The School Climate Resource Center

Safe Schools Improvement Act is Introduced to the U.S. Senate
In January of 2009, California Representative Linda Sanchez   originally introduced the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) into the House of Representatives. CSEE has been following the progress of this act since the tragic death of Carl Walker Hoover. Hoover was eleven years old when he hung himself due to consecutive bullying and taunts of being gay. If the bill is passed it will prohibit acts of violence and bullying against any student regardless of their background including race, color, religion and national origin. For the first time, this act will include discriminating against sexual orientation and gender identity. According to Human Rights Campaign three fifths of students reported feeling unsafe in their school environment based on their sexual orientation. An overwhelming 44% of LGBT reported experiencing physical harassment. In January of 2009, California Representative Linda Sanchez   originally introduced the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) into the House of Representatives. CSEE has been following the progress of this act since the tragic death of Carl Walker Hoover. Hoover was eleven years old when he hung himself due to consecutive bullying and taunts of being gay. If the bill is passed it will prohibit acts of violence and bullying against any student regardless of their background including race, color, religion, national origin For the first time, this act will include discriminating against sexual orientation and gender identity. According to Human Rights Campaign three fifths of students reported feeling unsafe in their school environment based on their sexual orientation. An overwhelming 44% of LGBT reported experiencing physical harassment. If you are asking how you can help, and want to learn more about the SSIA, click here. There are plenty of other resources that students, educators and parents can use to help put an end to bullying. Please visit www.bullybust.org to see how you can help. This fall BullyBust will be placing an inspiring educational supplement in classrooms around the nation.Join a nationwide community of educators in the Partner School Program, and sign the STAND UP pledge to show your commitment. Get involved and see how you can be a part of the change. Now more than ever kids need our support. Together we can put an end to bullying! Please sign up for our newsletter and recieve updates on bully prevention awarness, and learn more about what we are doing at CSEE to help.

Taking A Different Look At The Pheobe Prince Case
When the news of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince’s tragic suicide came out in January 2010, the entire country was deeply troubled by the circumstances of her death. At CSEE, we were equally concerned, and shared a number of key resources to help students and adults address this issue effectively their schools. In the months after her death, parents, community members, and school officials grappled with how to deal with this tragedy and prevent future harassment and bullying. Recently, six South Hadley teens were charged in relation to Phoebe’s death, and now many are questioning the appropriate way to handle this unthinkable situation - from the school’s involvement and reaction to the role of the alleged tormentors and Phoebe’s own mental health American Journalist and Senior Editor of the online magazine Slate, Emily Bazelon recently wrote a controversial article where she walks her readers through all the major factors that took place in the Phoebe Prince story. In the article, Bazelon highlights the warning signs that should have been seen, and the “too little too late” actions that are now taking place. Bazelon mentions the emotional issues that Phoebe had and were repeatedly ignored by South Hadley school officials. Continue reading to see Emily Bazelon’s recent interview on the Today show. After the article was released Bazelon received some negative feedback. Many fear that Pheobe’s unstable emotional state in the months before her death will be used in the defense case. Recently Phoebe’s father, Jeremy Prince spoke to Slate and addressed the psychological disorder that Phoebe had been facing in the time leading up to her death. In the interview Jeremy mentions that Phoebe was seeing a therapist who reported she was at no risk for suicide. Continue reading to hear more of his story. With all the evidence that Phoebe’s warning signs may have been ignored, Dr. Harold Koplewicz takes a deeper look into the link between bullying and a child’s psychiatric state. Koplewicz is a leading child and adolescent psychiatrists and has been doing research on cyberbullying and how it may effect a child’s well being. When a child can hide behind a computer screen, it can make it much easier for them to insult someone. ”Bullies usually have problems with impulse control and hyperactivity. Many of them have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)...Victims, on the other hand, are more likely