Policy of Montgomery County Public Schools on Bullying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Document. Document.Document.

Then kick it up the chain of command. Your area superintendent will be interested in the email you send him/her and the school board explaining that nothing has been done by admin to protect your child.

--MCPS teacher.

Yes, this.

Take pictures. Keep a detailed record of all the incidents.

[Anonymous]

PP again - sorry to hear about your son OP. Hope things get better for him soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Email the Principal and mention the policy. Please let her know that you want to still fill the form just so the behavior of that child is documented.

Another thing - Please use the word "Bullied". They are only supposed to take action if you say that your child is being "Bullied". If your child is being hit, harassed, maimed, teased - you will not get a response unless you use the word "Bullied"/

Because the bully is persisting in his behavior - you need to build a case. Also - print out all documentation (emails etc) - make a few files and drop it in the school. Then send an email of the same also mentioning that you have send the paper copies to the principal, counselor and teacher.

Be very polite and firm. Escalate, escalate, escalate. Go to MCPS website, get the names of all the officials - and bombard them with your emails, if you do not get the result you want pronto,

Thank you for the info. I will be sure to use the word "bullied".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Document. Document.Document.

Then kick it up the chain of command. Your area superintendent will be interested in the email you send him/her and the school board explaining that nothing has been done by admin to protect your child.

--MCPS teacher.

Thank you for the information. I will file the report tomorrow and escalate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP again - sorry to hear about your son OP. Hope things get better for him soon.

Thank you. I will definitely pursue this to make sure things get better for him.

Thanks to all for the responses and support. I (OP here) was not sure what to do. I could not help feeling very concerned about the situation but was not sure whether I was making too much out of this. It is clear that my concern is valid and I have a clear idea as to what to do now. Thank you all!

[Anonymous]

You can fill out a bullying form for EACH incident.

There is a girl in our school who has anger issues and impulse control and a mom that had been dealing with this child going after her son. She found out that she could go back and fill out one for each incident.

Schools don't want to acknowledge or deal with these issues. Yeah they'll apologize but the feeling I've gotten is that they don't want any attention raised for a negative issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can fill out a bullying form for EACH incident.

There is a girl in our school who has anger issues and impulse control and a mom that had been dealing with this child going after her son. She found out that she could go back and fill out one for each incident.

Schools don't want to acknowledge or deal with these issues. Yeah they'll apologize but the feeling I've gotten is that they don't want any attention raised for a negative issue.

Or, more simply, they don't want yet another thing they have to deal with (who does?), plus it's easier to do nothing. That's Bureaucracy 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you write a written complaint in an email to the teacher, counselor and the Principal in which you use the word "BULLIED" - it will be of no use.

Ask in your email is you can involve the police, press charges and go to the courts to ask for a restraining order as well.

Please do not go small - make the biggest stink you can.

This is how I handled my kid being bullied.

BTW - please include pictures of any injury and dr. report is that occured.

Keep escalating to the next level. Do is forcefully and rapidly. Do not wait to take action.

How likely is a police report to work? I don't know how old the bully is, but does legal action against a young minor really work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you write a written complaint in an email to the teacher, counselor and the Principal in which you use the word "BULLIED" - it will be of no use.

Ask in your email is you can involve the police, press charges and go to the courts to ask for a restraining order as well.

Please do not go small - make the biggest stink you can.

This is how I handled my kid being bullied.

BTW - please include pictures of any injury and dr. report is that occured.

Keep escalating to the next level. Do is forcefully and rapidly. Do not wait to take action.

How likely is a police report to work? I don't know how old the bully is, but does legal action against a young minor really work?

You are not filing a police report - You are asking the Principal in your email if filing a police report or informing the media or going to the courts, a possibility. You are asking for suggestions from the Principal - an officer of MCPS - about the recourse you have.

I would even ask - can the bully be expelled? - because surely MCPS has some procedures of removing violent kids from the system? can you press charges against the parents - because surely they are responsible for their child's behavior? I would write everything in the email. And forward it to the teacher, counselor and the Principal. You are basically creating a STINK. They will do whatever is required to contain this.

And then this email gets forwarded by you to the next level.

Be extremely POLITE and POLITICALLY CORRECT. However, whatever they say - do not agree that it is anything but BULLYING. And escalate, document, question.

