Nearly one in five Oklahoma high-schoolers bullied on school property last year

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released the 2019 results of their biennial Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), and the responses show public schools in the Sooner State are having a tough time keeping children safe," Tim Benson writes. "The latest data from YRBSS shows almost one in five Oklahoma high school students, 19.4 percent, were bullied on school property in 2019, while another 14.5 percent of state high school students reported being cyberbullied."

Hope Scholarship bill for bullied kids fails in committee

"Lawmakers in Oklahoma just voted against a bill that would have given [bullied] students another option," the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia reports. 

"Senate Bill 570, authored by state Sen. Rob Standridge (R-Norman) and co-authored by state Sen. Gary Stanislawski (R-Tulsa) and House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols (R-Oklahoma City), failed to clear the Senate Education Committee this week, falling on a 10-6 vote," OCPA reports.

Senators who opposed SB 570 were J.J. Dossett (D-Owasso), Carri Hicks (D-Oklahoma City), Allison Ikley-Freeman (D-Tulsa), Tom Dugger (R-Stillwater), John Haste (R-Broken Arrow), Chris Kidd (R-Waurika), Roland Pederson (R-Burlington), Dewayne Pemberton (R-Muskogee), Paul Scott (R-Duncan), and Jason Smalley (R-Stroud). 

Senators voting in favor were David Bullard (R-Durant), Marty Quinn (R-Claremore), Wayne Shaw (R-Grove), Joe Newhouse (R-Broken Arrow), Gary Stanislawski (R-Tulsa), and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat (R-Edmond).

Parent Jessica Visalli supported the bill. She told the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City that her son "has been beaten multiple times in the head with a fist as he was walking in a classroom at the middle school."

Ensuring student safety

Oklahoma voters support educational choice

According to a new statewide survey commissioned by OCPA and conducted by Cor Strategies (502 likely Oklahoma voters; the margin of error is plus/minus 4.37 percent):

• Oklahoma voters support educational choice. Among Republicans, the support is overwhelming.
• When asked what type of school they would select for their own children, roughly half of Oklahomans say they would choose a traditional public school. 
• A plurality of Oklahomans says public schools lack accountability.

Click on the links above to learn more. Trent England and I discussed the survey results today on The Trent England Show. (Be sure to catch the show every weekday at lunchtime on OCPA’s Facebook and YouTube channels. If you miss it live, Trent's archive is here or listen to the podcast on Soundcloud or iTunes.)

Parents, student say bullying a problem in Edmond school district

"Outlining his own case of cyberbullying, a high school student urged Edmond School Board members and administrators to do more to combat the problem," Steve Gust reports for The Oklahoman.

Drew O'Daniel, a sophomore at Edmond Memorial High School, was granted five minutes to speak to the five-member board during its regular meeting Monday night. ... O'Daniel's comments came a month after his mother, Cara O'Daniel, requested the school board do more about bullying prevention. She and another mom, Julie Daniel, told the board there still were too many incidents of bullying in the Edmond school district.

Edmond public information director Susan Parks-Schlepp said the district policy has strict guidelines against bullying and takes every reported case seriously. Yet, neither Drew nor Cara O'Daniel believed their concerns were taken seriously by the district. ... He explained his was not an isolated incident. He cited the case of a girl, who attended Edmond schools but is now home schooled because of being taunted. He made his comments at the beginning of Monday's meeting when 150 to 200 other students and school patrons were present because of pending recognition for National Merit Semi-Finalists and the Edmond North High School state championship cheer team. 

After he spoke to the board, the room applauded. While being interviewed, two school patrons he didn't know offered him free counseling, as well as free martial arts training. "What I really want is for the school board and the administrators to do more about bullying," he said. 

Both Edmond Superintendent Bret Towne and Memorial Principal Tony Rose said they could not comment on the case. Yet, Towne, after the meeting, admitted the overall issue was still under review. "We know we have a ways to go," he said. 

