So much for zero tolerance - Haaretz

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Fri., November 16, 2007 Kislev 6, 5768

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So much for zero tolerance

By Cnaan Liphshiz

tags: anti-violence policies

Waiting for the doctor with their bruised 10-year-old son last month, the boy's parents - both new immigrants from the U.K. who settled in Ra'anana - could find little solace in the city's zero-tolerance policy to schoolyard violence. The boy said a bully had attacked him at school, but the headmistress said he fell and no one was to blame. Eventually, the boy switched to another school.

The headmistress said Simon (not the boy's real name) fell while playing. "Simon was not beaten and so there was no one to punish. We are following the municipal procedures for cases of violence," the principal told Anglo File.

The anti-violence protocol Ra'anana Mayor Nahum Hofri implemented two years ago requires uniform action against violent pupils, thereby limiting principals' degree of discretion. Under the plan, first-time offenders are sent to detention during breaks. Re-offenders are suspended for one day. Third-strikers are immediately suspended pending a talk and punishment. But no action can be taken unless a violent incident is proven to have taken place.

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In Simon's case, violence was not proven because his schoolmates said after the incident that he had fallen, contradicting Simon's claims that the alleged bully shoved him to the ground. Simon's father says he believes the other children are not telling the truth because "they are scared the bully might come after them next."

According to the boy's father, who did not witness the incident, the headmistress is covering up the truth. "Simon didn't just fall and she knows it. He told us it happened in plain sight in front of everybody in the schoolyard."

Simon's parents, who recently enrolled him elsewhere, say the incident was not an isolated occurrence. "This happened after three weeks of verbal abuse, kicking, hitting and foul language from the same boy," Simon's father wrote Hofri after the incident.

Simon's father, who arrived in Israel with his family in January, talked to the teachers at his son's former school about the taunting. He said he got the impression the teaching staff was determined to take no action, and even tried to blame Simon for running into social trouble.

When Simon's father posted his story online at an Internet forum for parents, he received 25 e-mails from parents who'd had similar experiences. Many responders were from the English-speaking community. They complained of indifferent teachers and principals who refused to take action.

One responder told Anglo File he advises against "taking the Anglo approach of being polite and patient." The man, whose son ran into similar trouble at his school last year, advocated "going in there yelling and getting angry if need be." The man and his wife eventually moved their child to a private school to escape bullies.

Some parents who responded to the story advised martial arts classes and instructing children to stand up and hit back. Others urged Simon's father to threaten the school with litigation in an attempt to prompt the teaching staff to act, while others favored complaining to the Ministry of Education and the municipality. All were clearly well-versed in handling bullying within the Israeli school system.

As many respondents pointed out, some schools appear to be taking a tougher stance on violence than others - despite the uniform protocol. "The first question my wife asked the principal at the new school was about their violence policy," Simon's father said. "They told us violent children are not allowed in the classroom until any complaint is checked out and determined to be true or false. That's exactly what we wanted to hear."

Vania Tzadka, chair of the parents association at Shaked Elementary School in Ra'anana and a mother of four children, says the new protocol has helped improve matters.

"Principals won't try to cover up violent incidents because of this protocol. The steps that the protocol dictates are strict enough to make a difference for children, but they're still not too drastic or harsh," Tzadka said. "They are measured and gradual."

Chenia Shamir, former headmistress at Meged Elementary School in Ra'anana, told Anglo File that she believed the new provisions were put in place to help principals with new circumstances. "Things have changed since my days, in the 1980s. The schools have changed, and the new procedures serve to address that change."

In response to Anglo File's questions about Simon's case, Ra'anana Municipality spokesperson Poli Kovdala said that "when a principal tells us the school's version of how a child was injured, their account is taken into consideration, but it's not the final word on the subject."

Kovdala added that Simon's parents will be invited for a meeting to discuss the investigation and get to the bottom of the incident. Mayor Hofri wrote Simon's parents to tell them he found their letter of complaint about the incident "disconcerting," and that it will be duly processed and checked. It remains doubtful whether the probe's outcome will be of much significance to Simon, who is in the process of adjusting to his new school.

Bullying is not endemic to Anglo immigrants but it is a common problem for the members of the community, U.S.-born educational psychologist specialist Sara Silber from Ra'anana said.

Silber, who runs the Child and Family Life Skills Seminar Center, says certain inherent traits some Anglo children display may invite bullies. "It's a matter of cultural gaps. Because Anglo children are often more introverted, timid or polite, they are sometimes perceived as being weak by other children," Silber said.

A mixed approach, Silber said, is the best policy to address the problem. She supports taking the school, child and circumstances into consideration when addressing the problem of bullying. "There's no easy fix. It depends on individual people. Sometimes martial arts are a good idea. At other times, it's best to change classes or schools. Role playing with the child can help. And applying pressure on the teaching staff in case of bullying can also have results."

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