New Hampshire's Virtual Town Hall

Recent news regarding bullying

"When her son began first grade this year, Kathy Spuler didn’t think bullying would be an issue at such a young age. But then her 6-year-old son had his lunch stolen and was told by another student that he was going to rip his arms off.

'Just horrific stuff for a first-grader to hear,' Spuler told school officials at a public hearing Monday night. 'To have this occur within the first two weeks of school was just shocking to me. It’s starting at such a young age.'

Spuler, who became emotional when talking about what her son went through, said school staff were quick to address the problem. But as the Board of Education prepares to revise its policy on bullying, which include protocol for responding to and preventing it, Spuler and others pleaded with school officials to start emphasizing anti-bullying behaviors as early as elementary school.

Monday night’s public input session was part of a district response to the new anti-bullying legislation passed in Concord over the summer. The law requires all school districts to have an anti-bullying policy, including adding cyberbullying to the definition of bullying. That can take place with cell phones, social networking sites or e-mails.

The new law would also define bullying to have occurred, even if off school property, 'if the conduct interferes with a pupil’s educational opportunities or substantially disrupts the orderly operations of the school.' There are also guidelines in the law for how to handle bullying once reported, requiring schools to investigate all incidents.

Nashua has a policy on bullying, which requires principals to act on all complaints of bullying, including contacting the parents involved, within 48 hours. But the district’s policy does not include any mention of cyberbullying. Superintendent Mark Conrad said the district has until Jan. 1 to revise its policy so it complies with the new state law.

'In some ways, this law goes beyond where we have typically been or quite frankly into some arenas where in the past principals may have felt they didn’t have the ability to take action,' Conrad said.

Part of that process began with Monday’s public input session on bullying, a topic that drew an unusually large crowd of about 40 people. Several students, parents and educators spoke to the board members, urging them to put forth a policy that reflects an effort to start teaching students early on that their behavior has repercussions.

Jonathan Thyne, a senior at Nashua High School South, felt compelled to do something after reading about a slew of suicides that were a result of bullying. Thyne wants to start a project in the district to help address bullying by speaking frankly to middle school students about the depression and anxiety that can be caused by bullying.

'They need to understand it’s more than just a matter of hurting someone’s feelings,' Thyne said.

Beth Grunewald, 23, doesn’t live in Nashua, but felt compelled to come out because of the impact bullying had on her life. Speaking before the board, the Merrimack resident talked about how she was teased about her size. At one point at a bus stop, she had perfume sprayed on her while a lighter was held up to the spray coming out of the bottle. By the time she was 14, she tried to kill herself."