than their peers to feel low self-worth and experience depression” says Koplewicz. Koplewicz released an article in Huffington Post which goes deeper into the psychiatric issues that may be associated with bullying. When the news of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince’s tragic suicide came out in January 2010, the entire country was deeply troubled by the circumstances of her death. At CSEE, we were equally concerned, and shared a number of key resources to help students and adults address this issue effectively their schools. In the months after her death, parents, community members, and school officials grappled with how to deal with this tragedy and prevent future harassment and bullying. Recently, six South Hadley teens were charged in relation to Phoebe’s death, and now many are questioning the appropriate way to handle this unthinkable situation - from the school’s involvement and reaction to the role of the alleged tormentors and Phoebe’s own mental health American Journalist and Senior Editor of the online magazine Slate, Emily Bazelon recently wrote a controversial article where she walks her readers through all the major factors that took place in the Phoebe Prince story. In the article, Bazelon highlights the warning signs that should have been seen, and the “too little too late” actions that are now taking place. Bazelon mentions the emotional issues that Phoebe had and were repeatedly ignored by South Hadley school officials. See below for Emily Bazelon’s recent interview on the Today show. After the article was released Bazelon received some negative feedback. Many fear that Pheobe’s unstable emotional state in the months before her death will be used in the defense case. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Recently Phoebe’s father, Jeremy Prince had spoken to Slate and addressed the psychological disorder that Phoebe had been facing in the time leading up to her death. In the interview Jeremy mentions that Phoebe was seeing a therapist who reported she was at no risk for suicide. Continue reading to hear more of his story. With all the evidence that Phoebe’s warning signs may have been ignored, Dr. Harold Koplewicz takes a deeper look into the link between bullying and a child’s psychiatric state. Koplewicz is a leading child and adolescent psychiatrists and has been doing research on cyberbullying and how it may effect a child’s well being. When a child can hide behind a computer screen, it can make it much easier for them to insult someone. ”Bullies usually have problems with impulse control and hyperactivity. Many of them have Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)...Victims, on the other hand, are more likely than their peers to feel low self-worth and experience depression” says Koplewicz. Koplewicz released an article in Huffington Post which goes deeper into the psychiatric issues that may be associated with bullying. Many children and adolescents can be showing warning signs or a cry for help. If you or someone you know has been bullied or is a victim of cyberbullying, please visit our BullyBust page for free resources and to learn more about our Breaking the Bully workshop visit us at schoolclimate.org. Together we can help our society’s children speak up and put an end to bullying.

Bullying Now and Then. What’s New?
If you grew up in the 80’s hopefully you are familiar with the classic movie hit “My Bodyguard”. This film gave students and parents an eye opening view into the world of the bully victim. Now, thirty years later we as a society are still struggling with the consequences of bullying. Recently, BullyBust was featured in a piece about bullying and how it isn’t just “going away” and it’s not just “kids being kids” My Bodyguard: Bullying, Cyber-bullying and CSEE – The Center for Social and Emotional Education — Steve Krupa The movie My Bodyguard was a pretty big hit when I was a teenager in the 1980’s, and I remember seeing it and cheering for Clifford (Chris Makepeace) in his battle with the incessant bullying dished out by Moody (Matt Dillon). It’s a pretty good movie. Sure, the kids get their revenge on the bullies, something I doubt many bullying victims actually seek, but it does a great job of capturing the eeriness of bullying. I remember wondering whether the bullies I grew up with rooted for Matt Dillon, who plays the bully with an absolutely perfect creepy heartlessness, and who, of course, gets his in the end. I might be all grown-up but bullying continues, in both direct and virtual form; yes, today’s kids bully online too. Yesterday the New York Times launched the first article of an ongoing series called Poisoned Web, with an expose’ covering “cyber-bullying” – a newly coined term that covers all sorts of creative abuse that takes place through texting and on social networking platforms like Facebook.If you grew up in the 80’s hopefully you are familiar with the classic movie hit “My Bodyguard”. This film gave students and parents an eye opening view into the world of the bully victim. Now, thirty years later we as a