decorahnews.com special report: Decorah School District moves to update its policies on bullying and cyber-bullying

Although there are long-standing Decorah Community School District harassment policies for students, that harassing conduct policy was revised slightly several years ago to specifically include the term "bullying."  Students can more readily relate to this specific type of "harassing conduct" when they use bullying as a term.  The policy itself is shaped by legal guidelines, mostly those "boilerplate" policies developed by the Iowa Association of School Board. But Decorah School Superintendent Mike Haluska also notes that they also have been modified by legal counsel for the Decorah Schools.

Halusku said that the policies are only as good as the enforcement (and related educational efforts). He expresses a great deal of confidence in the commitment of school principals and notes specific programs in the K-8 levels that have been very helpful.

PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) is a curriculum taught by a school counselor at the K-4 level. OLWEUS is a bullying prevention program that has been implemented in the Middle School since 2008.

Haluska says that efforts at the high school often take a much stronger disciplinary approach than the counseling tactics for younger grades. "By high school they should get it," he says.  He feels that the addition of a Dean of Students position at the high school will be very helpful for both educational and intervention efforts.

The issue of bullying conduct by electronic means does add a challenge to enforcement and knowledge of who is doing the harassment.  But school officials are persistent in their efforts to investigate reported casse that fall in this category. 

Decorah High School Assistant Principal Adam Riley says digital bullying that happens during school time definitely comes under the school's district jurisdiction.  Riley and Haluska say incidents that do not happen on school property or occur after school hours can be the province of school officials to deal with, however.  As long as school officials can provide the impact of these harassing conducts affects the academic environment in one form or another, the incidents can result in school disciplinary action.

Haluska says the school district's policies are readily accessible to students and parents via their respective handbooks.  The policies are also posted on the District's website, although Halsuka admits that they are not easily found.  However, school district officials are working on improved and searchable indexes to make those and other topics more accessible to the public.

Thursday: An expert on bullying gives some advice.