New Advances in Bullying Prevention in Massachusetts Public Schools

Massachusetts’s new anti-bullying law, Chapter 92 of the Laws of 2010, signed into law by the legislature on May 3, 2010, attempts to define bullying, including cyberbullying, and emulates the options available to a public school principal to handle a difficult situation.

MGL Chapter 71B section 10 defines bullying as “the repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal, or electronic expression or physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at a victim that (i) causes physical or emotional harm to the victim or damage to the victim’s property; places the victim in reasonable fear of harm to himself or her property: (iii) creates a horrible environment at school for the victim (iv) infringes on the victim’s rights at school (v) or materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a school.

The tragic deaths that occurred in Springfield and South Hadley, MA appropriately prompted the legislature’s reactive enactment of the law.

Additionally, cyber bullying is newly defined as “harassment through the use of technology or any electronic communication including, but not limited to, any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in its entirety or in part by an optional wire, radio, electromagnetic, photographic, electronic, or photographic system including, but not limited to, electronic mail, Internet communications, instant messaging, or facsimile communications.”

The cyber bullying section expands the power of the school principal to intervene in incidents between students 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For example, involving bullying by text messages. A review of the cyberbullying component of the law shows that a principal must prohibit bullying “through the use of technology or an electronic device that is not owned, leased, or used by a school district or school if the bullying creates an environment hostile to the victim at school/violates the victim’s rights at school or materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a school.”

The school principal effectively serves as judge and jury to determine who is guilty and discuss their options for punishment. For example, she assesses a bullying incident if it rises to the level of a hostile environment. The law lists a hostile environment as “a school environment that must be permeated with intimidation, ridicule, or insult that is severe or pervasive enough to disrupt the student’s educational conditions.” The terms “severe enough” and “widespread” seem subjective, vague, and overly broad. Ultimately, the courts will determine the interpretation of these fundamental legal terms.

The law requires annual training for professional and paraprofessional employees of the school system. Staff must report incidents of bullying to the principal. The principal maintains a great deal of wiggle room in handling an allegation of bullying. A principal’s range of action in the event of a bullying incident includes reporting the incident to local law enforcement, taking disciplinary action within the school, and notifying the victim’s parents and describing the preventive course of discipline taken.

Bullying in a traditional sense involved a form of physical intimidation at school. It typically included at least temporary physical and/or verbal contact within school confines. Cyberbullying often continues long after the school day is over. Communication between the alleged aggressors and the victim often becomes bidirectional, blurring the assessment of blame. In conclusion, the law represents a first step in establishing parameters for the resolution of most incidents of bullying. The level of training for public school staff will vary according to the often constrained budgets of various Massachusetts public school systems.