POLL: Should Teachers Be Bullying Watchdogs?

A new bullying policy that would require more teacher intervention and policing has sat on the Shelton 's agenda for months as members carefully consider the best course of action in confronting the issue.

Shelton’s current policy needs to be updated to reflect state legislature that was passed in July of this year, mandating that a cyberbullying clause be included as part of any Connecticut school’s student policies, expanding the definition and understanding of bullying in today’s fast-paced environment. (Both Shelton's current policy and the state legislature can be read in pull .pdf form in the pictures section).

Patch spoke with Superintendent of Schools Freeman Burr, who gave some insight on his personal feelings toward the policy and how the Shelton BOE plans to tackle it.

“Essentially what they did is require more vigilance and response and investigation on the part of school system employees,” Burr said of the cyberbullying clause.

Burr said that in the past, if inappropriate communications between students manifested on school grounds, the administration clearly has a duty to intervene. However, the social media boom in recent years has made bullying easier than ever, as students can text message each other and access their Facebook and Twitter accounts from cell phones and laptops at any hour of the day.

“The way the bar has been raised is that if you’re a staff member and you hear kids having a conversation about a Facebook post or a tweet, then under the new law teachers and other personnel are bound to investigate it, whether it’s causing a problem or not,” Burr said.

Burr said he has been “uncomfortable with” and has “very ambivalent feelings” about the advocacy of the legislation and its impact. He, like most educators, is keenly aware of high profile bullying cases that have resulted in violence or student suicide. “Obviously those things are troubling for any educator, but again I’m not sure how effective we are at dealing with those types of things.”

“I believe the core responsibilities of schools are teaching and learning and this kind of puts us into an investigative role which, generally, staff administration – that’s not our expertise,” Burr said. “Our expertise is supposed to be teaching and learning."

While Burr fully acknowledges that the teaching process includes social and character development, putting the burden on teachers to police students’ day-to-day communication may not be the most effective solution: “We may nip some bullying in the bud but I don’t think we pre-empt anything because chances are we aren’t going to catch the first incident because kids do that on their own, on their free time.”

Burr said he feels a more effective way to combat cyberbullying is to create legislation and restraint on the actual social media providers. “Let them police their sites and restrict the content of their messages, etc. through filters,” he said

A BOE Policy Committee is responsible for updating Shelton’s current school bullying statutes. Once satisfied, the Committee passes their revisions to the BOE and their work is put on the table for a motion for upgrade. The updated policy “sits between meetings; that way members have an opportunity to review it and ask additional questions,” Burr explained.

The BOE’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 7:15 p.m. at .