights, teachers aren't told (when) students have these problems. There's no accountability, no responsibility taken." Partnerships built on shared information between schools and other youth-serving agencies are a cornerstone of school safety, OJJDP stresses in its 1997 report, Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs. "Educators who see the first warning signs of delinquency or who have critical information about juveniles involved in the juvenile justice system can, by sharing information with justice and other youth-serving agencies, help develop effective intervention strategies," the report notes. For their part, justice agencies should inform schools when young offenders return to class after clashing with the law. "The school can (then) take steps to provide needed support services to help the student succeed," says the report, which offers detailed guidance on how and when educators can divulge information on student behavior. POLICY FOR PEACE Effective school-safety programs cast a wide net. They involve the whole school and embrace a range of strategies. A piecemeal approach-just installing a metal detector, say, or adopting an antibullying program for second-graders-will probably fail to achieve many gains. Effective programs also are community-oriented, pulling in support, expertise, and resources from all segments. Schools can't do it alone. Good programs start with a clear policy outlining rules of conduct and penalties that are consistently enforced. "Serious and repeated violent infractions carry heavier penalties than less serious or infrequent infractions," the Annual Report counsels. "Due process involves more than one staff member listening to all parties, gathering and interpreting evidence, assigning sanctions where appropriate, and ensuring access to an appeal process." The National School Boards Association (NSBA), in addition to recommending that school boards adopt and enforce policies that "clearly articulate that violence and threats of violence will not be tolerated," recommends that all schools and districts develop safe-schools plans that "address early-warning signs and include sufficient counseling for students." Under such plans, the NSBA says schools should:
For more guidance on designing safe-schools plans, visit the NSBA Web site at http://www.keepschoolssafe.org/. Written plans and policies by themselves, clipped into dusty binders on administrators' bookshelves, don't change behavior. Policies must become part of the school culture, communicated clearly and repeatedly to students, parents, and staff. Most importantly, they must be folded in with other strategies for bolstering social skills, brightening school climate, and boosting student achievement. "Probably the most important component in prevention," says Bethel's school safety coordinator, "is to create and maintain a positive and welcoming school climate." Indeed, many researchers agree that the best way to make safe schools is to make effective schools-schools that set the bar high and then give every student a sturdy pole for vaulting over. "A sustained effort to improve teaching and instruction will likely also result in reducing problem student behaviors," the Educational Testing Service notes in its 1998 policy report, Order In the Classroom. "Better teaching, better behavior, and higher achievement are intertwined."
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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