The Argus

The Student News Site of Gresham High School

The Argus

The Argus

Polls

What is the best way to eliminate vaping in the restrooms?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Administration needs to more effectively inform students of bullying policies

In the past two weeks, there have been two fights that have raised the eyebrows of school administration and students due to the severity of the situations. There was a fight in a classroom and a fight at the Gresham Transit Center. In both incidents other people, including students, were cheering the fight on and encouraging students to hit each other. Some even recorded the incidents on cameras and posted videos on social networking sites like Facebook. The fact that high school students are still taking part in fights leads one to believe that the REAL program here at school is not effectively teaching students to honor school policies on fighting and bullying.

According to Principal John Koch, REAL is a large umbrella that covers all behavioral issues. Every school in the district has an acronym along these lines to implement with students since that is what Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) suggests. The REAL program has been around for four years now, yet bullying and fighting continues to occur such as the previously mentioned fights. With a rise in the severity of these issues, bullying needs to be addressed specifically to students instead of in the general cloud of REAL before fights like these happen, not after the fact.

Koch stated that in viewing fight footage, it seems that students sometimes do not actually want to fight but that the chants from the crowd and peer pressure make the students feel the need to go through with the assault. Also made clear in the video was that some students chose to watch but not do anything to stop the fight from occurring. These bystanders chose not to get help from a teacher or adult–or even call 9-1-1 to alert the police. Certain things may trigger this–shock, fear, the bystander effect–but there is a level of responsibility to do the right thing that REAL is supposed to teach.

Being that there are no cameras in the classrooms yet there was footage for viewing, clearly students did not realize that school policy states that anyone who promotes a fight by chanting, recording or even posting on the internet about the fight earns a punishment of at least one day of in school suspension, if not out of school suspension for at least one day.

Sophomore Perrie Xerxes, who was in the classroom at the time of that fight, stated that students who were caught on tape jeering and encouraging the fight most likely had no idea they could get into that kind of trouble just from being seen in the video. She does believe though that the students who recorded the fight and sent it around had to have known the consequences of what they were doing.

Vice principal Danelle Heikkila stated that most of the recent fights here have had some sort of electronic component to them, such as related comments on Facebook or promotions and videos of fights on Facebook. If students were made aware of the fact that altercations outside of school and on the internet can also result in punishment, as according to school social worker Kate Allen, it can still affect students’ learning or feelings of safety at school, fewer would blatantly post about the fights or encourage them.

Sophomore Jade Jensen posted a video of the fight but decided to take in down in order to stay out of the drama. She says that she was not aware of the trouble she could have gotten in for posting the video.

Although it is true that policies are stated in the student planner and handbook that were handed out in the beginning of the school year, most students do not take the time to read through these policies, assuming that they will be the same old rules about electronics and just skim through it. Now, it cannot be ignored any longer. Students need to be informed in the classroom, so they cannot simply cast away the information in the way that they could with a handbook. This could be done in future REAL lessons that are taught or by school assemblies.

It is important to point out that some interventions have already occurred. After the fight occurred in a classroom here, English teachers were asked to share an article about Martin Luther King Jr. with their classes and discuss the importance of standing up to someone if you believe what they are doing is wrong. Also, second period teachers were asked to read a letter from administration about the fighting policy, which specifically states the consequences for anyone participating in a fight, such as egging it on or recording it. This may a solution for now, but students still need to be aggressively informed of the effects of bullying another person and the consequences in taking part in a fight.

Bullying and fighting has a negative effect on all students. According to Allen, even witnessing violence can be harmful. She gives the example that if a student has had abuse or domestic violence in their past, witnessing violence or fighting can bring up symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder and be retraumatizing.

It is critical that the school finds another way to inform students of the importance of anti-bullying and standing up to stop violence, as the previous methods are clearly not working. Although the school has done a good job of promoting the REAL program and incorporating it into the classroom, it would be of value to students to learn about bullying specifically in the REAL lessons and possibly to have an anti-bullying themed assembly.

 

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Argus Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *