How to Report HIB Incidents at School?

What can I do to help my child if they are experiencing racist remarks, bullying, harassment, and/ or intimidation at school? What do these terms truly mean? What is the difference between the terms? Should I report? Who should I report to? How do I report? What can I expect if I do report?

Sometimes students face unkind and cruel behavior from other students. Last April, the Issaquah School District Family Partnership Team, School Administrators, and School Counselors offered workshops for parents who are new to the U.S. public school system or are unfamiliar with supports available for their child when incidents like these occur. Here we are sharing some of the information.

Incidents such as Harassment, Intimidation, or Bullying (HIB) at school are separate but related behaviors. Each must be addressed appropriately.

Harassment refers to any malicious act, which causes harm to any person's physical well-being. It can be discriminatory harassment, malicious harassment, or sexual harassment.

Intimidation refers to implied or overt threats of physical violence.

Bullying refers to unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another student or group of students that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Bullying may inflict harm on the targeted youth, including physical, or creates an intimidating or threatening educational environment. Bullying can also occur through technology and is called electronic bullying or cyberbullying. It's important to realize that any behavior could fall under a variety of regulations and procedures or overlap within more than one.

Whatever the incident may or may not be HIB, report socially unacceptable or negative behavior is essential.

In the Issaquah School District, students are taught about the importance of bullying prevention starting in kindergarten. Elementary school counselors deliver a series of class lessons using the “Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit,” which is a Social Emotional Learning curriculum. Students in kindergarten through 3rd grade learn about the 3R’s of bullying prevention: Recognize, Report, and Refuse, as well as the importance of Bystander Power, which teaches and encourages students to be supportive bystanders. Students in 4th and 5th grade build on their existing knowledge of the 3R’s, dive deeper into bystander responsibility, and learn about cyberbullying. In middle school, 6th- and 7th-grade students continue learning from Second Step Curriculum to learn problem-solving and conflict resolution skills that they need when they have difficulties with their peers. Some of these problems may not rise to the level of bullying or harassment but can create conflict between peers and friends.

For elementary students, the first thing a parent/caregiver needs to do is to listen with love and understanding. Help gather as much information from your child as possible because the school will ask for details including who, where, when, and how long. This includes the person or people who were doing the bullying, who was being bullied, and any witnesses or bystanders, both adults and peers. Remind the student that bullying is never okay and figure out which trusted adults can help get it to stop at school. Reach out to this trusted adult at school by calling, emailing, or scheduling an appointment. The trusted adults can be the student’s teacher, school counselor, Dean of Students, or the principal.

For middle school students, depending on each school’s procedure on reporting, generally report to the Dean of Students, Assistant Principal, or school counselor by filling out a form in the counseling office. Then, depending on what is reported, the student and/or parent may be contacted either by a school counselor or Assistant Principal.

At high school, these reports are generally taken directly by the student’s Assistant Principal. It’s common for high school students to go to a school counselor to feel supported and comfortable making the report. Parents/caregivers need to guide and support them and discuss with them the importance of going to a school counselor or Assistant Principal to get adult support and intervention instead of hiding the truth, as well as report all the details about the behavior and situation that they are aware of. It takes courage to tell the full story and sharing all the details they know, which will allow the school to protect students to the full extent of their ability, take appropriate action, and work to right the situation.

Now if students prefer to communicate with school administrators anonymously, the Issaquah School District has an online support system called Issaquah Tip. When sending a tip, submitters select from a dropdown list of common issues they may be facing, such as bullying, fighting, threatening behavior, drug or alcohol abuse, and schoolwork concerns, etc., and then enter the tip message. Administrators in the district office receive the tips and forward them to the school to investigate or take action as appropriate. Students have access to Issaquah Tip 24 hours a day, seven days a week at http:// www.issaquah.wednet.edu/tip.

Parent/caregivers can find correct school counselor or Assistant Principal information on the school website or call and ask the school directly or ask a teacher to put in contact with the correct one.

3R’s

Recognize: recognize bullying is when someone is mean on purpose and bullying behavior is repeated or ongoing. Bullying is unfair, has imbalanced power, and is onesided.

Report: it’s important to report bullying. It’s everybody’s responsibility to tell a trusted adult when they see, hear, or experience bullying.

Refuse: refuse bullying if it’s happening to you, if you see it happening to somebody else, or if your friends/ classmates try to get you to join in. Refuse includes telling someone to stop, moving away from the bullying behavior, not joining in laughter or conversations that are hurtful to other students, and finding a trusted adult to report the bullying behavior to.

A bystander is someone who sees or hears about bullying happening to someone else. There’s a difference between passive bystanders and supportive bystanders. A passive bystander is somebody who sees or hears about bullying happening but doesn’t do anything about it. Supportive bystanders report or help report bullying, stand up for somebody who’s being bullied, and refuse bullying behavior. They are respectful and kind; they include everyone.

Resources

Home Links is a good resource. These are worksheets with information designed for families to support the bully prevention/bully report learning that takes place in the classroom. It includes a script so that a parent/ caregiver and the child can practice reporting bullying together at home, which helps build the student’s assertiveness, confidence, courage, and advocacy both for themselves and for others. There’s a Home Link for every single lesson in every single grade level. Feel free to reach out to the school counselor for Home Links either by paper or online access.

Student Handbooks are available on the school website, which details the expectations of positive student behavior in school to create a safe climate. It provides all of the definitions for what is inappropriate behavior that could result in disciplinary action. It also gives names of people at the district level who a parent/caregiver can contact if a formal complaint needs to be filed.