Flagstaff Unified School District students answer questions about harassment 
(Longer Web Version)

By Lisa Rayner

Tea Party Publisher

  An April pilot survey of Flagstaff Unified School District high school students has uncovered significant problems with bullying. A Flagstaff Safe Schools Coalition is forming to address the issues revealed by the survey. In addition, FUSD is starting two pilot programs this fall that the district hopes will lessen bullying incidents.

Bullying includes verbal and emotional abuse like teasing, taunting, ridicule, intimidation, threats, rumors, graffiti, jokes, gestures, ostracization, shunning, and scapegoating, as well as extortion, robbery and physical and sexual assault. Bullying of minority students is also a hate crime. The practice of hazing, in which a student joining a school team or club is forced to undergo ritualized harassment, is also a form of bullying. School-initiated bullying often continues outside of school in neighborhoods, malls and other places where students gather. Bullying may also be committed by school staff or faculty members.

Bullying does not include “joking around” or fighting between friends or equals. Those bullied are usually considered “outsiders” by other students and are perceived to be weaker physically, psychologically or socially. Victims include children who belong to minority groups, physically or mentally handicapped students, children who are shy, skinny or overweight, and many, many others — anyone considered an “outsider” by other students.

Bullying is “a problem in every school in the country,” says Scott Poland, president of the National Association of School Psychologists. “Bullying Behaviors Among U.S. Youth,” published in the April 25 Journal of the American Medical Association reports that 30 percent of students are moderately or frequently involved in bullying, as victims, bullies or both.

The efforts to educate people about the seriousness of school bullying are where the civil rights, child abuse and women’s rights movements were 25-35 years ago, say many advocates of “zero-tolerance” bullying policies. However, some parents, teachers and school administrators continue to contend that bullying is “just a part of growing up.”

Bullying in FUSD schools

The Flagstaff chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays created a Safe Schools Task Force a couple of years ago to address harassment in Flagstaff public schools for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth. PFLAG is a national nonprofit that “promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, their families and friends through support, education, and advocacy. PFLAG provides opportunity for dialog about sexual orientation and gender identity, to create a society that is respectful of human diversity.”

PFLAG initiated the FUSD pilot survey to evaluate harassment in the areas of race, gender, sexual orientation and other categories. PFLAG collaborated with a FUSD teacher trained in the National Education Association’s Teaching Tolerance program and six Northern Arizona University undergraduate sociology students who undertook the survey as a class project under the direction of Dr. Anne Medill. The survey was administered with the knowledge of FUSD Superintendent Larry Bramblett.

252 students attending all three FUSD high schools completed the survey questions, out of nearly 4,000 district high school students. Surveys were administered to students in English classes to obtain a fairly representative sample of students. However, not all grades are represented at each school. Also, students in the participating classes could choose whether or not they wished to complete the survey.

The survey questions included whether or not students have heard or experienced verbal or physical harassment by other students or faculty or staff, where bullying occurs, whether or not students or faculty or staff intervene, and whether there are places in school where some students do not feel safe.

PFLAG President Robert Audet says, “Preliminary survey results revealed greater harassment than we expected, across all three areas evaluated.” The survey is currently being analyzed. The complete survey data and analysis will be released to the public in a few months. The Flagstaff Safe Schools Coalition hopes to undertake a more scientifically accurate (and expensive) survey of FUSD schools and local private and charter schools in the future.

Preliminary FUSD Safe School Survey results:

·         65 percent of students have heard offensive words about ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation “frequently” in school.

·          “Bitch” and “that’s gay” are heard the most frequently. “Lez,” “faggot” and “nigger” are other commonly used words.

·         66 percent have heard such offensive words spoken by students.

·         28 percent have heard such words spoken by faculty or staff.

·         These words are most commonly spoken outside of classrooms, in locations such as hallways, locker rooms and the cafeteria.

·         20 percent of students say someone “never” intervenes.

·         3 percent say someone “frequently” intervenes.

·         Faculty or staff and students intervene a nearly equal amount.

·         8 percent of students say they have been “frequently” subjected to “verbal abuse, physical threats or cruel teasing” at school.

·         20 percent say they have been “sometimes” subjected to such harassment.

·         10 percent say they have “never” been called these names at school.

