Bullying occurs almost daily at middle school

Dealing with bullying is an almost daily occurrence for administrators at Shawano Community Middle School.

Principal Dan Labby said this week there were about 100 reported bullying incidents at the school since the start of the 2013-14 school year, and there are still three months of school left.

He noted during a community presentation Thursday at the school that middle school students are at a unique stage of development—socially, mentally and physically. They’re not as dependent as elementary school students nor as independent as high school students.

“They’re still going to want a hug, but they’re not going to ask you for it,” Labby said. “They are going to be different from one minute to the next.”

Associate Principal Tami Bagstad said there are bullying cases that are not reported to administrators, because the students choose instead to tell friends or parents, with the latter often angrily asking officials why steps have not been taken to deal with the bullies.

“Once we have the information, we definitely check into it, because we do take it seriously,” Bagstad said.

Even when administrators are aware of bullying, she said, they cannot tell victims’ parents what consequences the bullies are facing because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The administrators said the schools deals with four types of bullying: verbal, physical, incidental and cyberbullying. The cyberbullying is growing at an alarming rate, they said, which is why the school is presenting two public presentations on the subject March 27.

According to survey results presented by Labby, some SCMS students reported being bullied seven or more times during the school year. It was more common, he said, for students to have been bullied once or twice during that time.

School officials did not furnish survey results to the Leader by press time.

The most common reasons for bullying were to show off, try to be popular or to feel powerful, according to the survey. Less common reasons were issues such as race, size, gender, disability and sexual orientation, Bagstad said.

Labby estimated that the school spends about 30 hours per year talking to students about bullying through assemblies and homeroom lessons.