Schools

District: 'We Are Adapting Well to New Bullying Law'

Administrators trained last summer.

The Jefferson Township school district is adapting well to the new harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) law enacted by New Jersey, according to Denise Meehan, the district’s director of guidance.

“The district was very proactive in sending administrators for training over the summer, as we wanted to be able to implement the law starting Sept. 1. Procedures were developed and building anti-bullying specialists were trained over the summer, and on the day teachers came back, the district teaching staff was trained. A mechanism was put into place by which coaches and volunteers could also be trained, along with cafeteria staff, bus drivers, etc.,” Meehan said. 

However, the law is not without its issues, according to Meehan.

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A minus to the new law is the amount of paperwork required. This paper trail takes a lot of time to complete, and while it is important to document these situations, there ought to be a more streamlined way to do it,” she said. “The plusses definitely outweigh the minuses, though; perhaps the biggest plus is that students and staff have a clear way to identify and describe what HIB is and are more aware of how to respond to it when it occurs.”

Meehan said that in the beginning of the school year the district received complaints that were not HIB as defined by the law.

Find out what's happening in Jeffersonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“One example is conflict between girls who are or have been friends but have a falling out of some sort.  One might report that the other is ‘harassing’ her, but when the interviews are conducted, the truth comes out that both girls are sniping at each other and what the situation really calls for is some sort of conflict resolution,” Meehan said. “In cases where that happened, the schools have been handling complaints according to school discipline policies and educating students about the new law.”

Meehan said that the law has been an additional tool that the district can use in helping students avoid this behavior.


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