Education Law

Respect: Not just a word, but a behavior

BoardBuzz is pleased that NSBA has endorsed ?No Name-Calling Week? which is taking place this week, from January 24-28.  By observing this event, schools across the country will foster the important and essential message of ?respect for all.?  

In a press release about the week, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight and Education Network?s (GLSEN) Executive Director Eliza Byard soberly alerts us to the fact that ?bullying is a public health crisis in this country.?  As shown in a 2005 Harris Interactive report commissioned by GLSEN, 47 percent of junior/middle high school students identified bullying, name-calling or harassment as a somewhat serious or very serious problem at their school.  Additionally, 69 percent of junior/middle high school students reported being assaulted or harassed in the previous year.  Notably, bullying, among other problems, results in lower academic achievement as kids who are bullied are often absent from school and/or cannot pay attention to class.

These data are alarming, to say the least, and recent reports of bullying-related suicides makes all of this even more troubling.  However, all around the country, many schools are already stepping up to the plate to improve bullying policies and BoardBuzz wants to applaud that effort. 

In GLSEN?s press release, Byard states that ?through programs like No Name-Calling Week, we know we can make schools safer and more affirming for everyone.? The event is in its eighth year and has become one of the most used and celebrated bullying prevention programs in the country. 

BoardBuzz hopes this is not just ?one more event to be honored,? but rather that schools will address bullying in effective ways and that respect be not only a word that is thrown around classrooms and school hallways, but that it be a permanent behavior adopted by students, teachers, and school staff alike. 

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on January 26, 2011 (boomark / email).