In a story ripped from recent headlines, a grandmother addressed the Board of Education about a bullying situation in which her granddaughter, a student at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, has reportedly been verbally assaulted and taunted on a daily basis by another student at the school.
Alexa McClain, who was close to tears, told the Board that her granddaughter has been reluctant for the first time in her life to attend school because of the constant bullying.
According to McClain, the bully, a young woman who is in the eighth grade, a year ahead of McClain's granddaughter taunts the younger girl "getting in her face, and starting every sentence with the 'f' word." Much of the bullying has occurred on the bus to school.
McClain explained to the Board that she and the girl's mother had reported the bullying to the school principal Charles Marqua, the superintendent of schools, the school bus company and the school's vice principal Diana Niles, and received assurances that there was a no-tolerance policy in the school district for bullying, but that the administration had been ineffective in dealing with the bullying situation.
"The Vice Principal assured me that the bullying girl would be required to sit in a school bus seat behind the driver," McClain said after the meeting. "And the Vice Principal came on the bus to be sure the girl sat in that seat, but when she told her to sit there the girl said, 'You can't tell me where to sit. Only my mother can tell me where to sit, and she didn't tell me to sit there." Then the Vice Principal left the bus without doing anything. She assured me that the girl would be suspended from using the bus, but nothing happened."
"Marqua told me bullying would not be tolerated, but they haven't done anything," McClain said. "They said they couldn't suspend the girl from the bus until they informed her mother, and that they couldn't get ahold of her mother."
The girl's mother, Alycia McClain, has a school tablet half-filled with single-space detail about the alleged bullying.
Alexa McClain, and the girl's mother said that the bullying girl was finally arrested and suspended temporarily from school after she physically assaulted another girl who stepped forward to defend McClain's daughter.
"She's been out for two weeks," Alexa McClain said. "And it's been the first peaceful time at school for my granddaughter. But she's coming back to school next week, and I'm afraid that it's going to get worse."
McClain said she also has told her story to Mayor Sebastian Giuliano who called in Acting Police Chief Patrick McMahon who told her to call 911 whenever there was a problem off of school grounds.
"The police chief has been very helpful," McClain said.
"She (the bully) visits a girlfriend in the same apartment building where my granddaughter lives, and both of them taunt her," McClain said. "We've called the police more than once, and now there is no a no-trespassing notice posted for the bullying girl."
"They told us to come to this meeting and tell what happened," the girl's mother said. "But we told our story and nothing happened."
The Board of Education took no action on the situation at the public portion of their meeting. At the break before the regularly-schedule executive session, Board chairman Ted Raczka patted McClain on the shoulder and told her "you're doing everything you can be expected to."
October has been declared Anti-Bullying Month across the nation.
6 comments:
As a parent of a child who BARELY survived the Middletown school system and who has had the good fortune to get her kids out of Middletown, I feel for this family.
My child faced verbal, physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological bullying with an inadequate and fairly nonexistent response from the administration. Placations of "action being taken" and assurances this "was not the norm" and "would not be tolerated" were constant and non-effectual. I have incurred thousands of dollars in medical bills, therapy costs, and hospitalizations due to the effects of bullying; including depression, suicide attempts, and various self-mutilations. Immeasurable loss to my child's education, self esteem, and psyche can never by compensated for.
This is just another incident in a LONG and notorious history Middletown perpetuates as it accepts the tyranny of an incompetent leadership.
The only thing the Middletown School System taught my children is that if you stand up for yourself in the midst of a hostile environment YOU are the one to face the consequences of the rules, NOT the true offenders. They learned that corrupt leadership corrupts absolutely, and they learned that ineffective and incompetent personnel get paid fairly well to ruin childrens' lives.
My children escaped - what happens to all those who are not as lucky as mine?
One who bullies another should be ashamed of themselves. I don't think I could sleep at night if I did something like that to another human being. If you don't care for someone, just stay away from them. You don't need to make their (and their family's) life miserable. I do believe that "what goes around will come around."
I'm the mother of the chld in question..My daughter is a bright well mannered, quiet, shy , beautiful girl with the biggest heart ever.. She's always going out of her way to do the littlest things to make others smile..For this to still be happening is so sad to me..
This whole thing started over a hair style the bully had the first week of school, after the holiday when the kids came back, I guess I had the same hair style put in my daughters hair..... Thats what started all of this, yessss a hair style :( .
It's been non stop ever since...yes my daughter might be scared and has no voice due to fear, but I do!!!!! The people who are suppose to be protecting my child when she walks out that door for school have FAILED my child BIG TIME!!!
I'm not moving, I'm not changing her school, she'll ride the same bus, i'm going to continue to do what I have to until this stops!! Right now were dealing with kids who have nooooo respect at all, and we all know that starts @ home, and it's clear it didn't!!!
I've met the mom of the girl who's bulling my daughter, and of course she says " My daughter hasn't done anything to your daughter" okayyy LADY!!!!!Why did I even bother trying to talk to the mother... As a mother I'm not going to stoop down to her level she knows what her daughters all about..She's very aware her daughters already on probation, come on nowww... Trust me there's a reason why the school hasn't seen the parent....
I will continue with my paper trail,I'll continue to try and reasure my daughter that this too shall pass, but right now it's sad that I can't even promise her that. I guess we'll just have to see next week when the bully returns to the BUS!!! THIS HAS TO STOP!!!!!!! :(
Thank you Middletown EYE
Well just like I said, the school doesn't care about what's going on...Today when my daughter left for school, in a good mood, she arrived at the bus stop only to see the bully standing their looking her up and down with the news paper from yesterday...The bully was let back on the bus and DID NOT sit in her assigned seat, again at the back of the bus... This afternoon I witnessed it for myself when the bus pulled up the bullier was in the second to last seat..
I asked my daughter if anyone walked the bully on the bus this afternoon and she said NO ONE!! So my child once again sat up front..My daughter did say " Someone from the office a male walked the bully to her homeroom class this morning"...My issue isn't so much while school is in sesson because their not even in the same grade nor do they have any classes or lunch together, but whats going on at the bus stop both to and from school,and while on the bus is the problem were having.I'm being told that the girl is no longer allowed to sit at the back of the bus, but she's to sit right behind the bus driver in her assigned seat...Which hasn't happened yet...I was told this on sept. 9th.......It's Oct. 15th!!!! This BAD apple needs to be removed from the bus PERIOD!!! It's very clear even after being out of school for almost aweek and ahalf , that she just doesn't get it!! Someone should've walked her on that bus, and if she didn't want to sit in her assigned seat, that's her choice, but then she should've been removed from the bus, and parents should of been called to come pick her up from school..... This is a total shame.....
I'm sure I'll be back up here Monday the 18th....
Having a no-tolerance policy for bullying sounds good on paper but unless the schools know how to enforce it effectively it becomes absolutely meaningless.
Clay, not only do schools need to know how to enforce such a policy but they must also have the intent and will to do so. That's what seems to be lacking in this case.
You could argue that having a meaningless policy in place is counterproductive, because the bully quickly learns that no matter what the school says, he/she will never suffer any consequences.
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