Schools to combat bullying

The survey asks students if they think bullying is a problem at their school and if students feel comfortable enough to report bullying and harassment incidents.

The survey is part of the School Performance Indicators questionnaire administered to county students and teachers every year. It questions students about six aspects of school environment and aims to determine if children and adults find the Frederick County schools environment safe and comfortable.

‘‘It’s a climate survey,” said Resha Kreischer-Anderson, data analyst and research specialist at county schools. ‘‘The survey has existed for six years. But the bullying section was added this year.”

The change is part of the system’s increased efforts to reduce bullying and harassment incidents at county schools.

Frederick County Public Schools reported the most bullying incidents in the state last year, when a new state law forced all school systems in Maryland to track and report harassment and bullying incidents.

During a four-month period in 2006, Frederick County recorded 137 bullying incidents at a rate of 3.5 incidents per every 1,000 students.

State officials, however, praised the Frederick County school system for establishing a reporting system that makes it easy for parents and students to report incidents. Frederick County has actually been proactive and tried to address the problem, said Bill Reinhard, spokesperson for the Maryland State Department of Education.

Although some systems reported no bullying incidents, that does not mean they did not happen, Reinhard said.

‘‘It’s a new law and school systems are learning how to implement it,” he said. ‘‘[Frederick County] reported the most, because they have implemented the law the best.”

Frederick County schools are continuing to follow that line. Last year, Frederick County schools applied for and received a $26,000 grant from the Maryland State Department of Education to work on bullying and harassment prevention.

The school system has used part of the money for the design and distribution of the survey on bullying, said Sharon Boettinger, supervisor of counseling and student support.

The survey is administered in five randomly chosen classrooms of each county middle and high school and in two classrooms in every elementary school. The same survey is forwarded to select parents, mostly those involved in school committees and organizations.

School officials hope to process results by the end of April and use the information to target efforts in prevention of bullying and harassment, Boettinger said.

As a next step, school officials are thinking about training district staff in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Model. This is a state-recommended nationwide program, which trains teachers in effective ways to curb bullying inside and outside the classroom.

‘‘It’s a costly program,” Boettinger said. ‘‘It could be in the range of $1,000 or more per school.”

Every year, the system holds a special meeting on bullying prevention for students and teachers outside the regular class schedule. In addition, students have a classroom lesson on bullying and harassment as part of their health education.

The idea is to educate students about bullying, which could be anything from name-calling to physical violence. Compared to harassment, which is a one-time incident, bullying is often a pattern, Boettinger said.

All Frederick County school employees have to watch a video on harassment and bullying. The school system also sends a special pamphlet on the issue to parents every year.

‘‘Frederick County Public Schools have been addressing harassment and bullying since the 1980s,” Boettinger said.

‘‘Because we have such a good system, when the new law came in we didn’t have a problem.”