Schools

School District Reports Incidents of Bullying, Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse

Poll: Has your child been bullied? Numbers reported Monday are for the first half of the school year.

The Fort Lee school district issued its mid-year Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) and Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse (VV-SA) reports Monday at the Fort Lee Board of Education's regular business meeting, breaking down the number of reports and incidents by school for the first half of the academic year.

The HIB report showed that out of 29 total reports district-wide, 18 were considered actual HIB incidents according to the state’s definition. Not surprisingly, most of those occurred at , with most elementary schools having few, and even one——that had none.

There were also 20 total reports of violence, vandalism or substance abuse reported in the district; all but one of those occurred at either or the high school.

Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle, who delivered the report, called the numbers “self-explanatory,” and said the school district continues to emphasize character education through assemblies and programs like the Peer Outreach Service Team, or POST, at the high school.

“We do various assembly programs at our elementary schools that are devoted to character education as well,” Engravalle said.

Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He also said that all investigations were conducted by each school’s anti-bullying specialist “in accordance with and in cooperation with the administration, as per law.”

Engravalle said that in some cases the numbers overlap, meaning that some of the HIB reports were also considered violence and vandalism under the law.

Whether a report was considered an actual HIB incident came down to the question,  “Did it meet the [state] definition [of] harassment, intimidation and bullying?” Engravalle explained.

Also in accordance with the anti-bullying law, the board opened the meeting for public discussion of the reports; just one person asked a question: Where in the numbers was the case of what school officials called a reflected.

“The graffiti incident is part of the two incidents of vandalism at the high school,” Engravalle said.

Below is a look at the two reports issued Monday.

HIB Reported Incidents

Reports HIB by Definition Not HIB Name of bullying based protected categories identified Discipline Investigator(s) Training or programs implemented
FLHS 21 12 9 Gesture, Written, Verbal, Physical, Electronic communication, Theft ISS, Suspension, Restitution Reina Sandouk, ABS 2 hrs required for all adults LFCMS 2 2 0 Verbal Detention Tara Hintze, ABS Same as above S1 1 1 0 Gesture, Verbal, Physical ISS

Marisa Buonomo, ABS

Same as above S2 3 2 1 Gesture, Verbal, Physical Loss of recess privelege, Community Service, OSS Rachel Cola, ABS; Meghan Lynch, ABS Same as above S3 1 1 0 Verbal Detention Margaret Brennan, ABS Same as above S4 1 0 1 Verbal, Physical Community Service Nancy Sanders, ABS Same as above Totals 29 18 11

Violence, Vandalism & Substance Abuse

Total Reports Violence Vandalism Special Education Offender Substance Abuse Weapon Training or programs implemented FLHS 14 4 2 5 2 1 (chain) 2 hrs required for all adults LFCMS 5 4 1 0 0 0 Same as above S1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Same as above S2 1 0 0 0 0 1 (rock) Same as above S3 0 0 0 0 0 0 Same as above S4 0 0 0 0 0 0 Same as above Totals 20 8 3 5 2 2 Same as above


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here