Anti-Bullying Scores Revealed, Recommendations Made For Mahwah Schools

MAHWAH, NJ — All six schools in the Mahwah Township Public School District either met or exceeded all requirements in a Harassment, Intimidating and Bullying self-assessment for the 2021-22 school year, according to the district's anti-bullying coordinator, Lisa Rizzo.

Each individual school's safety team assessed the effectiveness of its anti-bullying interventions and calculated a score based on the Department of Education's rubric, and Rizzo reviewed and presented on the scores at the Sept. 1 school board meeting.

"I am proud to say we met our goal," Rizzo said, primarily referring to training objectives for school safety team members that she had set the year prior.

Mahwah High, Joyce Kilmer and Lenape Meadows Schools received near-perfect scores, 77 out of 78, and the district average score was 76 out of 78.

All six schools earned maximum points in four of the eight core elements: Curriculum and instruction, and related information and skills; school-level incident reporting; investigation procedures; and reporting.

George Washington School received a 76/78, while Ramapo Ridge and Betsy Ross received a 75/78.

In total, across the six schools, schools investigated 88 alleged HIB incidents, 26 of which were confirmed cases.

Rizzo said, in response to a question regarding the reported and confirmed discrepancy, that anytime the words harassment, intimidation or bullying are used in writing, referred to or observed, then it warrants further investigation.

"Whenever the alarm is rung, we investigate," Rizzo said. "And that is why you see a high number of investigations, less likely to be founded."

She highlighted concerns about Betsy Ross School, which had a behavioral pattern in the 2021-22 school year, she said, that seemed "off-kilter" relative to previous years. In fact, there were 10 confirmed cases last year, when there were none the year before.

She said this pattern seemed attributable to an adjustment in peer interaction, upon students' return to schools after a year of COVID-19-related disruptions, and that the time when incidents occurred and were "most egregious" was during recess. She is working with school administrators to structure recess, among other things, to reduce number and impact of future incidents.

"Just a little bit of work is needed with our friends in the Betsy Ross community," Rizzo said. "And we believe that tune-up will be enough to get the school back to where the data needs to be."

In a more holistic approach that encompasses all six schools, Rizzo also developed new goals to make up the subtle deficiencies in self-assessment scores, and recommended that the district focus on two core elements: programs, approaches and initiatives; and training on school board-approved anti-bullying policy.