By McKenna Harford, Colorado Community Media
District introduces new online form and resources to make it easier for students to report incidents
The Douglas County School District is hoping to make it easier for students to report bullying while emphasizing prevention education in schools. District officials presented at the October meeting recent efforts to revamp the resources available to students to guide them through identifying and reporting bullying.
“This has been a significant priority for our staff this year,” Superintendent Erin Kane said.
The recently created Bullying Prevention Task Force has updated the district’s website to have a page dedicated to resources and providing an easily accessible reporting form.
Erin McDonald, executive director of schools for the Castle Rock region, said students are encouraged to report bullying to a trusted adult. The district also uses Safe2Tell, a statewide reporting system, and offers the online form for students who don’t feel comfortable reporting in person.
“We want people to go right to the school, the teacher or the administrator to say, ‘I have an issue and I want to report it,’ but sometimes they use Safe2Tell or other reporting forms,” McDonald said.
So far this school year, administrators and staff have been through training on the bullying policy and resources available to students. Presentations on bullying have also been given to students at all schools.
The task force is now working on creating a screener to help administrators determine when a report constitutes bullying and a flowchart for how to respond. McDonald said the goal is to provide a consistent response across schools and streamline the process.
“That way it’s systemwide in how it’s being reported and followed up on responding, and making sure we’re taking care of the students on both sides,” McDonald said.
Reports that include instances of discrimination or harassment are sent to the district’s Office of Compliance to be investigated. The district partners with law enforcement on reports that include potential crimes.
The district says discrimination is unwelcome physical or verbal conduct directed at a student because of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age or disability. Bullying is defined as physical or verbal conduct, marked by a power imbalance, that is repeated and intended to harm.
The district is currently facing a lawsuit from a group of families who allege their students were discriminated against because of their race. Lacey Ganzy, one of the parents suing the district, has asked for a policy specifically to address hate crimes.
In response to board questions about how the district handles discrimination and potential crimes, Winsor said the district investigates on an individual basis and works with law enforcement and the compliance office on those reports.
“With each and every student, you want to understand the nuance of what they’re navigating in their situation,” Winsor said.
Winsor said the district will collect data on the reports, as well as use the Healthy Kids Colorado survey and look at how school-specific services are utilized to determine how effective the bullying prevention efforts are.
District officials expect to see some increase in reports of bullying this year because of the education efforts, but that won’t necessarily reflect a spike in bullying.
“When you have a new reporting system that makes it easier to report, you’re going to get a flood of reports initially,” Kane said.
The district is also in the process of creating a unique survey to track school safety and culture.
Article republished with permission from Colorado Community Media, which connects, educates and empowers readers along the Front Range as the state's largest source of hyperlocal news, information and advertising. Read the original article here.
