By Craig Garrison
The entire nation is aware of bullying and its effects on students. There are a host of national campaigns and programs to address this topic head on. Here in the CNMI we are also staying active on the anti-bullying front with proposed legislation and the creation of policy for the protection of cyber-bullying among other forms now being introduced at both the state and school district levels. Most notably being introduced by students themselves, which is rather ironic in as much as adults are supposed to be protecting them.
But what happens when the bully is the teacher or administrator? Where is the policy language to speak to that? Where do students go when the very people we tell them to go to when they are being bullied are actually the ones who are doing the bullying? This conduct happens in schools districts across America and in many cases the student chooses to simply change schools when it gets out of hand. Unfortunately, here in the CNMI our students do not have the luxury of choosing schools. Recent research shows that there is likely at least one bully teacher or administrator in every school. For staffing patterns that are at or above 100 employees that number increases. What that equates to at the high school level in the CNMI is that the single bully teacher has an estimated 120 students under their charge that may be subject to their bullying on a daily basis and this can be seriously devastating for the student and even affecting their family.