LANSING, Mich. — Bullies have been in schools for decades, but since social media and kids are getting their hands on technology at a younger age than the generation before, it seems the bulling behavior has become more aggressive.
Jennifer Bloanca said her 6-year-old daughter comes home from school with scratches from her classroom bully.
She said the bully is disrupting the class and taunts other kids.
Bloanca said, "I've seen her hit other kids. She hit me with a hole punch, and tearing up other kids papers."
Bloanca accused the school of not taking proper action.
She said she had multiple conversations with school administrators and the problem has not been resolved.
Jason Mellema, Ingham County Superintendent said,"As schools districts, we're trying to establish a pattern of behavior and triggers that are setting off those patterns of behaviors. And how do we provide the right type of interventions to make sure that students are successful? So it is a process it is going to take time, it is not something that is going to happen overnight."
He said that unfortunately there needs to be repetitive behavior before serious action can take place.
But the kind of serious action can vary.
Schools are trying to use interventions for students to talk out their issues and find a resolution, other than removing the student from the classroom.
Charlotte Public Schools Superintendent Mandy Stewart said the bully may have a special need or does not know how convey their emotions, so they act out.
Taking a child out of the classroom takes away that child's right to an education.
Finding a way both the bully and the victim can stay in school and out of trouble is the school's goals.
However, students can be removed temporarily.
Stewart said students at any age can be suspended.
She said, "When you suspend a student a good practice is to sit down with the student when they're coming back in and talk about the behavior that happened. But sending them home and bringing them back does not always solve the problem. So in addition to that, we would try to intervene and air out those feelings and actually solve the relationship issue so it can be moved on in the future."
There are laws in place that require schools to find a better solution instead of removing or restraining a student.
Seclusion and Restraint is a law that tries to deescalate a situation in the classroom.
Students can be removed and put into a separate room or restrained by the teacher.
Teachers have to be trained to do this.
This law was passed because students were hurt or even killed because of poor technique.
If a student is secluded today they can be in a room without locks for 15 minutes.
Teachers can only restrict another student if they harming themselves or other people, but this is used as a last resort.
Another issue parents face is privacy laws.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), protects a students information like their name, any behavioral issues, etc.
A lot of parents want to get in contact with the family of their child's bully to settle the issues, but FERPA prevents that from happening.
Lori Brown has a daughter in high school who has missed weeks worth of school because of her bullies, but because of FERPA Brown can't get in contact with the bullys' parents.
Brown said, "Tell them I would like to talk to them. I'm willing to sit down and find out why there is such conflict with the two, three, four kids. What can we do because its not helping their leaning at all."
She continued, "We are to a point where we don't know what to do anymore. It got to a point where my daughters sophomore year we pulled her out."
Mellema said the best thing students and parents can do is communicate with their administrators.
However, if a child is uncomfortable going to an administrator there is a website called Okay to Say where they can report bullying confidentially.
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