Bullying, harassment and discrimination have been age old problems in schools across the nation. Last week officials with the Ceres Unified School District held a town hall meeting with parents and students to address what is being done locally to combat the problem.

It was the 12th town hall gathering since COVID offered by the district, kick-started by a free dinner at the Ceres Community Center.

Dan Pangrazio, CUSD’s deputy superintendent of Student Support Services, said he has dealt with bullying through his years as learning director at Ceres High School and principal of Walter White Elementary and later Central Valley High School.

He defined bullying as “intentional, repetitive behavior aimed at causing harm, distress or intimidation to another individual, often targeting their perceived differences or vulnerabilities.” He added that it can take various forms, including physical bullying, pushing, verbal abuse, name calling, mocking, social bullying or cyber bullying.

“People typically use the word ‘bullying’ at the younger grade levels, I find,” said Pangrazio. “Does that mean that bullying doesn’t happen at junior high or high school based on that definition? No, because bullying occurs at those places as well. I find that people typically start to call those different things and they may be more accurate.”

Bullying often makes kids feel unsafe or uncomfortable at school, he said, and it’s the administrators’ and teachers’ role to “maintain safe environments where students can learn.”

“It’s a very challenging problem that we’re constantly working to try to solve,” he reported to parents.

There are laws requiring school administrators to investigate reports of abuse and bullying, he said, but noted “it would take more nights to describe all the things the district does that are anti-bullying practices.”

Parents were asked to have dialogue with others around their table about their perceptions about bullying. Two microphones were sent around the room for those who wanted to speak.

“Bullying happens all the time,” noted student Angel Jaquez. “Everybody’s been on the giving and receiving side of bullying. Like I have personally been on the giving side a lot more than receiving like my freshman and sophomore years. It’s not really called bullying.”

Jaquez went on to say one “weird” fellow classmate was mistreated and rejected so much that he left school.

Edith Narayan, CUSD’s coordinator of Student Services, commended Jaquez for speaking out honestly. She noted that the district sees many cases where students are mean to each other and where constant and pervasive mistreatment occurs and others joining in.

CUSD has supports in place to help students who are being bullied as well as well as the ones bullying.

“School counselors, administrators, all of our programs that go to support students, they’re all there,” said Pangrazio. “And yes these situations still occur just the way they occur outside of the school fence, on the street or in the neighborhood, right? Schools are part of a larger society, right? So we have our fences and our job is to try to keep those students safe as much as we possibly can so that students can learn. But we’re still part of the world and people can still be mean to each other and kids can be mean to each other and treat each other poorly. They can also be wonderful to each other.”

CUSD has an anonymous reporting app named STOPit but he acknowledged that some students don’t feel comfortable using it or reporting things to the office. He said that reluctance represents a “deeper challenge” to resolve problems.

Anita Ritchie-Davis, the mother of a sixth-grader, said her son was unaware of the app. She said her son was bullied for four years starting at a young age and “the school was great at handling it.” Her son likely would have felt more comfortable reporting the bully on paper if a physical drop box was available. Pangrazio said the district may look into setting up drop boxes for reports of bullying.

Eventually the bully was removed from school but her son then became “the bully,” she noted. Ritchie-Davis wondered if the student who was expelled got help or if he’ll be in junior high with her son only to continue bullying.

“You don’t start bullying for no reason,” she said. “Something happened to you.”

Alfonso Navarro, CUSD’s director of Child Welfare and Attendance, said the STOPit app is available to all campuses but many elementary students don’t have the knowhow to use it. He said the district also has posters in classrooms and hallways about reporting bullying on Stop It.

Younger students tend to directly report bullying to their teachers or principal than use an app.

Navarro said the district said the bullying issue becomes more problematic in the seventh and eighth grades because students tend to be more independent.

Information advertisig the app has also been sent out on ParentSquare, a platform that engages families with school communications.

Narayan said that each elementary school campus has a Student Support Specialist who are available to approach with problems in an effort to get them resolved.

One mother shared that her sixth-grade daughter knows who the campus bullies are and avoids them. “Some students can’t get away from it but sometimes it happens in front of the people that are supposed to be taking care of them,” the mother said.

Pangrazio said CUSD trains its employees to be “customer friendly and to be meeting with parents and be responsive and tackle issues. Does that mean it happens in every single case effectively? No. Anyone who says that is lying to you.”

If assistant principals and principals aren’t giving satisfaction to a parent, they can take their issue to the district office, he told the crowd.

When asked how the district cracks down on bullies, Pangrazio talked about consequences that can lead to suspensions and expulsions. Through its counselors, learning directors and Student Support Specialists, the district also attempts to dig into why a student is bullying others.

Narayan echoed what Ritchie-Davis said, noting “a student doesn’t just become a bully – there’s a reason for it and so our service providers really try to work with the student to figure out the root cause and help support them to build strategies.”

Pangrazio next addressed harassment, defining it as referring to any “unwelcome and persistent behavior that targets individuals based on protected characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability or religion. It can manifest in various forms including verbal abuse, physical aggression, intimidation, exclusion or cyber bullying. Common types of harassment include sexual harassment, bullying based on identity and discrimination.”

The next Town Hall meeting for parents is set for Thursday, March 27 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will focus on mental health awareness.