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Alabama’s Schools Are Nearly-Harassment-Free. We Need an Award.

Posted On Oct 01 2013
By : Trisha Powell Crain
Comments: 4
Tag: Bullying, bullying prevention, Harassment, School Safety, Student Harassment Prevention Act

No BullyYep, you read that right. This is good news. Of the 735,000 students in Alabama’s K-12 public schools during the 2011-2012 school year, the number of incidents of harassment was only………

………….Wait for it…………

708. 

That is less than 1/10 of one percent of the population that school year.

The adults in our schools must be doing an exceptional job keeping harassment out of our schools. And obviously our parents and families are doing everything right to have so few incidents of harassment. Our legislature deserves some of the credit, of course, for having passed the Student Harassment Prevention Act in 2009. It has obviously worked.

If you believe the data, that is.

Is The Data Real?

Well, that is the question. It is “real”, in that it is what school officials have reported to the ALSDE. The better question is whether the data, and thus the reporting, accurately reflects what is happening in our schools.

Here’s a report from 2012 taking a first look at Alabama’s student harassment prevention law. I questioned the numbers then. And the numbers are still questionable.

The Student Harassment Prevention Act of 2009 requires each school to report “actual violence, submitted reports of threats of violence, and harassment” annually to the ALSDE. Alabama schools report those incidents through the Student Incident Report (SIR). Here is the manual explaining how incidents should be defined and reported.

The ALSDE has produced the “Harassment Prevention Act” (HPA) report for the past two years. Here is the 2011-2012 HPA report. And here is the 2010-2011 HPA report. The 2012-2013 data was due in June, but I guess it’s not available yet.  Be careful comparing one year’s data to the next, as the report’s parameters have obviously changed.

Changing Definitions

I found this note in the heading of the 2010-2011 HPA report:

“Statistics for harassment as defined by the Student Harassment Prevention Act could not be separated from the overall School Incident Report from the 2010-2011 school year. Specific incidents of a continuous pattern of intentional behavior that takes place on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored function are included in these general categories. Currently, the number of specific incidents will be reported within these related categories. The 2011-2012 SIR report should allow for the identification of the specific incidents as defined in the Student Harassment Prevention Act.”

Oh. So the 2010-2011 HPA report didn’t accurately capture what the law said to capture. That year four categories were reported: fighting, harassment, threats and intimidation, and sexual harassment.

The 2011-2012 HPA report more accurately captures what the law requires, if we believe what we read. That year’s report has a category entitled “Incidents Involving Harassment” where schools are not only including some (but not all) “Harassment” incidents, but are also picking certain incidents out of various categories where “Harassment” was part of the incident.

Sounds like somebody needs to make a new category. Or better define the old category of “Harassment”. Or something.

Take a look at the reports for each year (here and here) to see the difference in how the incidents are reported.

What the Data Says About Bullying in Alabama’s Schools

Ok. So if we can’t rely on the data to tell us what the law wanted us to know, we can at least look at the “Harassment” data from both years to see what’s happening there. The 2011-2012 “Harassment” (as opposed to “Incidents Involving Harassment”) data is on the full SIR. The 2010-2011 “Harassment” data is on the HPA report.

This data is comparable because the ALSDE’s definition of “Harassment” as indicated in the SIR manual hasn’t changed. The “Harassment” category is clearly identified as the place to report bullying. From Page 3:

Bullying SIR Report

Here is the manual’s glossary containing the full definition of harassment for reporting purposes:

Glossary Definition Harassment

So let’s see how our school districts are doing. [No, this is not a measurement where percentage should be considered, as it shouldn’t matter that one system may have more students than another. Each child’s experience counts as one.] The table is sortable, unless you’re using Chrome.

