Buffalo schools have anti-bully policy

By Bridget DeMeis and John Patrissi
Bengal News Reporters

 A resolution seeking to amend the current Buffalo Public School district policies and regulations regarding bullying and harassment was sponsored by the president of the board of education, Ralph Hernandez, and was unanimously passed among the other board members on Jan. 12.

 Spurred by New York State’s recent legislative passage of the Dignity for All Students Act and a national push for tolerance of diversity, the sponsored resolution will implement new district-wide anti-bullying procedures with the expectation of curtailing such behavior both in and outside of the classroom.

 State law doesn’t require school districts to enforce the new policy until 2012 but school district leaders plan to have all provisions implemented and functioning adequately before the scheduled deadline. 

Board President Ralph Hernandez

 “We wanted to be proactive on this for many reasons,” said Hernandez, who represents the West District.  “First of all, it’s a legislative amendment long overdue, and of course we want to be prepared because it’s my understanding that there are resources and grants the state will be offering in the near future that will assist in developing a more comprehensive anti-bullying program.”

 Citywide anti-bullying legislation comes at a time when there appears to be an increase in the number of anti-refugee sentiment occurring at Grover Cleveland High School. Burmese students are being targeted, said Gary Welborn, chair of the sociology department at Buffalo State College.

 Although not refuting such occurrences, Associate Superintendent for Educational Services William Keresztes offers a different explanation for the apparent increase of bullying targeted towards refugees.  

 “I wouldn’t necessarily say that there’s a known quantitative increase in the numbers, but by default the numbers of some students who are enrolled in our schools have gone up and it’s quite likely that as consequence there are more of these unfortunate instances,” he said.

 To abate the potential harassment targeted towards an ever increasing refugee student populace, Kereztes mandated the district’s code of conduct, which contains the anti-bullying policy, be translated into the five most commonly spoken languages among the city refugee populace—Arabic, Burmese, Karen, Somali and Spanish.

 “Last summer I thought it necessary that parents knew their rights—parents that come from foreign countries should not think that somehow bullying is acceptable in the United States and that it’s a price-to-pay to become a citizen here,” he said. 

 According to the resolution, district policy will make it certain that no student will be preoccupied by fear of harassment and discrimination to an extent where they will be unable to receive a meaningful education.  

Associate Superintendent for Educational Services Will Kereztes  discusses anti-bullying measures"

 When an instance of bullying or harassment is brought to any school official’s attention, not only are they obligated to follow State law mandating the report of the incidence to a State official, but the school is required, by district policy, to call in the district’s Bias Response Team.   

 The response team, consisting of three social workers, a lawyer from the city’s legal department and a high ranking member of the school board, will be responsible for going into a school where a reported instance of harassment has occurred and assess if a broader social problem exists.

 “We don’t want to just deal with bullying as a misconduct issue—we will deal with it swiftly and severely as a misconduct issue—but, it has been my experience that if bullying is treated as just as an isolated act of misconduct we really don’t take the time and opportunity to really eradicate what caused the bullying in a particular building in the first place,” Keresztes said.

 Broader social problems have been an issue for the school district in the past, where not only discriminative attitudes are held among students, Keresztes said, but also among school staff who feel some students are inherently responsible for the bullying geared towards them.

 The school district has enacted programs to educate and train all professional and non-professional school officials, including cafeteria staff and bus drivers, about how to react to and prevent bullying.    

 Information provided by Bonnie M. Kirisits, a district Social Worker and member of the Bias Response Team, indicated all school staff were required to view a 40 minute video titled "Bullied" and use handouts from the website www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov.

 The district has also held anti-bullying workshops at D’Youville College where both students and staff role-played bullying scenarios and discussed appropriate ways to diffuse the situation. 

Edited by Erica Lindo and Amanda Steffan

Language barriers hurt schools' test scores

By Mike Chiari and Tim Daniels
Bengal News Reporters
 Imagine that you’ve just relocated to a far away country. Having lived in your home country for all your life, you have no knowledge of this new country's language or customs.
 To make matters worse, you're living in a refugee camp, so you've had no chance to assimilate into this foreign culture. Despite these struggles, you're still expected to become proficient in a new language within a year. If you're unable to do this, you risk being left behind.
 While this may seem like a far-fetched scenario, this is exactly what refugee students in third through eighth grade have to endure in West Side schools, according to Amber Dixon, executive director of evaluation, accountability and project initiatives for Buffalo Public Schools.

 Recently released test results from last May's English and math assessments have shown a drop in proficiency across the state. West Side schools, in particular, struggled to meet the requirements set by the New York State Education Department. A major reason for this, Dixon said, is the vast amount of refugees located on the West Side.
 “We have students who could arrive here May 1 and they've been in the refugee camp, and haven't been in school in three years,” Dixon said. “They enroll in one of our schools and they don't speak English, and on May 11 state law requires they take the New York State math assessment and be proficient in it. While we can get interpreters in and do what we can, we still have that child who doesn't have that command of the language, and we're expecting them to show proficiency.”
 State law allows a one-year grace period for refugee students to become proficient in English, but these students should be afforded more time, Dixon said.

 “We're setting a bar for English language learners that's too rigid,” Dixon said. “Some students absolutely can get there, but some students, it's going to take them three years, and they're just as bright as the other students.”
 Samuel Radford, vice president of the District Parent Coordinating Council, agreed that refugees should be given a longer timetable to become English proficient, but there should be a limit, he said.
 “I think they should be given more time, but I don't think it should be like it was before where it was an indefinite amount of time,” Radford said. “ I think the reason why they cut the time was because teachers were not going to have a sense of urgency with the need to teach the children the language.”
 While the testing changes have some merit, they were instituted for all the wrong reasons, Radford said.
 “They changed it in the middle of the school year. They changed it after all the kids had taken the tests, I think that was extremely unfair,” Radford said. “I think the reason why they did it is because they wanted to qualify for more federal money. Because the state is broke and they don't have the money to put into education they used to have, the kids had to appear to need more help.”
 In comparison to past years, the scores haven't changed significantly, but the score required to reach proficiency has, Dixon said. This has heightened an already tall task for refugee students, she said.
 The result was that a score that might have been considered proficient in previous years might not have been proficient on last year's exams or any future exams, Dixon said.
 “It's almost like saying in your class, you get a 25 on three quizzes you'll get an 'A,' Dixon said. “After you get your 25 on three quizzes your instructor says 'that's not really an 'A' anymore, I think that's worth a 'C' now.'”
 Some community organizations such as Journey’s End Refugee Services are trying to speed up the process involved with teaching refugees the English language.
 “We have four full-time academic coaches that work with students individually,” said Kelly O’Brien of the Journey’s End education department. “Any teacher in Buffalo schools can call the office and get help.”
 Journey’s End also offers services such as explaining English meanings in the students’ native language and translating exams for students, O’Brien said.
 Due to the scoring changes, the average percentage of proficiency across West Side schools, and across grades three through eight, is just over 26 percent. Also, no grade level at any West Side school reached 50 percent proficiency in English or math.

Edited by Ariel Hofher and Corey O'Leary