“The audit shows that passing laws isn’t enough –- we need to implement them and ensure accountability at the district, county and statewide levels,” said Jesse Melgar, with Equality California, a San Francisco-based advocacy group. “Now, California schools and the Department of Education have an opportunity to use the audit’s findings to review, update and enhance their policies to better protect our youth and ensure student success.”
The California Department of Education disputed many of the audit’s finding, saying officials are committed to addressing bullying and keeping students safe.
“Although not mentioned in this report, California has made significant progress in addressing negative school behavior despite the impacts of ongoing budget cuts and staff reductions,” Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard Zeiger said in a statement. “Nevertheless, CDE acknowledges the auditor’s concerns and will continue our work to build and reinforce a positive school climate throughout the state.”
Bullying at school
Some 28 percent of seventh graders in California reported being harassed at school, and 22 percent of ninth-grade students reported that other students had spread rumors or lies about them online at least once over the previous 12-month period. The data come from the 2009-11 California Healthy Kids Survey. The report noted the link between bullying and several high-profile student suicides, including the 2010 suicide of 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, a victim of anti-gay bullying.
“He was only one of many young people who decided it was easier to commit suicide than to go to school the next day,” said Karyl Ketchum, co-chair of the School Compliance Task Force of the Orange County Equality Coalition, which monitors schools in Orange County for compliance with anti-bullying and discrimination laws.
“The local educational agencies are not following through with their requirements under the law and no one cares,” she said.
Auditors surveyed every school district, county office of education and charter school in the state –- nearly 2,000 in total. Of the nearly 1,400 entities that responded, 80 percent said they had adopted anti-bullying programs and policies. Some 55 percent said they did not formally evaluate the effectiveness of the programs.
In addition to the statewide survey, the auditors visited six schools in Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento. Those site visits raised concerns about whether schools were receiving sufficient guidance on how to document and resolve complaints. At the schools, auditors found that staff did not always document complaints, follow reporting requirements or record follow-ups on incidents.
Experts said that collecting accurate data was essential to ending what President Barack Obama called “the pain, agony, and loss caused by bullying in our schools and communities.”
“Most schools in the U.S. have no systematic ways of tracking reports, and in most situations, do not even follow their own policies or guidelines,” said Dorothy Espelage, co-chair of an American Educational Research Association task force on bullying that issued a 2013 report on the prevention of bullying in schools. “As bullying legislation is often ‘unfunded’ mandates, there are no research monies to even track compliance of school districts.”
State department criticized
The audit was critical of the Department of Education, beginning with the department’s failure to detect that its Office of Equal Opportunity was not collecting data on bullying for several years. The department ultimately updated its internal program to collect the data on bullying in 2012, four school years after the state Safe Place to Learn Act mandated that the department provide oversight, the report noted.
The department was also chastised for failing to meet the 60-day legal requirement to resolve appeals in some cases, with 11 of the 18 appeals reviewed by the auditors running between one and 305 days late.
Also criticized was the department’s website of bullying resources for schools, with auditors determining that the site was cluttered with 10-year-old research, a dead link, and little information on current issues such as online bullying or bullying related to being perceived as gay or lesbian. In its survey, the audit found that more than half of the school districts, charter schools and county offices of education were unaware that the department even had resources to assist them in complying with laws to protect students from harassment and discrimination.
Zeiger, the state official, disputed that audit’s contention that the department was not a leader in protecting students.
“Protecting student safety and guarding against discrimination are top priorities at the California Department of Education,” he said, “and the department has been a leader in the prevention of bullying and assisting schools, parents and students in safety issues.”
Conflict of interest in complaint process faulted
The audit noted that schools are encouraged to use their own staff to resolve bullying complaints quickly, but that resolving complaints internally could lead to conflicts of interest. The audit cited two incidents in Sacramento City Unified School District where the administrator who was assigned to resolve a complaint of bullying, harassment, intimidation or discrimination was the same person named in the complaint for allegedly failing to take appropriate action to address the student incident. The audit did not provide details about the specific complaints.
Sacramento City will take immediate action to strengthen its anti-bullying efforts, said district spokesman Gabe Ross. He added that the district was the first in the area to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying policy and now has a full-time, grant-funded anti-bullying specialist at the district level.