I can even tell you what the next step of the school will be. I have danced this Tango with them in the past and I got it resolved to my satisfaction.

You have to =

[Anonymous]

Although this post is old, id love to bring it back. My child is going through this with a kid with behavioral problems. Child is ES.

What’s the difference with the school filing/not filing a form? What do they have/must do? And what are my options for getting this kid out of sight for my child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although this post is old, id love to bring it back. My child is going through this with a kid with behavioral problems. Child is ES.

What’s the difference with the school filing/not filing a form? What do they have/must do? And what are my options for getting this kid out of sight for my child?

You have to fill out the form so that MCPS is forced to do something about it. And just like what others said, you need to create a stink and then document everything. I would write a note to the Principal and end the note to the with something like, "I would like to meet on this "date," to discuss what the school intends to do to ensure that my child is no longer going to be bulled by this student." Make sure you make it extremely clear to them that this is a bullying situation and that your child feels threatened attending the school because of said Bully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although this post is old, id love to bring it back. My child is going through this with a kid with behavioral problems. Child is ES.

What’s the difference with the school filing/not filing a form? What do they have/must do? And what are my options for getting this kid out of sight for my child?

You have to fill out the form so that MCPS is forced to do something about it. And just like what others said, you need to create a stink and then document everything. I would write a note to the Principal and end the note to the with something like, "I would like to meet on this "date," to discuss what the school intends to do to ensure that my child is no longer going to be bulled by this student." Make sure you make it extremely clear to them that this is a bullying situation and that your child feels threatened attending the school because of said Bully.

Teachers and counselors have no authority. We can help advocate but in order to get results you need to go to admin and central.
-MCPS staff

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although this post is old, id love to bring it back. My child is going through this with a kid with behavioral problems. Child is ES.

What’s the difference with the school filing/not filing a form? What do they have/must do? And what are my options for getting this kid out of sight for my child?

You have to fill out the form so that MCPS is forced to do something about it. And just like what others said, you need to create a stink and then document everything. I would write a note to the Principal and end the note to the with something like, "I would like to meet on this "date," to discuss what the school intends to do to ensure that my child is no longer going to be bulled by this student." Make sure you make it extremely clear to them that this is a bullying situation and that your child feels threatened attending the school because of said Bully.

Teachers and counselors have no authority. We can help advocate but in order to get results you need to go to admin and central.
-MCPS staff

Principal will "investigate" and determine no bullying. Why? Then the incident is a negative mark on the reputation of the school.

Good luck but most likely nothing will happen. MCPS doesn't care to protect children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although this post is old, id love to bring it back. My child is going through this with a kid with behavioral problems. Child is ES.

What’s the difference with the school filing/not filing a form? What do they have/must do? And what are my options for getting this kid out of sight for my child?

Agree with the PPs. Fill out the form and document communication with the principal.

It is in the Prinicpal's best interest to pretend nothing happened, and not have any proof of it happening because it will reflect poorly on the school. They often try to sweep any and every incident under the rug, and pretend it did not occur.

Email as many people as you can - counselor/teachers who witnessed it/prinicpal/assistant principal.

Look up the MCPS Code of Conduct, and see if you can find where a violation may have occurred. MCPS is supposed to keep kids safe, but doesn't always follow it's own 'Code of Conduct'.

Good luck. It's an uphill battle in MCPS. We went through this last year, with a 9 year old boy who was punching other kids during classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you write a written complaint in an email to the teacher, counselor and the Principal in which you use the word "BULLIED" - it will be of no use.

Ask in your email is you can involve the police, press charges and go to the courts to ask for a restraining order as well.

Please do not go small - make the biggest stink you can.

This is how I handled my kid being bullied.

BTW - please include pictures of any injury and dr. report is that occured.

Keep escalating to the next level. Do is forcefully and rapidly. Do not wait to take action.

I have to agree. I'm not normally one to raise a fuss, but I draw the line at violence. My kid should not have to feel scared at school that he will be hurt by a classmate during Math centers. And, the principals will not take action unless prompted by threats from the next level. Contact the Area Supervisor/Area Superintendent. Contact the Office of Student Safety. Anyone and everyone needs to be notified.

The principal counts on the fact that parents don't want to make a fuss. So many incidents go unreported, especially in ES.