society are still struggling with the consequences of bullying. Recently, BullyBust was featured in a piece about bullying and how it isn’t just “going away” and it’s not just “kids being kids” My Bodyguard: Bullying, Cyber-bullying and CSEE – The Center for Social and Emotional Education — Steve Krupa The movie My Bodyguard was a pretty big hit when I was a teenager in the 1980’s, and I remember seeing it and cheering for Clifford (Chris Makepeace) in his battle with the incessant bullying dished out by Moody (Matt Dillon). It’s a pretty good movie. Sure, the kids get their revenge on the bullies, something I doubt many bullying victims actually seek, but it does a great job of capturing the eeriness of bullying. I remember wondering whether the bullies I grew up with rooted for Matt Dillon, who plays the bully with an absolutely perfect creepy heartlessness, and who, of course, gets his in the end. I might be all grown-up but bullying continues, in both direct and virtual form; yes, today’s kids bully online too. Yesterday the New York Times launched the first article of an ongoing series called Poisoned Web, with an expose’ covering “cyber-bullying” – a newly coined term that covers all sorts of creative abuse that takes place through texting and on social networking platforms like Facebook. Bullying has also gained national notice because of the case of Phoebe Prince (see the April 15, 2010 People Magazine’s cover story: Bullied to Death? Phoebe Prince: Her Final Days) who committed suicide on January 14, 2010 after months of being bullied by her classmates in the western Massachusetts town of South Hadley (near Springfield). Phoebe faced both direct confrontation and cyber-bullying, through negative Facebook messages and texts.   Phoebe Prince’s suicide has spawned a wave of anti-bullying legislation through the US, including a new Massachusetts statute passed on May 3, 2010, and another passed in New York just yesterday. The New York Times article does a good job of exposing some of the legal boundaries, many of them free speech related, to combatting forms of bullying that stop short of physical violence.     Over the years we have come to learn that there are long-lasting social effects to incidences of bullying. Its existence severely subverts the social atmosphere in schools and the emotional development of kids, regardless of whether they’re the ones doing the bullying, getting bullied, or just passively watching. Today we know that nearly 9 out of 10 kids say they have seen someone bullied and at least 10% of all kids are bullied on a regular basis. The National Crime Prevention Council reports cyber-bullying is a problem that affects more than 40% of all American teens and that, of those affected, almost 60% do not tell their parents or another adult (teacher) about the incident. We also know that bullies are 4 times more likely to evolve into criminals and that being bullied can cause children to experience fear, depression, loneliness, anxiety, low self-esteem, physical illness, and in some cases, even, as noted in the Phoebe Prince case and others, suicidal thoughts or even suicide. We also know that bullying can be reduced by up to 50% when there’s a school-wide commitment to end it. One organization committed to working to reduce bullying in schools is New York-based CSEE (The Center for Social and Emotional Education).   George Igel, MD, psychiatrist, fellow healthcare investor and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for CSEE first introduced me and my partners at Psilos to CSEE a few years ago and we have been supporting its work ever since. CSEE was founded in 1996 at Teachers College, Columbia University and their mission today “is to measure and improve the climate for learning in schools to help children realize their fullest potential as individuals and as engaged members of society.” One of these initiatives is to develop the tools and resources to create a school-wide climate intolerant of bullying.    CSEE’s bellwether program is called BullyBust, an awareness campaign designed to reduce bullying in schools by teaching students and adults how to stand up to bullying and promote Upstander Behavior including: helping others who have been bullied, stopping untrue or harmful messages from spreading, making friends outside of current cliques, and befriending new students, to name a few (See the 10 ways to become an Upstander here. Also see a library of student produced “Upstander Videos” here). The BullyBust program has recently teamed up with the hit Broadway musical Wicked to bring the Witches of Oz (Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, faced discrimination when she was young because of her green skin and strange mannerisms) to classrooms across the country to teach important bully prevention strategies. If you are intested in seeing Wicked please use the code “CSEE” when purchasing tickets and a portion of the sales proceeds goes to support BullyBust. Meanwhile, in case you’ve forgotten what it feels like to face the wrath of the bully, check out My Bodyguard.

