School Committee Discusses Bullying

Bullying is a problem in every community and in every school district. Winchester is no different.

Earlier this year the state passed it's anti-bullying legislation, and last night at the School Committee Meeting the board discussed some of its plans on how they hope to deal with the problem.

The proposed initiative of the town says, "The Winchester Public Schools is committed to providing a safe, positive and production educational environment where students can achieve the highest academic standards. No student shall be subjected to harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying within the school community."

A special amount of attention was focused on cyber-bullying and the evolving threat technology may pose to children. The Committee discussed the easy, passive-aggressive nature involved with posting slanderous photos or phrases on social networks, or creating harmful websites. 

The Committee also discussed the fact bullying goes on in and out of school, and talked about the preventative measures they are setting up.

Such measures include: official and unofficial reports from staff, parents and students (including anonymous means of reporting instances of bullying), training school employees and volunteers to identify instances of bullying, age-appropriate, evidence-based instructions on bullying for students, and annual publications and notices that will be provided to staff, parents and students, going so far as to post reports on the Winchester Public School's website.

The Committee is taking bullying very seriously, covering every angle, from instruction, to reporting, and they hope, prevention. However, according to the committee, that will only be half of their battle. Awareness and a communal effort will be paramount if the Anti-Bullying Task Force wishes to succeed.

Board Member Sarah Girotti mentioned the Anti-Bullying Models as, "Some of the most important aspects of this year."

Superintendant William McAlduff believes they need to start enforcing the policy at a young age and need to get the word out on their policy.  

"Right now we have harassment procedures, given the structure of our current program, any initiatives dealing with harassment should be handled through this Anti-Bullying Task Force," McAlduff said "I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but I think this is necessary even in Pre-K classes.

"What I would propose is that the School Committee adopt this policy and the School Board make changes we can review. It will all go on our website and all households with students will be made aware of these policies. We will make sure everyone – staff, parents and students – know their role. There is a lot ahead of us."  

The Committee also discussed the Green Repair Program. The program is an incentive to garner reimbursement funding from the MSBA to fix such projects as Lynch School's ailing roof or the broken windows at Muraco Elementary. Other projects such as electrical upgrades, repairing old boiler systems and improvements related to modernizing educational spaces were also looked at.

"My feeling is we really have nothing to lose," McAlduff said. "If MSBA acts on it, that's only good news for us."