Murch Kids Report: The line between bad behavior and bullying

Illustration by Misha Zvoncov, Murch Blue and Gold staff

by Edward Williams and Ella DuFresne
Murch Blue and Gold staff

A student remembers the day when a group of kids “started to make fun of me…After that, I was so sad that I … cried,” the student said.

Was that bullying? Is it bullying to tease a student about a test score? Or insult a kid with a common curse word? Or shove another student? Or steal a kid’s snack? It all depends on how bullying is defined.

Lauren Miller, the guidance counselor at Murch, said that “when someone hurts someone else on purpose, that’s bullying.” Timothy Brady, a 4th-grade teacher, said he believed bullying occurs when “someone repeatedly does something unkind and knows it’s unkind.”

But bullying is a more complex and serious matter as the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) defines it.

The district’s definition stresses a persistent act of conduct – physical, electronic, or verbal – that attacks a person’s distinguishing characteristics, such as race, gender, sex, age or disability. When a group of students organize a campaign against another student, that is bullying, too, according to the district’s rules.

That high standard is a good thing, Principal Chris Cebrzynski (Mr. C) said, because it requiresd full, high-level investigations to the most serious cases. Mr. C said that, in his 12 years as principal, he could recall no more than five cases “serious enough to meet DCPS’s standard of bullying.”

But even a single incident of hurtful behavior can be devastating for the victim, Ms. Miller noted.

“I’ve seen people at Murch teasing each other because of their differences. It makes people feel unwanted, helpless. Sometimes they don’t want to come to school. They might have trouble sleeping at night. They just feel sad.”

What should students do when they believe they were targets of bullying? “They should tell a trusted adult in Murch at once and then tell their parents,” Mr. C advised. Or they can inform someone on the mental health team: Ms. Miller, psychologist Sam Fisk or social worker Allison Worship.

The alleged victim of the harassment mentioned at the beginning of this story did just that. “I told Ms. Miller what had happened,” that student recalled. “After that, each of the kids who bullied me had to go to Ms. Miller’s room and personally (apologize) to me.”

(Blue and Gold editor’s note: To protect privacy, the B&G omitted information that could help readers to identify the students involved in this incident).

Forest Hills Connection is taking a break this week, with the help of talented fourth and fifth grade student reporters from Murch Elementary. With permission, we’re republishing some of the work from the tenth anniversary edition of the Blue and Gold, the student newspaper established in 2013.