Nebo district approves new bullying policy

SPRINGVILLE — It started with a rumor about a seventh-grade girl. Vicious text messaging followed.

The Springville girl, the target of the rumors, recalled one of the texts sent to her cell phone. Basically, she said, the message said "the only reason people were friends with me is because they felt sorry for me and I need to go kill myself."

Eventually, the girl's friends turned on her, and she was left with only one friend.

The girl's mother talked with the principal.

"He told them to grow up," the girl said, "and they just got meaner."

The girl, who now attends a different school, may have been better protected under new bullying policy that includes so-called "cyber-bullying."

The Nebo School District Board of Education approved the policy Nov. 8.

Bullying, according to the new policy, is aggressive behavior intended to cause harm or distress to a student in a relationship in which there is an imbalance of power.

Bullying may be physical, verbal, written or psychological, the policy states.

"Bullying was prohibited in our existing (safe schools and student discipline) policy," Nebo District attorney Reed Park said.

"This one is really to make it a stand-alone policy, to give the emphasis it needed," Park added.

No specific bullying incident forced the school board to enact the new policy, Nebo spokeswoman Lana Hiskey said.

Last year, the Utah Legislature passed an anti-bullying resolution encouraging local school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies.

The State Board of Education went further, requiring districts specify procedures of discipline against bullies to receive federal Safe and Drug Free Schools money.

A recent national poll showed one-third of teens and one-sixth of younger children had been victims of cyber-bullying.

In the Nebo District's new bullying policy, cyber-bullying is defined as using e-mail, Web pages, text messaging, blogs, instant messaging, three-way calling or other electronics to intimidate and harass a student.

Victims of bullying are encouraged to report the incidents to teachers or administrators, and the district will provide education to employees about bullying prevention, the new policy states.

If a student reports bullying to a teacher, the teacher must to report the incident to the administration, which will investigate, the policy states.

Punishment will correspond to the severity of the bullying, and could include suspension, expulsion, prohibition from participating in extracurricular activities, probation or alternate educational placement, the new policy states.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com