System2011-20122010-2011Change
Albertville City2834(6)
Alexander City2341(18)
Andalusia City11
Anniston City1358
Arab City00
Athens City101
Attalla City10100
Auburn City55748
Autauga County45(1)
Baldwin County103181(78)
Barbour County826
Bessemer City11011
Bibb County63594
Birmingham City272129143
Blount County4764(17)
Boaz City413
Brewton City2(2)
Bullock County862
Butler County00
Calhoun County36360
Chambers County21912
Cherokee County811269
Chilton County29(7)
Choctaw County911(2)
Clarke County410(6)
Clay County1123(12)
Cleburne County1064
Coffee County101
Colbert County29254
Conecuh County422
Coosa County33330
Covington County880
Crenshaw County523
Cullman City710(3)
Cullman County22913
Dale County404
Daleville City211
Dallas County17413
Decatur City110
Dekalb County8082(2)
Demopolis City1(1)
Dothan City1630(14)
Elba City5(5)
Elmore County3844(6)
Enterprise City96110(14)
Escambia County319(16)
Etowah County1214(2)
Eufaula City34268
Fairfield City27(5)
Fayette County220
Florence City21201
Fort Payne City23(1)
Franklin County752
Gadsden City
Geneva City
Geneva County14(3)
Greene County918
Guntersville City954
Hale County854441
Haleyville City14(3)
Hartselle City212(10)
Henry County330
Homewood City211
Hoover City814(6)
Houston County27225
Huntsville City19019
Jackson County1073
Jacksonville City7(7)
Jasper City15(4)
Jefferson County1,089 909180
Lamar County826
Lanett City00
Lauderdale County871
Lawrence County322111
Lee County53530
Leeds City110(9)
Limestone County35(2)
Linden City0
Lowndes County505
Macon County312
Madison City311714
Madison County810(2)
Marengo County00
Marion County1028
Marshall County3448(14)
Midfield City880
Mobile County21863155
Monroe County24(2)
Montgomery County91786552
Morgan County3252(20)
Mountain Brook City14(3)
Muscle Shoals City1922(3)
Oneonta City00
Opelika City5758(1)
Opp City00
Oxford City291118
Ozark City101
Pell City00
Perry County2023(3)
Phenix City864838
Pickens County24222
Piedmont City00
Pike County14(3)
Randolph County67(1)
Roanoke City319(16)
Russell County22014575
Russellville City2(2)
Saraland City00
Scottsboro City2(2)
Selma City3236(4)
Sheffield City6(6)
Shelby County91106(15)
St Clair County3349(16)
Sumter County101
Sylacauga City826(18)
Talladega City642
Talladega County123160(37)
Tallapoosa County8788(1)
Tallassee City46(2)
Tarrant City606
Thomasville City101
Troy City0
Trussville City36(3)
Tuscaloosa City755916
Tuscaloosa County168174(6)
Tuscumbia City14(3)
Vestavia Hills City505
Walker County327(24)
Washington County651
Wilcox County4(4)
Winfield City2(2)
Winston County1421(7)
STATE TOTALS5,044 4,431 613

[Please let me know if there are any errors in this data. Downloading and manipulating it is cumbersome.]

The total number of incidents of bullying and/or harassment in Alabama’s schools, according to the data reported by our school officials, was 5,044 for the 2011-2012 school year. Still less than one percent. Which is absolutely amazing considering that the average percent of students who are bullied at school are between 11% and 25% in any given year.

Fifty-six of the then-132 school systems reported fewer than 10 bullying or harassment incidents. Twenty-two systems reported no bullying or harassment in their schools.

Either our Alabama schools are exceptionally bully- and harassment-free, or somebody’s not reporting the real numbers.

Florida found their school districts were widely underreporting the number of bullying incidents. This is a look at how it was uncovered in Florida and the problems that contribute to underreporting.

This data should be more than enough evidence to compel serious anti-bullying advocates to take a look at Alabama’s current law and school officials’ compliance with the reporting requirements.

[Check the Anti-Bullying category for more information about Bullying and Harassment Prevention.]

ADDED RESOURCES 10/01/13: Here are couple more documents reviewing Alabama’s anti-bullying regulations:

  • Alabama’s Anti-Bullying Laws and Policies, 2010 – stopbullying.gov
  • Analysis of State Bullying Laws and Policies, 2011 – U.S. Department of Education

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