Pali Elementary Gets Jump Start on Bullying Prevention

By ERIKA MARTIN | Reporter

Last week, Palisades Elementary Charter School conducted a series of anti-bullying seminars in response to concerns raised after a prank call was placed to the school on Dec. 2, 2015.

Although the Los Angeles Police Department determined that the threatening phone call was “not a credible threat,” according to Senior Lead Officer Michael Moore, administration used the opportunity to preemptively address related issues.

Holly Priebe-Sotelo, a social worker with LA Unified School District’s Office of School Operations, conducted hour-long break-out sessions with each grade on Wednesday, Jan. 13 and met with parents separately on Tuesday and Thursday.

According to school principal Joan Ingle, bullying is a relatively small problem at Pali Elementary when compared with other schools.

Priebe-Sotelo said it is important that parents “don’t wait for the problems to start” but instead start an open conversation with their kids.

Practicing with your kids, teaching them that they can and how to say “no” to unwanted behavior, is instrumental in changing the stigma that asking for help is a bad thing, she said.

You can teach your child to take a stand by role-playing with a few key phrases, such as “Stop! That’s not okay,” “I feel ___ when you ___,” and “Don’t treat me that way. You wouldn’t want someone doing that to you.”

Priebe-Sotelo said with a bit of repetition, children quickly gain the confidence to make these assertive statements.

“What you focus on grows,” Priebe-Sotelo said, so try to stick with positive vocabulary and even avoid using the word “bullying.”

Urge your child to use “I” statements when expressing their feelings to avoid accusatory statements that can escalate a situation.

With the ubiquity of modern technology, Priebe-Sotelo said it is also important to teach children about the permanent, public and traceable nature of social media.

For the school district to step in to mediate a situation, behavior must be unwanted and severe or pervasive with the reasonable likelihood of fear of harm, detrimental effects on physical or mental health, and/or a substantial interference with academic performance or ability to participate.

Bullying can be physical (as is more common with boys), verbal, social (involving exclusion á la Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls”) or cyber, which is the most difficult to handle since it does not take place within the school’s jurisdiction and requires extra effort on parents’ end.

While Priebe-Sotelo pointed out that many parents’ first instinct is to request an alleged bully be removed from his or her current environment, she noted that “suspension doesn’t correct any behavior,” and the school owes every child the opportunity to work on the problematic behavior before the situation is escalated to a lengthy bureaucratic process.

Above all, she said, the child’s teacher should be the parent’s first point of contact.

The issue is community-wide as well since bullying doesn’t happen just on campus where it can be addressed by school administrators.

One parent at one of the anti-bullying seminars at Pali Elementary said she has had to address the issue at off-campus hangout spots as well.