School Board Approves Sweeping New Anti-Bullying Policy

A new anti-bullying policy written to conform to complex state legislation passed in January will be a bear to implement, but the district will be in full compliance with state law, School Superintendent John Bach said.

Board Member David Weinstein, who heads up the policy committee, introduced the extensive policy at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting. The state’s “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” was signed by Gov. Chris Christie in January, only months after the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, whose roommate streamed video of him having a sexual encounter with another man.

“The legislators have come out with a very strong statement about what bullying is,” said Weinstein, “and what we need to do to prevent it from occurring in the future.”

He said the new policy—written by Strauss Esmay Associates, a policy development firm that drafted anti-bullying policies for many other New Jersey school districts—makes the district responsible for student bullying that happens off school grounds, creates an incident reporting system, mandates training for teachers and other school staff, and requires the creation of an anti-bullying specialist position and the establishment of an anonymous reporting system for incidents of bullying.

Weinstein said the specialist, who’s in charge of investigating such reports, will most likely be a guidance counselor. Rather than hire a new person, the district will probably slide an existing employee into the position, which may require a salary increase, he said, but that decision has yet to be made.

The district is also still working out the details of the anonymous reporting system, but Weinstein said they’re presently leaning toward an on-line reporting system, though it remains to be seen whether the is capable of supporting that.

Bach said it will take , as well as the other 591 districts in the state, some time to effectively implement the new anti-bullying regulations, and there will be kinks to work out.

“This law, the intention of which cannot be questioned, architecturally was put together hastily,” he said. “It’s messy. It has a lot of layers. When you have that kind of seismic change, it usually takes a little while to figure out how it works … It’s not going to be the work of a day.”

Weinstein also lamented the legislation as yet another unfunded state mandate.

“Like many things, the state requires us to take action, but does not provide us more money,” he said.

The district’s policy now has to go to the executive county superintendent for approval.

The policy, per state law, has to be in effect by Sept. 1. The board unanimously approved the policy on first reading Tuesday night, but it will be implemented by the deadline.

Bach said the board will consolidate the second and third reading of the policy for approval at its next meeting, but that’s strictly a formality.