Is Bullying and It's Serious Consequences Being Ignored in the Lakewood City School District?

[Lori Allen _]

I have moved this discussion to a new thread, as Mr. Rossen has chosen to turn the thread from discussing the issues to defaming my character. I am disappointed to see that a parent with children in the Lakewood City School District would not take an issue like this seriously. This is not isolated to just Lakewood. It is happening all over the country. This is just one tragedy out of how many? As a community, we have to face issues and work together to help our youth. My disappointment with the school is that the incident in November 2015 was apparently not documented as a case of bullying or harassment, according to the August-December 2015 Lakewood City Schools Semi-Annual Bullying and Harassment Report Summary (see last page of attachment).

The question is: when do the schools feel it necessary to include a reported incident in this semi-annual report? Are we really to believe that Lakewood High School, with 1,841 enrolled students as of 2010 had zero bullying or harassment incidents over a roughly four-month period? I don't expect perfection, but I do expect honesty.

FWIW.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakewood_ ... d,_Ohio%29 (enrollment statistics)

Lakewood Division of Police (police report)

http://www.lakewoodcityschools.org/Content2/564 (bullying report)

[Corey Rossen]

Ha! Get over yourself.

My posts have never been about bullying or the schools' reactions. It has been about your attempt to smear excellent teachers, principals and administrators using terms such as "I believe" or "I feel that" just as you have done since you started posting on the Deck.

I am not attacking your character. Your delivery, yes, but I have said nothing about your character.

[Lori Allen _]

My family has experienced suicide twice. Nobody can really understand or feel your pain without having experienced it themselves. My thoughts and prayers are with those out there that are struggling or whose family members are struggling with addiction, bullying, suicide, etc. I will list below several links that might be helpful. Due to the fact that I have tried to discuss this serious issue in two threads here on the Deck and the fact that I have experienced attacks by a cyber-bully, I will not make comments about this here on the Deck at this time. However, I would be more than happy to talk with any of you or try to find resources should you need them. Just personal message me here on the Deck and I will get back to you.

http://www.letstalkjenna.org/mental-hea ... eland.html
http://dare2careusa.org/the-facts/
http://www.cleveland19.com/category/294 ... ng4bullies
http://www.suicide.org/hotlines/ohio-su ... lines.html
http://www.recres.org/
http://lifeact.org/contact/

[Jim O'Bryan]

The question is: when do the schools feel it necessary to include a reported incident in this semi-annual report? Are we really to believe that Lakewood High School, with 1,841 enrolled students as of 2010 had zero bullying or harassment incidents over a roughly four-month period? I don't expect perfection, but I do expect honesty.

Lori

I do not remember ever mention of a single case in semi-annual reports. I will go back and look, but perhaps it is not their policy, or the place.

I will call and ask today.

.

[todd vainisi]

Lori, I'll also comment here. You are right - you were there and I wasn't. And yet you summed it up in a couple of sentences which made you look like a hero and the principal of the school look like a monster. And your reply to me that I shouldn't judge you? I didn't judge you anywhere in my post. I said you should think twice about throwing around such big accusations. Casually mentioning on a post about a levy that you think Lakewood City Schools don't protect kids who are bullied or react to kids who say them want to kill themselves is irresponsible and inappropriate to me.

I think you've made a much better choice by giving its own topic. But I disagree with the attempt to make it seem like Cory (or me) are some how out to get you.

It's one thing to say that the mayor is a bad guy - he's a politician. It's quite another to hurl the poop bag at our school principals, counselors, and teachers.

Also, that pdf report you sent was just awful. How terrible for everyone involved. But as you can see clear as day, nobody from the school tried to cover it up. The school was trying to help this student out in cooperation with her parent. This is not evidence of the school turning a blind eye to their students in distress.

[Christine Gordillo]

The Ohio Department of Education defines bullying and/or harassment as: “Any intentional written,
verbal, graphic or physical act that a student or group of students exhibited toward another particular
student more than once and the behavior both: causes mental or physical harm to the other student;
and is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or
abusive educational environment for the other student.

Ms. Allen: In discussing the issue with the administrator responsible for compiling the District's bullying reports, it appears the incident for which you posted a police report was not included in the report because it does not meet the definition of bullying as defined by the Ohio Department of Education in the quote above because it was a one-time incident. This does not diminish the seriousness of the incident nor the trauma the student suffered.

