By Victoria Dolan

Memorial Middle School students say the frequency of bullying has grown during the past two years, and that administration’s response to reported incidents is not consistently effective.

While speaking with parents and students, opinions widely differed on the true root of the issue, the severity of bullying, and the best way to put a stop to it. The consensus: Something isn’t working.

“In a town that’s supposed to be no place for hate, there’s so much meanness, and I don’t feel like the faculty at the middle school addresses this… they push it aside,” said one parent. “I’ve given up.”

“There’s a lot of bullying, it’s widespread,” said a seventh grader, who asked to remain anonymous. Aggressors “know where teachers will be, and at what time,” so they can bully students and not be caught. This causes two problems. First, “teachers might think it [bullying prevention] is working because it’s… outside of their view.” Then, since the teachers don’t see the alleged incidents, students don’t have a witness to back them up. “Kids don’t want to tell the teachers it’s happening, so the teachers don’t know the extent of the problem,” she said.

I attempted to interview numerous teachers in order to gain a better understanding of their perspective on this issue. These requests were denied by Superintendent Judith Kuehn, who cited the Hull Public Schools’ media relations policy that only the superintendent may speak on sensitive matters. Over the past four years, this policy has never been an issue when interviewing teachers. The school department also declined to respond to the specific allegations in this article.

In a statement, Superintendent Kuehn said that school district “is committed to maintaining a school environment where students are free from bullying and fostering a climate where all students feel welcome. We believe that there is no place for bullying, violence, or hate within our schools or school community.”

Kuehn said that so far this year, there have been 21 allegations of bullying across all three schools – seven at the Jacobs School, eight at the middle school, and six at the high school. A total of eight allegations districtwide were confirmed or substantiated as bullying, more than half of them from the two grades currently at the middle school. Five incidents were confirmed at the Memorial, three at the elementary level, and none at the high school, according to the superintendent.

Aerial Flores, a seventh grader, thinks that faculty doesn’t understand the true extent of bullying at the middle school.

“I don’t think any teachers see it,” she said, because “it’s mostly online now.” For Flores, this exacerbates the problem. If bullying is purely in person, you can find respite at home. If it’s online, you “can’t get away from it.”

Those factors can make it more difficult for parents and teachers to see a child struggling. But even when they do, parents describe difficulty getting support from the school. An eighth-grade parent who asked not to be named said that when engaging with middle school faculty over bullying allegations, an administrator responded by saying, “This is kids, this is just how they act.” While trying to help her child deal with bullying, she said it felt like the school “cared more about what it looks like on paper.”

Another parent was satisfied with the results of her child’s case, but noted that “for us it did actually get handled. For a lot of people I know, it did not.” However, she described a similar problem – initially being brushed aside. “Anything at the middle school, you just get told there’s not much we can do,” she said. “That’s kind of their answer for everything.”

For this parent’s child, posting pictures and name-calling online soon turned to in-person alienation. When her student starting calling home daily, asking to leave school, the parent contacted principal Anthony Hrivnak. “He just talked to the girls and their parents, and they did surprisingly back off.” The school psychologist began checking in on her student to make sure no more issues arose.

Hrivnak referred all questions to the superintendent’s office. Kuehn said that “every bullying allegation is investigated and taken seriously. Each bullying investigation is handled independently.” If a claim of bullying is substantiated, “the school will take steps reasonably calculated to prevent recurrence and ensure that the target is not restricted in participating in school or in benefiting from school activities. As with the investigation, the response will be individually tailored to all of the circumstances.”

Across accounts, this process seems typical: A bullying allegation is made, the school follows policy and launches an investigation. If the allegation is substantiated, administration decides on a next course of action depending on the incident. These may include disciplinary action, but could also include enhanced adult supervision, a classroom transfer, counseling, exclusion from school-sponsored events, and more. The most common measure taken seems to be simply talking to the aggressors and telling them to stop their activities. For some cases, this works. For others, it’s not enough.

One eighth-grade student, who asked that her name not be published, was involved in resolving her bullying allegation. She described that bullies “think they won’t get in trouble… because the principal, they just tell you not to do it again.” When she spoke directly to her aggressors, they also temporarily backed off, but she thinks most victims are too afraid to do the same.

“I think there’s a large difference between the number of actually reported and known incidents. Some students might be afraid or think it will go away after a while,” she said.

Students fearing reporting bullying was a common theme. “I don’t think it’s really the school’s fault, but maybe the kids don’t feel comfortable,” said eighth-grader Colin English. Bullying, he added, “is definitely still a problem, but the school has done a pretty good job of reaching out to students.”

Many students noted the schools’ efforts to bring awareness to bullying and reach out to students through school assemblies. Superintendent Kuehn highlighted these as part of “numerous proactive schoolwide educational interventions aimed at educating students about bullying.”

Kuehn said these interventions encourage students to “report bullying and to be upstanders for their peers” through a variety of initiatives. In addition to assemblies, these include a focus on the school’s core values, the “Advocacy in Action” program through Raising Multicultural Children, a schoolwide “Respect Quest” that rewards students for performing acts of respect, and more.

The district’s policies on bullying and cyber-bullying are contained in the student handbook, which is posted on hullpublicschools.org.

While students agree that the presentation and resources the school offers can be helpful, they also say it’s not enough. Some kids don’t pay attention, and many feel the true impacts of bullying are not discussed enough. Bullying still occurs frequently, and on the rare occasions it’s reported, students and parents feel brushed aside. Only some achieve successful resolution.

So what can the middle school do to help its students, and what does this mean for next year, when the middle school will be fully consolidated with sixth and seventh grades at the Jacobs School and eighth-graders at the high school? Next week, we will explore ways that the middle school can move forward and address bullying.

For resources on bullying prevention and advocacy, visit these websites:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: www.stopbullying.gov

PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center: https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info

Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University: https://www.marccenter.org/

Massachusetts Advocates for Children: https://www.massadvocates.org/resources-bullying

Preventing Bullying on School Buses: https://www.transfinder.com/resources/school-bus-bullying-prevention

Victoria Dolan is The Hull Times school correspondent. This column reflects her student viewpoint.

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