·         6.3 percent say they have “frequently” experienced unwelcome physical contact at school.

·         18 percent have “sometimes” experienced unwelcome physical contact.

·         31 percent say, “There are places in this school where students do not feel safe.”

·         40 percent say that if they received verbal abuse or physical threats they would not feel comfortable seeking help from faculty or staff.

·         Sinagua High School appears to have the most problems with bullying.

A problem with bullying in FUSD schools is not a new phenomenon. In 1998, the parents of a FUSD high school student filed a complaint form with the federal Office for Civil Rights that said their daughter was raped inside her school.

One of the girl’s parents spoke to me recently. The parent says “Jeannie,” an attractive student, and some other female students, had experienced routine sexual harassment at school — “graphic verbal intimidation” involving “humiliating put-down language” with detailed descriptions of female sexual anatomy and exactly what the boys doing the harassment would like to do to the girls sexually. This parent describes the offending boys as “predators.”

Jeannie also says she was often pushed into lockers as she walked down school hallways. In addition, someone unsuccessfully attempted to push her down a flight of stairs.

Jeannie’s parents eventually decided Jeannie was in growing physical danger, so they pulled her out of the school and enrolled her elsewhere. Only after Jeannie began attending her new school did it become clear to Jeannie’s parents that their daughter had been raped six months earlier.

Jeannie says she told a teacher at her old school about the rape soon after it happened. The parents say the teacher apparently did not notify anyone else. Teachers are required by law to report illegal activities or incidents that cause harm to a student.

When Jeannie’s parents finally learned of their daughter’s rape, they immediately reported the incident to the Flagstaff police department. They then sought legal counsel, who helped them obtain an Office for Civil Rights complaint form from the regional Denver OCR office.

The Office for Civil Rights is part of the Department of Education. OCR enforces federal statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, sex and age in education programs and activities that receive federal funding.

At the time Jeannie’s parents filed their complaint, it had not been made clear to them that FUSD had an administrator who handled sexual harassment complaints, Kevin Brown. Brown is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and the Title IX Compliance Officer. Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sexual harassment and discrimination. They were also not aware that OCR complaint forms were available at district schools.

Federal OCR officers came to Flagstaff to investigate the complaint. The officers visited the school and talked to administrators, teachers and students. The OCR was not legally allowed to tell anyone, even the district, the exact nature of the complaint, except that it involved sexual harassment.

The OCR officers then put together a “resolution” that included suggestions by Jeannie and her parents. Jeannie and her parents wanted to know that FUSD staff understood the seriousness of the sexual harassment problem and would take practical steps to eliminate it. They wanted the district to make the school atmosphere safer, including a look at the physical layout of the school, which they say contains potentially unsafe locations, and the creation of a hotline to handle complaints.

After the investigation, FUSD officials signed a “commitment to resolve” that would include the creation of a new district sexual harassment policy, training of all faculty, staff and students in sexual harassment issues, and a hot line.

In April 1999, an OCR representative returned to Flagstaff to conduct sexual harassment workshops attended by all district faculty, staff and administrators. A public meeting was held for parents to solicit further comments.

FUSD Superintendent Larry Bramblett came to the district during the OCR investigation and resolution process.

“I’m just not sure that (the district) took (sexual harassment) seriously. … I think there’s a level of intolerance here, whether it’s around Navajos or around sexuality” or other forms of intolerance. “I think they just were letting things go here way too long. … On the surface we’ve cleaned those things up. How far that’s gone down (the staff hierarchy), I don’t know.”

Bramblett says that during his first year at FUSD, there were a lot of complaints about various forms of harassment, but that in the last couple of years, complaints have dwindled.

Kevin Brown, who handles all discrimination complaints that fall under federal civil rights laws, says the district has worked hard to address sexual harassment problems since OCR’s visits.

“We endeavored to not only rewrite the policy, but change our process for employees and students in regards to knowing what sexual harassment is, how to recognize it, how to report it.”

All FUSD schools now have anti-sexual harassment posters hanging in visible locations such as entryways and administrative offices. Student handbooks and a special brochure describe district policy, lets students and parents know that Brown is the Title IX Compliance Officer, and describes how to file a complaint, at the local school level, to Brown or directly to the Office for Civil Rights.