A billboard in Edmond, Jan. 24, 2012

Well, yes. And how soon might the problem be solved? What shall bullied students and their parents do in the meantime? One Edmond parent told a reporter seven years ago, "On one front your child’s spirit is broken, and there is no more frustrating feeling than watching your child be abused. The other front is the fact that the school administration just wants you and the problem to go away."

The problems persist, even in Edmond. The district has a very good reputation—indeed, the average student in Edmond is performing better in math than 65 percent of students in the nation and 54 percent of students in other developed economies—but that doesn't mean every school is a good fit for every child, especially children who are being bullied.

I'm sure most Edmond parents and students are satisfied with their school. Others simply would like to see the district do more to address bullying. But for bullied students who need help now, they deserve (even if they opt not to use it) a ticket out in the form of a voucher, a tax credit, or an education savings account.

School choice, not 'anti-bullying' programs

A new study says anti-bullying programs may actually increase bullying. Whoops. As I never tire of repeating, bullied students need a life preserver right now.

Shelton proposes vouchers 'if parents feel their children are unsafe'

"Parents who object to their local public schools' arming teachers and administrators could send their children to private schools at state expense under legislation filed Monday by Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City," Randy Krehbiel reports in the Tulsa World. And though Rep. Shelton and I are coming at this from different points of view, I agree with his statement that "if parents feel their children are unsafe ... then schools should provide vouchers so kids can go elsewhere."

Bullied students sending distress signals, need life preserver

It’s no secret that bullying is a big problem in Oklahoma’s schools. Examples of emotional, mental, and physical abuse are too numerous to chronicle.

Parents in Broken Arrow, for example, say their son was beaten with nunchucks by another student, had his head forced into a toilet, and was even shoved by a substitute teacher. Unsurprisingly, the boy cried daily and said he wanted to kill himself.

One mother in Tulsa says she was compelled to leave her job as an engineer in order to tutor her son after school because the Tulsa public schools failed to protect him from harm. For three years she came to the school playground during recess to ensure his safety.

Patricia Hughes, an educational psychology professor at Oklahoma State University, says bullying in Oklahoma schools “is leading to suicide more and more often, more and more young. We’re seeing an escalation in the incidents, in the violence. Here, we’re seeing suicides happening very, very, very close to us.”

Last year in The Edmond Sun, Patty Miller reported that

After being told by school administrators “that is just the way middle school students act and hopefully within a few months these girls would target someone else,” the Duncans requested that more be done.

After interviewing the girls the administrator told the Duncans’ daughter that things were probably going to get worse and she would just have to live through it.

An hour after the interview Kathleen picked her daughter up for lunch. “She was standing at the curb, shaking all over,” Kathleen said. “She jumped in the car, curled up in a fetal position on the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably.”

The Duncans had her evaluated by a professional counselor who advised them she was too traumatized to return to this school environment. She would never feel safe there again.

“That is when we moved her to a private Catholic school,” Duncan said. “Luckily we found the money to pay for private school tuition, unlike many parents who do not have that option.” ...

“On one front your child’s spirit is broken,” Duncan said, “and there is no more frustrating feeling than watching your child be abused.”

“The other front is the fact that the school administration just wants you and the problem to go away.”

No child should “just have to live through it” (and indeed, the kids who commit suicide don’t). Victims of bullying deserve an escape hatch.

Fortunately, those victims who happen to be special-needs students can receive a Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship to go to a private school. But we need to give all bullying victims a way of escape. If indeed school administrators “just want you and the problem to go away,” then bullying victims should have that option.

In a new report published by the Independent Women’s Forum, Dr. Vicki Murray Alger says “students should not have to wait years at a time or become victims of violent crime before their parents are allowed to transfer them to safer schools.” She recommends that states adopt a Safety Opportunity Scholarship (SOS) program which would empower parents to transfer their children immediately to a safe school, whether that school is public or private.

With all these children sending out distress signals, it’s time for the legislature to toss them a life preserver.

[Cross posted at Inter Alia]