Christine Gordillo
Communications & PR Coordinator
Lakewood City Schools

[Dan OMalley]

Over the weekend I met with the president of a well-respected non-profit organization dedicated to combating bullying in schools. He had nothing but high praise for Lakewood City Schools and indicated that our school system really sets the standard with its anti-bullying policies and pro-active efforts.

[Gary Rice]

What is presently going on in the Lakewood Schools is a wonderful thing. There is a tremendous effort on the part of our schools to reduce and eliminate teasing and bullying.

As a person who has lived with speech, hearing and leg handicapping conditions, (and too, having great compassion for Lori, as I had a young cousin in another state who took his life years ago) my antenna is always raised to detect anything that might be amiss when I am around young people, or those who are charged with their care. Lakewood schools today are very good at dealing with these things.

Were things different when I was in the Lakewood schools as a student? Very much so, but remember, that was a half-century ago. Back then, there were even perceptions by some adults that having disabilities was a punishment from God! (Remember all those old movies that depicted handicapped people as being evil villains?) My parents requested that I sit in the front row of a classroom so that I could hear the lessons, and some teachers were upset about messing up their alphabetical seating charts. Not being able to speak "normally", (whatever that means)or run fast also opened me up to all sorts of teasing, bullying, and name calling and there was also this widespread thinking back then that people being teased just needed to "man up" and take it. Teasing, it was widely felt, built character.

By now, some of you may be wondering why I would not feel lots of anger, resentment, and antipathy towards the Lakewood Schools for the rough times I had, while going through those experiences as a child. What you have to understand however, is that all of that stuff happened a long time ago. The past can never be excused, but it can indeed be conquered.

With great personal satisfaction, I now understand that it was through my own efforts as a now retired special educator, and the efforts of so many people working on behalf of students with disabilities, that our schools and our nation have developed a much more compassionate and constructive understanding for people having special needs and differences. In that same vein, it is very important that those of us who have survived past injustices continue to work for the ideals of compassionate understanding and acceptance that have brought us all towards that better world that we still hope to see one day.

The battle for all of this is not yet won, but we are winning it.

You can trust me on this one, please people. As a retired teacher and current Lakewood Schools volunteer, as well as being a person who suffered teasing and worse in the way I once did in Lakewood as a kid, if I saw just ONE thing even remotely resembling bullying or teasing in our schools today, I would personally be all over it! So far, in my years of volunteering for Lakewood's schools as a retiree, I've seen very good stuff going on.

That said, and as any educator knows full well, every single day brings the unknown and unexpected into our classrooms. Hopefully, we can continue to proactively nip problems in the bud, before they get out of hand.

Back to the banjo.

[Michael Deneen]

Excellent insight from Mr. Rice.
Even since my childhood (47 years old), society has come a long way on bullying. My memories in the 70s and 80s are very similar to Gary's. I was fortunate enough to not have a disability at the time...but it was normal for kids to pick on those that were different.

(Remember all those old movies that depicted handicapped people as being evil villains?)

Sorry for the thread drift, but I don't remember these.
Unless you're referring to mental illness, I have trouble remembering any disabled movie villains.
There are lots and lots of minority villains (largely war-Era Japanese and Natives in Westerns), but I had trouble thinking of a disabled villain.
The only example I could think of was Mr. Potter, who I believe was in a wheelchair throughout the whole movie.

[Gary Rice]

Being mindful of the danger of generalizations here...

I would think that more movies from Michael's era have probably portrayed persons with disabilities in favorable (if at times, stereotypical or even superhero) roles, but such was not always the case.

In particular, going back to some of the classic (19th century or older) tales, I think we would sometimes see persons having differences being portrayed in much more negative lights, (like monsters, etc...) but even in my time, (being a bit older than Michael ) I can think of any number of cartoons and stories that portrayed people having "differences" in comedic, disparaging, stereotypical, or negative ways.

Whenever one of those portrayals came out on screen, it was, at times, not long before you might see copycat negative behaviors in schools or in neighborhoods. This also could happen when movies portrayed particular actions. I well remember when a famous martial arts movie came out and a kid, after watching that movie, was apparently influenced to vandalize Dad's car with repeated kicks and hits.


There's plenty of commentary on the 'net about portrayals of people having differences on the screen, so I will refrain from giving specific examples here. Suffice to say that I am very glad that screen portrayals of people having differences seem to be so much more balanced nowadays, and that we are paying much better attention to potential concerns of any kind in our schools.

All just my opinions here, and sometimes, I might just be right!

Back to the banjo...