“I go out every year and I review the policy with employees,” says Brown. “Health teachers review the policy with students; Principals review it with students; Teachers review it with students.

“Since OCR’s visit, we’ve had over 50 investigations that have come through my office.”

Brown says that each time he speaks to students he finds students who are not yet aware of the sexual harassment policy or how to file a complaint.

No one has yet used the sexual harassment hotline to file a complaint.

Outgoing Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Instruction Lee Treece says that very often, “The people who do the sexual harassment or the people who see the harassment aren’t even aware that it’s harassment. They sometimes chalk it off to, ‘Well it’s normal behavior that’s how people are,’ or ‘That’s humor,’ and yet they’re feeling uncomfortable. … Sexual harassment is in the eyes of the beholder. If you believe you are being sexually harassed, you are being sexually harassed and it must be treated that way. And that’s sort of hard for some people to understand. That’s one of the things that sets it aside from other kinds of harassment.”

Slurs are a common form of harassment in FUSD high schools. “Bitch” and “that’s gay” are frequently used by students. During the last school year, some students reported to PFLAG that a couple of teachers had used anti-gay slurs in their classrooms.

Brown says, “If a slur rises to the level of interfering with a child’s ability to learn or an employees’s ability to work or be hired, then it becomes discrimination. A slur in and of itself is not discrimination.

“For example, when things get defined legally, they often go through various permutations because of lawsuits that help to define something. So if you look at OCR’s definition of discrimination based on sex, sexual harassment, it’s comments, it’s gestures, it’s pictures, it’s touch, e-mail, anything of a sexual nature that falls into two categories.

“It’s either ‘hostile environment’ or ‘quid pro quo’ sexual harassment. A hostile environment is created, usually, over a period of time with repeated offences. If I said a sexually oriented joke to you right now, it would probably be very inappropriate, but it may not rise to the level of sexual harassment, because it’s totaling one. Now, if (I do so) every time I see you, that’s ‘hostile environment.’ Quid pro quo, on the other hand, is when someone asks for sexual favors in exchange for something. If I was a teacher and you were my student and I said ‘I’ll give you a better grade’ for whatever of a sexual nature, that would be quid pro quo. Even one incident of quid pro quo rises to the level of sexual harassment discrimination.

However, says Brown, “A slur is wrong at any time. It may not be ‘discriminatory,’ but it’s wrong.”

Brown brought up student’s use of the phrase “that’s gay,” saying that his own daughter had used the term at home when she was a high school student. He asked her what the term meant. She replied, “That means (something’s) stupid. … Everybody says it, it’s just an expression.”

“When I was in high school,” says Brown, “kids were saying, ‘groovy’ or ‘bitching’ or ‘boss,’ in the 60s. And, what I heard from my daughter is that that expression, ‘that’s gay’ was sort of like a figure of speech, not meant to be slanderous or a slur towards people. One of our responsibilities I think as a school is to help young people understand that things can be inappropriate.”

Many people would categorize “that’s gay,” which is blatantly derogatory towards gay people, differently than an adjective like “groovy.”

Bramblett thinks “a lot of kids are the brunt of some form of harassment at one time or another. I think there are probably very few kids who escape it. … For some kids it helps them realize what the world is like. On the other hand, I think it becomes a burden for some kids. … Some kids learn from the experiences. They learn two things, one, to stay away from those people (doing the bullying), and two that they know how it feels, so I think they wouldn’t want to do it to someone else. … I think kids who are ‘odd’ in any respect probably take a good deal of that.

“Kids who are being harassed have to know how to handle it. … On the other hand, the kids who are doing the harassing need to know what the limits are.”

The FUSD Policy on Student Conduct explicitly prohibits all types of slander, verbal abuse, extortion, hazing and other forms of bullying. FUSD also recently adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination of students or employees based on sexual orientation.

The official FUSD harassment reporting policy is for students and their parents to first report a bullying complaint to a teacher or guidance counselor. If the situation is not handled to the satisfaction of the student being harassed, the next step is to take the complaint to the school Principal. Finally, complaints may be made either to Kevin Brown or to the new Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Instruction, Dr. Judy Coates, who handles disciplinary issues. Civil rights violations may also be reported directly to the federal Office for Civil Rights.