School Climate Briefing On Capitol Hill Re-Cap
On Tuesday, June 15th the NCY held a Capitol Hill briefing on School Climate and Academic Achievement Usign Data to Improve Conditions for Learning and Youth outcomes             Hosted by the National Collaboration for Youth, over 100 congressional and agency staff, members of the NCY and the community were in attendance. This briefing on Capitol Hill was driven to educate key decision-makers about the importance of school climate measurement and improvement as part of a comprehensive school improvement effort nationwide, and will underscore how these efforts will directly ensure that students are safe, supported, and healthy. The Obama Administration’s blueprint for reauthorizaton of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) includes an emphasis on using data to improve studenets’ safety, healthy and well-being. States and districts will need to utilize school climate surveys and assessment tools, like CSEE’s research-based Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) to inform and guide their decisions.                               Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) and Co-Chair of National School Climate Council. Dr. Cohen highlighted the importance of school climate in schools, the value of having a shared definition of school climate as well as the need for a research-based evaluation tool. To see more key points that Dr. Cohen touched on during his session please click here Read about other speakers at this event: On Tuesday, June 15th the NCY held a Capitol Hill briefing on School Climate and Academic Achievement Usign Data to Improve Conditions for Learning and Youth outcomes              Hosted by the National Collaboration for Youth, over 100 congressional and agency staff, members of the NCY and the community were in attendance. This briefing on Capitol Hill was driven to educate key decision-makers about the importance of school climate measurement and improvement as part of a comprehensive school improvement effort nationwide, and will underscore how these efforts will directly ensure that students are safe, supported, and healthy. The Obama Administration’s blueprint for reauthorizaton of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) includes an emphasis on using data to improve studenets’ safety, healthy and well-being. States and districts will need to utilize school climate surveys and assessment tools, like CSEE’s research-based Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (CSCI) to inform and guide their decisions.                               Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) and Co-Chair of National School Climate Council. Dr. Cohen highlighted the importance of school climate in schools, the value of having a shared definition of school climate as well as the need for a research-based evaluation tool. To see more key points that Dr. Cohen touched on during his session please click here Read about other speakers at this event and view their key speaking points please see below. Dr. Shane Lopez, Senior Scientist at Gallup and architect of the Gallup Student Poll Mr. Doug Hall, President of Pride Surveys Dr. Greg Austin, Director of Health and Human Development at WestED Dr. Peter Benson, President of Search Institute Dr. David Osher, Vice President at American Institutes for Research (AIR) All of the speakers above discussed practical implications of measuring school climate and implementing improvement plans in coordination with parents, non-profit organizations and community leaders. To read a complete synopsis of the briefing on Capital Hill please click here For more information on measuring school climate please visit our website and also sign up for our newsletter

Pennsylvania Focuses on School Climate for Student Success
Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President of the Center for Social and Emotional Education,was the featured keynote speaker for Student Services Symposium-2010, presented by the Pennsylvania Department of Education Pennsylvania Department of Educatoin hosted it’s fifth annual symposium to support their schools on Monday May 17th, 2010. The event focused on components integral to developing resilience to enable each student to grow into an inspired, productive, fulfilled life-long learner and to become a responsible citizen. In his keynote address “Measuring and Improving School Climate: A School Improvement Strategy that Supports the Whole Child and the Whole School Community,” Dr. Cohen spoke about components of current school climate theory and research and policy guidelines that integrate research from school reform, social emotional learning, character education, community schools, risk prevention and health/mental health promotion; and practice guidelines that support school communities actualizing school climate standards. He also described the tasks and challenges related to the implementation of school climate standards that enable students, parents/guardians and school personnel learning and working together to create safer, more supportive and engaging schools.    View the video from the conference below. Dr. Jonathan Cohen, President and Co-Founder of the Center for Social and Emotional Education,was the featured keynote speaker for Student Services Symposium-2010, presented by the Pennsylvania Department of Education Pennsylvania Department of Educatoin hosted it’s fifth annual symposium to support their schools on Monday May 17th, 2010. The event focused on components integral to developing resilience to enable each student to grow into an inspired, productive, fulfilled life-long learner and to become a responsible citizen. In his keynote address “Measuring and Improving School Climate: A School Improvement Strategy that Supports the Whole Child and the Whole School Community,” Dr. Cohen spoke about components of current school climate theory and research and policy guidelines that integrate research from school reform, social emotional learning, character education, community schools, risk prevention and health/mental health promotion; and practice guidelines that support school communities actualizing school climate standards. He also described the tasks and challenges related to the implementation of school climate standards that enable students, parents/guardians and school personnel learning and working together to create safer, more supportive and engaging schools. See below for a video of Dr. Cohen speaking at the Event. Sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about the latest school climate efforts or contact us to find out how CSEE’s programs can support your school or district.