Amid concerns about bullying, Bigfork administrators explain their process

This is the second article in a three-part series examining the effects of bullying through the lens of students, parents and faculty at Bigfork High School.

Sitting in his office, Bigfork High School Principal Mark Hansen wrings his hands over the issue of bullying in schools. He cares for his students and works to resolve conflict as best he can, but occasionally it’s not enough.

Getting to the bottom of bullying is labor intensive: meeting with the bully, meeting with the victim, and then trying to figure the situation out. Is it bullying? Or did a student make a mean remark in a one-time mistake? Maybe both students are treating each other poorly?

All are unacceptable, but once teachers and administrators understand what’s going on they can better address it.

Through the process students may give up. People get frustrated that bullying persists despite administrators' efforts. Even worse in Hansen’s opinion, they become dissuaded from reporting it.

Bigfork’s efforts to prevent bullying have come into question after the departure of several students from the district in the past year. One turned to homeschooling after allegedly suffering sustained bullying about her weight. The other left the state after years of being targeted for her race.

Hansen and other officials agreed to discuss the district’s approach after the latter student’s farewell letter to the district, which included accounts of racially-charged bullying, came to light at a school board meeting. While the board took no action, the Bigfork Eagle secured a copy of the letter through a public records request that ended with district officials turning over contact information for the student’s parent.

Bigfork High School could always improve how it handles bullying, Hansen said. Still, he feels troubled when students and parents say the faculty ignores the issue all together.

“We didn’t ignore it,” Hansen said. “You know, everybody's looking for an end when somebody treats them poorly, I get that. But we do care and we want to do the best we can for our students, we want this to be a safe place.”

When Hansen thinks about the frequency of complaints of bullying, he said he believes administrators aren’t getting enough.

“I think educating people about the difference between ‘mean' and 'bullying’ is very important. But when it is bullying, or even just being mean, I would say no, we don't have a lot of reports, but I’m not proud about that,” Hansen said.

He said he gets one or two reports a week of bullying, but after investigating and working with students and their parents, the school finds most of the reports — often stemming from social media — are incidents of verbal or digital confrontations between multiple people or groups and are not bullying by definition. He said he follows up to ensure communication has either stopped between the students or become more positive. Hansen also encourages them to return to him if the problem persists.

Administrators want students to feel comfortable coming to them with bullying issues, Hansen said.

Within Bigfork schools, bullying is defined as any harassment or threatening, insulting or demeaning gesture directed against a student that is persistent, severe, or repeated. Administrators say this is different from two students being mean to each other or a one-off instance of a student being rude.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Montana has rules for school districts when it comes to bullying. Administrative Rule 10.55.719 details what schools are required to do for the protection of their students. That’s defined as having policies to deter persistent threatening, insulting, or demeaning gestures or physical conduct, which could include anything written, verbal or said through electronic communication. The rule also has provisions to protect students who report bullying from retaliation.

Bigfork’s bullying policy outlines the district’s no tolerance approach. The policy states after an “exhaustion of administrative remedies” someone who is dealing with persistent bullying may seek redress under any available law, either civil or criminal.

When staff find out a student is being bullied, Bigfork Middle School Principal Charlie Appleby said protocol includes alerting the teaching staff — particularly those who have both students in the same class. They tell teachers to watch for the students interacting with each other in the hallway and lunchroom. The hope is that they catch an instance of bullying before it escalates. This is also their plan to stop retaliation if someone has spoken up about a bully.

When a report is filed on a student who is bullying, every instance of them picking on someone or causing trouble leads to an escalation in punishment.

Appleby said if they had a report on a student who is bullying, they would look at a list of consequences on that tier and explain what they want the child to work on. If they get more reports about the student bullying the same child or other classmates, the consequences become harsher. Eventually, they can lead to a suspension or dismissal.

“We would have the consequence, whatever that might be, and we work on making sure that those two students reconcile if possible,” Appleby said. “Especially in the middle school, it's a lot about conflict resolution, it's a lot about talking through the issues.”

Hansen said they are unable to share information about student punishments with others, which is why it might seem like an issue is going unaddressed from the victim’s perspective.

“Students don't know what happens when we talk to the bully either, and that's the hard part, right? They all want a scarlet letter or something where they can see that something's been done,” Hansen said.

A lot of bullying takes place on cellphones and computers. Hansen said they often encourage parents and students to report bullying or threats to School Resource Officer Paula Sullivan, which could result in charges depending on the severity of the case.

Hansen said both freshman and sophomores participate in an assembly at the year’s start with Sullivan about cyberbullying. They also talk about bullying in health classes and receive advice from older students through a mentorship program. He would like to see more programming aimed at their juniors and seniors. There is always room for improvement, he said.

“It’s a mean world out there and I don't know why that is. But a lot of kids, I don’t know if they understand what their words are doing to other students,” Hansen said. “... Every day is a work in progress when this comes across your desk.”

Bigfork students who shared their stories of bullying said the harassment started in middle school. Appleby said it’s common for bullies to start emerging at that age. This year the district started an anti-bullying club at the middle school. The group recently put on a presentation exploring the motivations to turn to bullying.

Bigfork Schools Superintendent Tom Stack said it can be difficult to monitor bullying because, despite disciplinary measures, the bully could continue to be mean to others. Like Hansen, Stack said they’re always trying to improve.

“I think we're doing a better job there. I think we want to know when things aren't going well for kids and we want an opportunity to try to stop this kind of behavior,” Stack said. “Sometimes we don't get an opportunity until it's too late and the student is leaving.”

Stack said the district is starting to conduct exit interviews with students transferring out of the district. Bullying was one factor behind the decision, though there were others, Stack said.

“When kids transfer out, they're hugging teachers, saying goodbye to their friends and they totally love this place and they’ll miss it,” Stack said. “But we do sometimes have students that can't wait to leave, and we don't feel good about that.”

Hansen said at Bigfork, the faculty wants to do the best they can to make it a safe place for students.

“High school is hard, middle school is hard, and I wouldn't say one's harder than the other,” Hansen said. “A lot of these kids are coming from a hard place, and we want to support them in their journey wherever they want to go.”

A previous version of this story mixed up the last name of Bigfork Middle School Principal Charlie Appleby and Bigfork High School English teacher Charlie Ball.