However, Bramblett thinks that current policy, which focuses on disciplinary actions against bullies, including in or out of school suspensions as a final punishment, doesn’t work very well. Being suspended for several days “doesn’t mean that (the suspended student has) learned what the issue is. … I very seldom see that fixing anything.”

Bullies need to learn empathy for their victims and how to handle conflict appropriately, says Bramblett.

Making schools safe

Twenty percent of FUSD students reported on the survey that students, faculty and staff “never” intervene in bullying incidents. Forty percent say that if they received verbal abuse or physical threats they would not feel comfortable seeking help from faculty or staff.

National research shows that student bystanders are present during 85 percent of bullying incidents. Student bystanders usually remain silent lest the bullies turn on them or they lose social status among their peers by associating with the victims.

One recent study showed that two-thirds of students ages 14 to 17 don't believe bullies get in trouble, so many are disinclined to report it.

 Many bullying victims are afraid to tell parents or teachers about the abuse for fear they will receive retaliation from their tormentors, say researchers. FUSD policy expressly prohibits such retaliation.

In addition, National Education Association President Bob Chase says, “When parents complain to the schools about bullying, little is done to correct the problem. School officials frequently react with indifference, or even go as far as to blame the victim.”

For example, “Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools," a study released in July by Human Rights Watch, found that school officials often refuse to document reports of harassment against gay youth. Some school officials blame LGBT students for their abuse, saying the students provoke attacks against themselves by flaunting their identity and by not being “normal.”

Former bullying victim and founder of the Raven Days web site Meredith Dixon says, “In the wake of the recent school shootings, kids are being encouraged to inform teachers and parents about any classmates they have suspicions about, anyone who doesn't ‘fit in.’ … Not only do the much-publicized ‘safer schools’ programs do nothing to help such students; they can actually harm them, by adding a veneer of legitimacy to their classmates' attacks.”

Furthermore, parents are often given the advice that they can help their child by working to “toughen him up” to better withstand the bullying, says Chase.

Today, most people would not say to a battered woman or a child abused at home, “If your self-esteem was higher, you wouldn’t feel so bad about the abuse” or “You just need to learn how to be more assertive.” Instead, safety is the first priority. If need be, the victim is given shelter from the abuse. Actions are taken to stop the abuser. Counseling to help the victim regain her self-esteem is conducted within the context that the abuse is not her fault. The public is educated to look out for such abuse, to intervene when possible, to report incidents to authorities and to help create a culture of nonviolence.

Safe schools programs are proliferating in the U.S., but there is little evidence that most have a measurable impact on bullying, researchers say.

Bramblett agrees, saying, “It seems to me that those programs are in the hole. Like the drug program (D.A.R.E.), it’s generally a failure. They put a lot of money into it and get very little in return.”

The most effective anti-bullying programs involve a “zero-tolerance” whole-school approach. The JAMA study says that such “school-based interventions have demonstrated positive outcomes in Norway and England, with reductions in bullying of 30-50 percent. These interventions focused on changes within the school and classroom climate to increase awareness about bullying, increase teacher and parent involvement and supervision, form clear rules and strong social norms against bullying, and provide support and protection for individuals bullied.”

That is just what FUSD hopes to accomplish with two pilot programs starting this fall district-wide. “We really wanted to get something that would address these issues school-wide,” rather than in a patchwork fashion says Bramblett.

Treece says, “Like every other school in the country, we’re worried about violence in the schools, and we’re certainly worried abut it escalating to the levels that we’ve seen in places like Columbine and Arkansas, and other places. And we began to look around for programs.”

FUSD administrators listened to presentations by a number of program sponsors and picked the Responsible Thinking and Creative Response to Conflict programs.

The Responsible Thinking program teaches students how to think through all kinds of issues, both academic and social and to learn to behave in responsible ways — “to get kids to start to think about, understand and then model” appropriate behaviors, says Bramblett.

Regarding bullying, Bramblett says “A lot of these kids … bully because they’re being bullied at home or see their parents doing exactly the same thing. … If you take this same kid that’s doing the bullying, can he understand what it feels like on the other side? Can he look beyond people in terms of their size or sex or glasses or whatever the issue is? Can he look beyond them to see inside the person?

The Creative Response to Conflict program is “a language and a methodology of handling conflict that does not include violent reactions,” says Treece. “It trains people how to think ahead: ‘I can see that this conflict is escalating, the language is telling me that it’s escalating,’ and the body posture of people, you can just tell that things are getting worse.”

