On television the other day, the mother wanted the teacher fired for this.Bully list called over the top
School chief: Topic mishandled
By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
SPENCER — The mother of an 11-year-old student at Wire Village School said an effort to target bullying there has her feeling her son is being bullied by school officials.
Danielle L. Gebo said she was surprised to hear from the school principal Monday that her son, Thomas J. Gebo, a sixth-grader, ranked in the top six students known for bullying classmates, and that he would be punished because other students had voted for him in a bullying survey conducted in his grade.
“I was told that on Tuesday he would have to report to the cafeteria with the others who met the criteria,” she said. Thomas was kept inside at recess and closely monitored until his mother contacted School Superintendent Ralph E. Hicks, who was unaware of the situation and went to the school, which serves students in Grades 4, 5 and 6, to put an end to the punishment.
“This was mishandled,” Mr. Hicks said last night, adding that the situation was being addressed.
“I talked with Mrs. (Linda) Crewe (the principal). Ultimately the principal is the master of his or her own building and needs to deal with this, but I feel badly that it happened,” he said.
Thomas said he was bothered by the incident and said that when he was asked to list the names of school bullies, he was honest.
“I had picked on a few kids, so I wrote that I bullied some kids and I signed my name,” he said.
Mrs. Gebo said she was surprised that he was bullying classmates and sat him down to talk about it. However, she said she was not surprised he admitted to the bullying. Her son, she said, the middle of three children, is “an honest George.”
A counselor met with Thomas yesterday to go over strategies he can use when he’s being bullied or when he feels like picking on someone else. But the end result of that session didn’t sit well with his mother either, because Thomas told her the counselor suggested that he doesn’t need to share everything that happens at school with her.
“Parents should be poking and prodding their kids about what goes on at school,” Mrs. Gebo said. “We trust these school officials with out kids for six hours a day.”
School Committee Chairman Peter D. Rock said the incident has him concerned and it could be a topic at the committee’s next meeting in May. He said it seems that the suicide of South Hadley High School student Phoebe Prince, after what the district attorney there termed as “unrelenting” bullying, has raised awareness to a level that may have some people overreacting.
“Given what happened in South Hadley, I think people are being very cautious and sensitive,” Mr. Rock said. “Unfortunately, sometimes people act in haste and make mistakes.”
Mr. Rock said the bully lists may not have produced factual information, and it would be wrong to “take a direct action from a survey like this.”
Mrs. Gebo said her son was not the only one singled out and treated differently after being labeled a bully.
She said she is disappointed that other parents aren’t speaking out on behalf of their children. She said an anti-bullying program was held at the school earlier this year and that should have been sufficient, because students were provided with information about what to do if they feel they’re being bullied.
She also wondered if more aggressive bullies, who target just one student and got a single vote, may have been overlooked.
Despite the situation, Thomas said he isn’t worried about going to school today, and hopes the whole incident is behind him.
“I know how it feels now (to be bullied), and we shouldn’t be bullying people,” he said. “Now maybe the teachers will stop talking about it and I can get back to learning things.”
Efforts to reach Mrs. Crewe last night were unsuccessful. A man who answered the telephone at her home said she was attending a church meeting.
Her son is picked as one of the top bullies and she's worried about how the teachers are treating her poor misunderstood child.
Frankly I think they should keep the list, and actually spend more time watching these kids who have been identified by thier peers as bullies.
Any discussion out there on this?