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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A new survey shows many of Kentucky's school principals have not been trained on a common assignment: how to enforce anti-bullying policies.
Ninety percent of school administrators surveyed by a school safety group last year said their school boards had passed bullying prevention policies, but slightly more than half said they were presented with copies of these policies without any formal training on how to apply them.
Less than half had a meeting to discuss the policy, and only a fourth received training afterward, according to a report released Wednesday by the Kentucky Center for School Safety.
"Bullying is probably one of the greatest frustrations that principals have," said Jon Akers, the center's executive director. "Principals need to be trained more on what they can do and how they should be handling some of these things."
The center recommends "comprehensive and meaningful" bullying prevention training for all principals and assistant principals. The training should include helping administrators distinguish between bullying and other misbehaviors, the center said.
Kentucky's principals and assistant principals are tasked with investigating reports of bullying. A total of 625 principals and assistant principals at elementary, middle and high schools across Kentucky participated in the survey between Sept. 1 and Oct. 30 of last year.
A new Kentucky law signed by Gov. Matt Bevin this year establishes a statewide definition of bullying, to be incorporated into codes of conduct at schools. This should enable schools to accurately report the number of bullying incidents, and give schools more guidance on identifying and stopping bullying, said the measure's lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Danny Carroll of Paducah.
The survey also revealed that off-campus cyberbullying is the biggest frustration of 82 percent of the high school principals and assistant principals, and 71 percent of middle school administrators. This shows that bullying is a community problem, not one just for schools, the report said.
The center recommends collaboration among schools, local governments, community agencies, businesses and faith-based institutions to present a unified anti-bullying message.
Meanwhile, 32 percent of respondents said their local anti-bullying policies have worked only "slightly well" or "not well at all."
Thirty-two percent also said their school board members had tried to intercede on behalf of parents of children who had been bullied. Akers called that troubling finding: "I think that's inappropriate from the standpoint that board members are supposed to set policy and not administer it."
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