School successfully dealt w/ bully?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Useless restorative justice meeting with the bully continuing the next week. Nothing changed. Needless anxiety the whole year through. The principal would talk to the child each incident and then or just continued anyway.

Restorative justice seems so wrong and this does not sound successful. Most research on bullying and restorative justice says it does not work. The power balance is off, the definition of bullying, and restorative justice allows that power imbalance to continue. Would we ask children to do this with an adult?

School tried to get my then-8 year old to engage in restorative justice. It was insane- an 8 year old girl sitting down at a table with 4 boys who have been harassing her physically and verbally?!- but fortunately she refused to participate.

Teachers do everything possible to look the other way, but we've also found that once documentation and reporting begins, bullies become amazingly sneaky and covert in their tactics. Administrators also have a short memory. We've documented situations initiated by the same small group of kids year after year and even provided recaps during classroom assignment time and at the beginning of the school year. Administrators always act so surprised by this fresh information that we've learned to bring in printouts of the emails we've sent them in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Useless restorative justice meeting with the bully continuing the next week. Nothing changed. Needless anxiety the whole year through. The principal would talk to the child each incident and then or just continued anyway.

Restorative justice seems so wrong and this does not sound successful. Most research on bullying and restorative justice says it does not work. The power balance is off, the definition of bullying, and restorative justice allows that power imbalance to continue. Would we ask children to do this with an adult?

School tried to get my then-8 year old to engage in restorative justice. It was insane- an 8 year old girl sitting down at a table with 4 boys who have been harassing her physically and verbally?!- but fortunately she refused to participate.

Teachers do everything possible to look the other way, but we've also found that once documentation and reporting begins, bullies become amazingly sneaky and covert in their tactics. Administrators also have a short memory. We've documented situations initiated by the same small group of kids year after year and even provided recaps during classroom assignment time and at the beginning of the school year. Administrators always act so surprised by this fresh information that we've learned to bring in printouts of the emails we've sent them in the past.

This is insane. Four to one? Who would think that is a good idea? Is this a public or private? Big or small school? Near DC or far?

[Anonymous]

I have been shocked that our FCPS HS had handled a bullying situation well (they don’t really handle other things well). It was a very direct, no nonsense approach. The two girls that were really going at each other had to sign a contract that they would have no communication with each other and if they did- they would get suspended. Parents had to come in for a meeting. The girls who were the target of one of the girls- all got to speak to the principal and share the social media posts. All the nonsense stopped really quick. I was impressed