The program was first created in New York State in the early 70s.

“The hope is, what if we had a community, certainly a school community, where kids were used to this language, the nonviolent response? When they move from Weitzel Elementary to Mount Elden Middle School they (will) say, ‘Oh, I know how this works. This is how we deal with conflict,’ says Treece.

“We talk about it, we do some things, we take time outs, we orchestrate a way that allows for the fact that there will be conflict, whether it’s student to student, teacher to teacher, whether it’s student to teacher, that there’s a way to do this without escalating it, and the people in the know, the teachers and administrators, are well versed in applying this, that they are trained to say, ‘We can see this has gone the wrong way’ very early on, and they can do something to respond appropriately.

The aim of CRC is to create an “ambience of a safe environment” where all children feel accepted and learn tolerance for others, says Treece.

The district has been working with the CRC program for two years. FUSD now has internal trainers who can give other teachers 30 hours of training in the practice.

 “A lot of this training is how to set up a classroom, how to set up a school environment, whether it’s the playground, or wherever it is, where everybody feels safe, that there are ways and mechanisms to handle conflicts that come up,” says Treece.

The district is also experimenting with two other programs at specific schools.

Killip elementary currently has a grant-funded program that provides violence prevention education, including discussion of both violence at school and domestic violence. The program also has a Community Educator who works with the Sunnyside Weed and Seed program to build community support for the violence prevention program.

Beaver elementary school has a “character” oriented program that is part of the school’s magnet status. Parents must sign a contract on how their kids will behave in order to send their children to the school. Students also wear uniforms as part of the program.

Bramblett says of the program, “Character is one of those things that’s carried over on to the playground, where the older the kids become the monitors and the explainers of things to younger kids. They pretty much hold themselves responsible for their own actions. They talk about character every day, in terms of their classroom and their class work, so there’s a real bent toward trying to instill some things in kids early on. … The kids are real polite. I think by being in a school like that, kids start to pick up what other kids are doing in that school.”

Treece emphasizes that these programs are intended to work systemically to reduce the potential for violence and instill tolerance and that they do not replace reporting specific harassment incidents.

“If somebody’s being harassed, they need to know that … we have a whole process for dealing with any kind of harassment,” as noted above, says Treece. “We have people who are trained to investigate and order some kind of verdict, some kind of corrective action.” In addition, “We do have police at the other end if it’s just not going to work for some people.”

Treece says, “You don’t want to be in a situation where something catastrophic happens and then you’ve got to run around and figure out what you should do … even if you’re not looking at something escalating to a Columbine. Even if you just look at the day-to-day life of kids — there are a lot of kids (for whom) school doesn’t feel like a very friendly environment to them, and it’s very often the kids (doing the harassing), (who are) making them uncomfortable, and maybe adults who just aren’t trained to be sensitive and know what it is. The ‘Kids will be kids’ or ‘Boys will be boys’ … excuses really don’t fly.”

Title IX Compliance Officer Kevin Brown: 527-6070.

FUSD sexual harassment hotline number: 527-6030.

Federal Office for Civil Rights: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR.

OCR toll-free hotline: 1-800-421-3481.

Regional OCR office: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Building, 1244 Speer Boulevard, Suite 310, Denver, CO 80204-3582. Tel: 303-844-5695, Fax: 303-844-4303; TDD: 303-844-3417, E-mail: OCR_Denver@ed.gov.

“Anyone wishing to file a formal complaint with OCR should submit in writing the following information in a letter or on the Discrimination Complaint Form available from OCR enforcement offices or the FUSD Administrative Center, 3285 E. Sparrow Lane, Flagstaff, AZ 86004:

·    Your name and address (a telephone number where you may be reached during business hours is helpful, but not required).

·    A general description of the person(s) or class of persons injured by the alleged discriminatory act(s) (names of the injured person(s) are not required).

·    The name and location of the institution that committed that alleged discriminatory act(s).

·    A description of the alleged discriminatory act(s) in sufficient detail to enable OCR to understand what occurred, when it occurred, and the basis for the alleged discrimination (race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age).”

“A complaint must be filed within 180 calendar days of the date of the alleged discrimination.”