Thoughts on Bullying

Probably everyone knows that an anti-bullying bill is currently pending in the Massachusetts legislature, and I'm sure they will probably pass some version of it this session. Obviously, I am against bullying!! The bill, though, seems to assume that schools -- teachers and administrators -- simply are not bothering to do anything about bullying, as its primary mechanism seems to be to require schools to keep data and write reports about bullying incidents. If one assumes that schools are working to prevent bullying, the requirement to collect data and write reports doesn't change the tools available to schools but simply takes time away from time actually working with students (which is what I fear the main effect of the law will be); thus, the assumption of the law must be that schools need to be forced into addressing bullying. In my experience, this is not accurate. My observation, at least in our district and in the districts in which my friends work, is that teachers and administrators are working very hard with students to help them improve how they treat each other.