Groton Schools Proceed With Plan To Prevent Bullying

Groton is moving forward with a plan to monitor and prevent bullying in the public schools, and is compiling the results of a survey done last spring of more than 3,000 students.

Connecticut passed legislation last summer to strengthen laws against bullying, and required districts to submit a “safe school climate plan” by Jan. 1 outlining how they would enforce the rules.

Groton’s plan was recently adopted and is posted on the district website.

“In one respect, we’re right at the starting line with everyone else, because the deadline was Jan. 1,” said Paul Pattavina, supervisor of special education and chairman of Groton's newly-formed Safe School Climate Committee.

But in another respect, the district started early. Last spring, Groton surveyed students in third through twelfth grade to collect baseline information about bullying and received 3,023 responses.

Results are still being compiled, but show generally that students report a similar amount of bullying in Groton as in districts nationwide. The average is 15 to 30 percent, and Groton falls in that range, Pattavina said.

He added that the incidence of bullying varies by school, grade and gender.

Younger children were more likely to report bullying than older children. Boys were more likely to report it than girls, he said.

The 42-question survey asked questions like, “How often have you been bullied at school in the past couple of months?” then asked other questions to find out what that entailed.

Examples include: “I had money or other things taken away from me or damaged”, “I was hit, kicked, pushed, shoved around, or locked indoors” and “Other students told lies or spread false rumors about me and tried to make others dislike me.”

Groton also began a training program this summer to address bullying, that will be expanded throughout the public schools in the coming years.

Sean McKenna, assistant principal at the high school, was trained in Olweus Bullying Prevention, a program designed for students in grades 3-10 and used nationwide.

McKenna will train a team of teachers, administrators, support personnel and others at Fitch High School and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School in April, who will then train the rest of the staff at those schools.

The plan is to complete staff training for the coming academic year, then train staff in two more schools until the program is expanded through the district.

In addition to the district’s school climate committee, the state requires each school to designate a “safe school climate specialist” by July 1 who would investigate or oversee investigation of reported acts of bullying.

School employees would be required to report incidents of bullying within one school day after seeing the act or hearing about it. Employees would be required to file a written report within two days of reporting the incident.