The topic of bullying is typically one discussed, debated and dissected within school districts. Now a city commission wants to consider putting its stamp on how to discourage the social ill.
The Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission hosted one of its frequent public community discussions on Nov. 19 on bullying, a subject that has made state and national headlines more and more in recent years.
Bullying is defined as the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate or aggressively to impose domination over others.
In school hallways, playing fields, inside classrooms and on school buses, children and teenagers face physical and verbal harassment and ridicule from individual and sometimes groups of peers.
It also occurs in public recreation areas, the domain of the parks and recreation commission, and often goes unreported.
According to www.bullying statistics.org. approximately 30 percent of students in the United States are involved in bullying on a regular basis either as a victim, bully or both.
“The parks leaders deal with many of the same children that our schools do,” Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mary Anne Greene said before the community meeting. “We wanted to hear people’s stories.” Greene is aware that like many school districts, the Culver City Unified School District has a policy against bullying but it applies to students only while they are on campus or involved with school-related activities.
The community dialogue was the latest in a series of community meetings held by the commission called “Words Matter.”
Greene, who organized the Nov. 19 workshop, called “Words Matter, Part Two: A Discussion on Bullying and Anti-Bullying Strategies,” would eventually like to see her commission formulate a policy that can be turned into an ordinance and presented before the City Council.
“We want our policy to be relevant and effective,” she said.
Councilman Andrew Weissman, himself a former Parks and Recreations commissioner, said he was interested to see what occurs in the community discussions and subsequently at the commission level.
“Keeping the issue [of bullying] alive and having the discussion is a good thing,” Weismann said.
A group of local students attended the meeting and one young girl’s remarks underscored the complexity involved in combating bullying. She said many preteens and teens fear reprisals if they “snitch” on someone who is being mistreated to an adult, which often allows the bullying behavior to continue.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Eric Taylor, was in the audience and said he frequently sees young people who come through the criminal justice system who have been bullied.
“This is a great discussion that has to happen,” said the judge.
He also thought it was important that the students notify teachers or coaches when bullying occurs, but recognized why some are reluctant to do so. “Reporting often brings consequences to the people who report and discourages doing it in the future,” Taylor said.
Deborah Jones echoed Taylor in applauding the commission for bring the problem to the forefront, but wondered about how any new ordinance or guidelines would be enforced. “I admire our city for trying to develop [antibullying] policies, but I want to remind the commission that the policies will only be as good as the adults who administer them,” she noted. “One of the things to keep in mind is all this effort that is being put into developing policies, the same amount of effort needs to be put in training our teachers and adults who are working with the teachers.”