Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
The Havre Public Schools administration conducted a confidential survey of sixth- through eighth-grade students during the last two weeks that may answer a question on which some parents and the district administration have differing views: how safe is it to attend Havre Middle School? “I want to hear from you. I want to hear what you have to say about it,” Superintendent Dennis Parman told the school’s seventh-graders Tuesday morning while introducing the computerized survey to them. Parman will present the results of the survey at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the middle school. Some parents in the district have said their students are continually harrassed, bullied and exposed to inappropriate behavior in the middle school, enough that they are looking into sending their children to other schools. Going to the administration has not helped, some say. “My son is still being bullied. It happened again yes terday, ” Carol Pr indivi l le sai d Wednesday. Prindiville said she and her husband, Scott, are looking into local options for other schools, such as St. Jude Thaddeus School or Cottonwood Elementary School north of Havre. Parman and middle school Principal Vance Blatter say what happens at the school are normal occurances when dealing with a large group of adolescents ages 11-14. “It’s an ongoing situation,” said Blatter, who has been principal at the middle school for 10 years. “I don’t see it any more this year." Blatter added that the situations change every year, including new faculty joining the staff, new students joining the student body and new situations arising. That can require new tactics. “Everything we do is not always effective, so we look for new ways and new solutions,” he said. Behavior at the school But parents have told Havre Daily News staff that their children report seeing, almost every day, inappropriate behavior. That includes tobacco use, alcohol use, bullying, fighting and profanity, they say, sometimes causing their children to literally refuse to go to the middle school. Prindiville said the problem is not as minor as the school administration is saying it is rampant and nothing seems to be improving. Reporting incidents of bullying doesn’t really help, it results in retaliation, she added. She said that, one day, a student opened the window of a bus to shout profanities at her child because he reported the other student for bullying, with nothing happening to the student shouting the profanities. “He’s even stopped telling us now because things get worse,” Prindiville said. “When the teachers confront the bullies at school the kids retaliate, so he’s even stopped talking to us.” Prindiville said her son was grabbed by the neck and struck in the stomach, last week, while in the cafeteria for lunch. She said he told her there were no adults there when it happened. Blatter said that while incidents do happen, stopping them is a never-ending effort in a middle- school environment. While, he said, this year is probably no worse on average for student misbehavior, there were some students earlier in the year who showed “extreme” behavior including severe outbursts, signs of rage and using extreme profanity. That exposed other students to more extreme incidents than usual, he said. Blatter said when that occurs, the school’s staff has to find ways to help those students. “Being a public institution, we have a responsibility to all of our students,” he said, “finding an avenue that’s going to be successful” in helping those students, sometimes needing resources that are not immediately available. Dealing with the environment With the changes going on in children’s lives during the middle-school age, some conflicts and undesirable behavior are inevitable, Blatter said. With hormonal changes, changes in their group of classmates, and the children just starting to have to form their own ideas and views as young adults, situations will arise he said. Parman, who worked at a middle school in Billings at one point in his career, made similar comments. “I’ve worked in middle schools for a long time,” he said. “It’s a hard age at the very best of conditions.” While the members of the school staff do try to prevent incidents from happening and try to teach appropriate behavior, some bad behavior will occur, Blatter said. “A true bully, they’re going to find a place (to bully others) and that’s what we’re trying to identify,” he said. Part of the perception of what is happening at the school may be related to changes in society, Blatter added. With a desire for instant action and reaction, students may take action without thinking of the consequences. “I think as a society all of our behaviors have escalated,” he s a i d. “Do we s e e s ome extreme behavior here? Yes we do.” One of the changes involves cyber-bullying, Blatter said. Some students have to deal with harassment over the Internet at home, and that carries over into the school. It can even happen during school, with students harassing other students with text messages over cell phones or other electronic devices. “It puts a whole new spin on a lot of it, and we’re dealing with that,” Blatter said. Middle school policies Blatter said the HMS tries to prevent, stop and teach students not to use undesirable behavior, and is constantly reevaluating and changing its policies as needed. One recent change is to adjust the schedule for lunches and to have teachers escort the students to and from the cafeteria. “Research indicates the biggest part of bullying happens when you have large groups of kids in a confined area,” he said. During the lunch period, staff members are to patrol the cafeteria, watching for and stopping undesirable behavior. At the same time, they are visiting with the students. “That’s engaging the kids, trying to use the time to engage the kids,” he said, adding that one goal of the middle school is for staff members to build relationships with the students. Between classes, the staff members are asked to watch the students in the hallways, supervising their behavior while they are going from class to class, Blatter said. The school has also implemented a passport system students need to use to leave their classes, so the staff members “know where the kids are at all times,” he said. The pol icy of involving police is effective at showing the students how seriously the school takes innapropriate behavior, Blatter said. “(It's) serious enough that we involve law enforcement. That’s how serious we are,” he said. “We’re making a stand,” showing the students their behavior is not right while working to provide a safe environment. Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Kevin Buerkle said that he has seen no evidence that problems at the middle school are increasing. “Situations do arise,” he added. School policy requires calling law enforcement depending on the situation, generally when incidents would lead to a citation on a charge of minor in possession of intoxicants or tobacco, disorderly conduct, or even assault. Buerkle said the procedure is for the school to determine if calling law enforcement is needed, then the officers investigate the incident and issue a ticket if appropriate. Once it comes to the probation office, he said, he determines the appropriate action, often trying to use an alternative such as ordering community service or requiring the youth to attend special classes rather than sending the youth to court. Blatter and Buerkle both said it is impossible to predict how often bad behavior will happen or how often police will be called it could happen twice in two days or might not happen for weeks. Parman said the school policy of calling law enforcement for extreme behavior does not have to be used very often. “It’s a very, very, very small number,” he said. “We’re not happy that it ever happens, but we are happy it’s a small number.” Middle school survey Blatter said that while he and the school district staff hear about incidents from students and parents, it is difficult to base policy on individual reports and people’s perceptions. “It has to be factual. These surveys will give us that,” he said. Each grade at the school was given a class period during a different day to complete the survey using classroom computers. The 47-question survey i s c o n f i d e n t i a l , although each student had to identify their grade, sex and ethnicity. “We will peel away the layers of the onion,” Parman said, adding that the district will be able to compare how sixth-grade boys responded to the questions versus the responses of eighth-grade boys or examine precisely how seventh- grade Native American girls respond to a certain question. The questions include asking about bullying, about use of drugs or tobacco, and how safe the students feel at school. The last two questions are open-ended, asking if the students do feel unsafe, where in the school the problem is greatest and at what times. Parman said if the students are honest in their answers and, he added, his preliminary look at the answers from the eighth-grade made him believe they are it could help to identify ways to improve the school. He asked the students to be completely honest while filling out the survey. “I think we can do a better job here, and I want to hear from you,” he told the seventhgraders during the assembly Tuesday. “It’s a pretty good place. I think we can make it better.”
