Policies include new language on cyberbullying, allowing parents to report bullying and allowing schools to discipline teachers for acts of hate
During its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) Board of Education voted to update its policies on bullying, hate-motivated behavior and immigration enforcement.
The district defines bullying as repeated aggressive behavior that involves an imbalance of power. Students experiencing bullying may fear physical or mental harm or suffer academically, according to the bullying policy.
Bullying policy updates include more specific wording on cyberbullying—since the policy was last updated in October 2017—about creating harmful online content and assuming the online identity of someone else.
Updates to the hate-motivated behavior policy include more specific language about the targets of hateful behavior, including physical or mental disability, gender expression and pregnancy.
The policy also now allows the parents or guardian of a student to report hate-motivated behavior, not just the student. The policy now also potentially implicates teachers and staff.
“Employees who engage in hate-motivated behavior shall be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal,” new policy language states.
Both policies state that students who bully or engage in hate-motivated behavior may be suspended or expelled.
Though LBUSD suspended only 53 students during the 2020-2021 pandemic academic year, it suspended 2,917 in 2019-2020 and 3,885 in 2018-2019, according to California Department of Education (CDE) data.
Most of those suspensions—from 65% to 70%—were for violent incidents, though the data does not differentiate by bullying or hate-motivated behavior.
Kim Tabari, parent of a high school student and member of an LBUSD advisory committee, told the board that the hate-motivated behavior policy—with its language of inclusion, safety and non-discrimination—should be tied to LBUSD’s budget for supporting Black students since they are disproportionately represented in disciplinary actions.
Though African American students make up about 13% of LBUSD total students, they account for about a third of its suspensions and a quarter of its expulsions, according to CDE data. Three-fourths of suspensions among Black students involve violent incidents.
Last year, LBUSD committed $750,000 of its 2021-2022 budget toward a Black Student Achievement Initiative.
“This initial investment of $750,000 must not be allowed to dwindle uninvested from a group that is overrepresented in negative academic indicators and disproportionately interacts with school safety and the criminal justice system,” Tabari said.
LBUSD also updated its related immigration-enforcement policy—which seeks to protect students from the threat of deportation—by adding two compliance officers. The policy targets bullying because of “actual or perceived nationality, ethnicity or immigration status.”
In the hate-motivated behavior policy, LBUSD defines hateful action beyond bullying that is “intended to cause emotional suffering, physical injury or property damage through intimidation, harassment, bigoted slurs or epithets, force or threat of force, or vandalism motivated in part or in whole by bias or hostility.”
Though the hate-motivated behavior policy states perpetrators will be disciplined, new language emphasizes the district’s proactive strategies “to promote harmonious relationships among students” that may help prevent hate-motivated behavior in the first place.
The updated policy is more specific about student instruction on hateful behavior. Instead of simply teaching students about “understanding and respect” and conflict management, the policy calls for students to develop “social-emotional learning” to prevent hateful acts and understand the “harm and danger” of explicit and implicit biases.
The policy also has new, more specific training guidelines for teachers and staff, including diversity, equity and inclusion training and increasing awareness of prejudicial and discriminatory behavior.
The district has also identified two current staff members to act as a compliance officer and equity officer to handle complaints.
