Records Show Increase In Harassment Cases At Chatham Schools

CHATHAM, NJ — The annual discipline report for the School District of the Chathams was presented at the board meeting on Monday, June 5, and revealed some troubling trends in the district.

The report was given by Anthony Giaconia, the assistant principal at Chatham Middle School; Connor Henderson, the assistant principal at Chatham High School; and Cheryl Russo, the principal at Lafayette School.

All three reports showed a similar pattern, which included an increase in confirmed harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) cases during the school year.

According to Henderson, the high school had 15 HIB investigations in the 2022-23 school year, up from five last year and two the year before. Eight of the investigations yielded a confirmed violation.

One high school trend was that approximately five of the confirmed HIB violations were linked back to race as the distinguishing feature. Henderson stated that all eight confirmed cases were between the ninth and tenth grades.

In an effort to combat this growing number, school officials have planned HIB presentations, which will be mandatory for ninth and tenth-grade students next year.

"We were really happy to receive an application for a new club called 'Kids Helping Kids' and that is a student-driven anti-bullying club," Henderson said.

In Chatham Middle School, a similar trend was seen, according to Giaconia. During this past school year, the middle school saw an increase in the total number of discipline incidents despite declining enrollment.

For example, the middle school had 870 students enrolled this year, a decrease from the previous two school years. Despite this, the school reported 140 discipline incidents, or.16 incidents per student.

"This represents an increase of 31.86 percent more offenses, even though the student population dropped by 5.5 percent since last year," Giaconia said.

There were 13 confirmed HIB cases, with almost forty percent of them citing race as a motivating factor.

Another concerning trend, according to school officials, that was noted during the presentation was the increase in physical fighting at Lafayette School. "Not that there wasn't fighting before, but in this case, there was sort of no catalyst for it. It was unprovoked and resulted in suspensions," Russo said.

Lafayette School reported 87 total discipline incidents during the 2022-23 school year, which is more than double the number reported the previous year. "The number 87 is really one of the highest we've ever seen," Russo said.

Similarly to middle and high school, the majority of students involved in reported incidents are boys.

According to HIB data, the elementary school had 29 HIB investigations, with six of them confirmed. Gender, race, sexual harassment, and weight were among the identifying characteristics of HIB violations.

One of the main concerns at the Lafayette School is the use of technology among the students.

"This year it was a lot about group chats. The language used in group chats is sometimes kids texting another kid about something that was inappropriate, sexual in nature, sometimes it was a group of kids sending a voice recording to another kid," Russo said. "The issue with our kids is they're super impulsive."

To combat this, Russo stated that the school will implement more Home School Connection assignments, which will link back to Social and Emotional learning. Russo also intends to increase communication with parents about the observed behaviors in the school.