Batavia school board adopts new anti-bullying policies

To address student concerns, the Batavia Unit District 101 school board recently updated bullying policies to better align the district with new state standards.

However, at least one board member argues the changes aren’t enough.

The changes include stronger language to indicate bullying, intimidation and harassment will not be tolerated, and updates when parents/guardians of students involved in incidents will be notified and what services will be provided to them.

As part of Superintendent Tom Kim’s plan to mitigate bullying, the board is collecting and monitoring bullying incident data to assess trends and see where policies can best be amended. But the board continues to debate how to share information on a public online dashboard without bringing harmful attention to the students involved.

Board member Danielle Sligar said that while the data will highlight areas needing focus, the process is incredibly lengthy and does not provide the policy changes students need.

“Right now, we have not changed anything specific to our district besides talking about the data dashboard,” Sligar said. “There’s really nothing different that’s going to happen for our kids at school.”

But board member Rob Arulandu said it’s the best way to examine trends to see how policies are working. He argued the board does not now have the data to best direct them in creating and implementing new policy.

“We’re going to reserve the right to learn, get smarter, get feedback, and keep improving the heck out of this policy and subsequent procedures that come out of it,” Arulandu said. “We have to start here, and let’s continue with the discussions as needed.”

As part of the changes adopted, notifications to parents and guardians will now occur within 24 hours of when administrators learn of a student’s involvement in an incident.

To comply with new state standards, the district is required to collect data regarding verified allegations of bullying and submit a report to the Illinois State Board of Education every August.