July 10, 2015
Local schools show compliance with Dignity Act
Local school officials support the state Education Department’s efforts to track incidents of harassment and bullying in public schools, but are concerned that some cases are going unreported.
Since 2012, public schools statewide have been required to report to the state Education Department instances of harassment and discrimination. That is when the Dignity for All Students Act became effective. The complaints which require reporting include harassment on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender expression.
The point of the law is to curb unfair treatment of individuals on the basis of any of these identities, whether that unfair treatment takes the form of discrimination, harassment or bullying.
The law also requires districts to appoint Dignity Act coordinators. These are people to whom students can report when they experience or witness discrimination andbullying.
Of particular concern is how public schools are handling harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The New York Civil Liberties Union in June issued a report claiming that public schools in the state are not sufficiently handling these types of cases.
Locally, districts are not reporting large numbers ofharassment.
Marathon reported a total of 73 incidents of harassment in the 2013-14 school year. Of these, 10 were about sexual orientation. Homer reported 32 instances of harassment for the year, two of which were regarding sexual orientation.
Though none of these schools reported instances of harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, Cincinnatus reported 16 instances of harassment, Cortland reported 14, and McGraw reported 10.
Some officials fear that districts are underreporting instances of harassment and bullying within their schools.
Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas recently analyzed statewide compliance with the Dignity Act, finding that 58 percent of schools in the state did not report any instances of harassment throughout 2013-14, according to a release from her office.
“The law’s objectives are noble, but its implementation has been inexcusably botched,” Singas wrote in a letter to the chairmen of the state Senate and Assembly education committees last week.
One problem is that the reporting system for the Dignity Act is often confused with the state’s Violent and Disruptive Incident Reporting System, she pointed out.
Local school officials agree that reporting requirements abound.
“There are a lot of reporting requirements, and this is only one of hundreds,” said Homer Superintendent of School Nancy Ruscio, who added that there have not been any students in Homer who have identified as transgender, or any reports of discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Within the school, Ruscio said an assortment of reporting methods have been put in place that students, faculty and other community members can use to bring incidents of bullying or discrimination to the attention of administrators.
Students can make anonymous reports of discrimination or bullying by leaving a note in a Bully Locker, a specially marked locker that is checked regularly by school administrators, Ruscio said.
The district’s website also offers a Bully Button reporting option, where any member of the community can make a report of discrimination. Marathon and Cortland school districts offer a similar web-based reporting system. In all three districts, victims and witnesses who use this method of reporting can remain anonymous while providing specific details about a bullying incident, including when and where it occurred, who was involved and the type of bullying witnessed.
Marathon Superintendent of Schools Rebecca Stone said anti-discrimination lessons are built into the school’s curriculum and discussed at the beginning of each school year.
Stone and Judi Riley, assistant superintendent for Cortland Enlarged City School District, said despite efforts to promote safe reporting, there are probably some victims of harassment who their districts are unaware of.
“The hardest thing is, if we don’t know about something, we can’t help,” Stone said.
To read this article and more, pick up today's Cortland Standard
Click here to subscribe