Increased bullying at Deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all should try Hardy. I know that lots of you will jump in with Hardy hate, but it is a warm, welcoming bully-free zone. Principal Pride and the admin team do a fantastic job of getting all the kids working together and supporting each other.

According to the statistics Hardy has a 20% suspension rate... guess that is how they deal with issues... send the kids home

Actually it's 9.8% at Hardy.

Since someone will ask, it's 3.1 at Deal.

Both are well below the DCPS rate of 21%.

From learndc.org.

What does a 10% suspension rate mean? 1 in 10 kids have been suspended for at least a day that year? That's pretty scary of 10% of kids are misbehaving so badly as to get suspended.

Yes - that is what that means. From learndc.org:

*The percentage of students who missed one of more days due to suspension. When a student is suspended, regardless of the amount of suspension time, each absence is considered suspension-related, not an unexcused absence .

Hardy MS expelled 0 students during the 2014-2015 school year. 134 students were expelled across all DC schools during the same period of time.

Do you happen to know if "all DC schools" means all DCPS schools, all DC public schools (DCPS plus charter) or truly all DC schools? I doubt it's the third but I'm curious if the number includes charters. I know that expulsions are rare in DCPS. If a kid is out-of-boundary the principal can send him back to his in-boundary school, which doesn't count as an expulsion. (So it's not surprising that Hardy had zero). If the kid is in-boundary there is nowhere to send him so expulsions are discouraged. In the charter world expulsion means sending the kid to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all should try Hardy. I know that lots of you will jump in with Hardy hate, but it is a warm, welcoming bully-free zone. Principal Pride and the admin team do a fantastic job of getting all the kids working together and supporting each other.

According to the statistics Hardy has a 20% suspension rate... guess that is how they deal with issues... send the kids home

Actually it's 9.8% at Hardy.

Since someone will ask, it's 3.1 at Deal.

Both are well below the DCPS rate of 21%.

From learndc.org.

What does a 10% suspension rate mean? 1 in 10 kids have been suspended for at least a day that year? That's pretty scary of 10% of kids are misbehaving so badly as to get suspended.

Yes - that is what that means. From learndc.org:

*The percentage of students who missed one of more days due to suspension. When a student is suspended, regardless of the amount of suspension time, each absence is considered suspension-related, not an unexcused absence .

Hardy MS expelled 0 students during the 2014-2015 school year. 134 students were expelled across all DC schools during the same period of time.

Do you happen to know if "all DC schools" means all DCPS schools, all DC public schools (DCPS plus charter) or truly all DC schools? I doubt it's the third but I'm curious if the number includes charters. I know that expulsions are rare in DCPS. If a kid is out-of-boundary the principal can send him back to his in-boundary school, which doesn't count as an expulsion. (So it's not surprising that Hardy had zero). If the kid is in-boundary there is nowhere to send him so expulsions are discouraged. In the charter world expulsion means sending the kid to DCPS.[/quote

All schools - charter and DCPS. You can also see how many students left (but no reasons) and entered mid year from any given schools profile page. Shows the info by month.

[Anonymous]

Not trying to stir the pot, here, but the worst bullies I ever saw at Deal were white kids picking on other white kids; and the bullying started in elementary school. I'm sure there are plenty of anecdotes that cover all scenarios, though. There may be a policy somewhere, but there is ZERO desire to do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Agree that is part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not trying to stir the pot, here, but the worst bullies I ever saw at Deal were white kids picking on other white kids; and the bullying started in elementary school. I'm sure there are plenty of anecdotes that cover all scenarios, though. There may be a policy somewhere, but there is ZERO desire to do anything about it.

I disagree. My DC was involved in two instances of overt bullying. Once as a witness and once as a victim. Both times, the administration was responsive and quick to take action against the bully through suspension. I have no complaints.

[Anonymous]

My kids has been bullied for months and not until another parent told me did the teachers fess up to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids has been bullied for months and not until another parent told me did the teachers fess up to it.

Why didn't your child tell you (serious question - I have a 5 year old and want to believe he'd tell me)

[Anonymous]

Because they are proud and were embarrassed on the one hand and on the other hand trusting that these kids were jr all bad and didn't want them to get in trouble. Gullible, naive... The perfect target for bullies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they are proud and were embarrassed on the one hand and on the other hand trusting that these kids were jr all bad and didn't want them to get in trouble. Gullible, naive... The perfect target for bullies.

+1. They are afraid that if they tell (parents or teachers or administrators) and the bully is 'caught' it bullying will eventually resume and/or get worse. Kids are smart enough in middle school to know that the administration can't be everywhere and they desperately don't want to make the situation worse.

[Anonymous]

Also, children may believe that they (themselves) are responsible for the bullying, which is the very worst part of it. So, they don't say anything. That, and there's the hope that it will stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Also, children may believe that they (themselves) are responsible for the bullying, which is the very worst part of it. So, they don't say anything. That, and there's the hope that it will stop.

That is heartbreaking. I was teased in jr high and didn't tell my parents because they thought that stuff was meaningless ("those other kids are not worth knowing if they act that way - so who cares what they think?"). But I also do kind of remember feeling this too - that I was a goober and so of course got teased. (It was the rich white girls who did the teasing, btw, and they were all the teachers' pets so the teachers seemed complicit).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids has been bullied for months and not until another parent told me did the teachers fess up to it.

Me too, just found out.