In a lawsuit filed against Northampton in January, a mother alleges that officials at the city’s high school failed to intervene or properly investigate the bullying her daughter reported to the school.
The mother alleges her daughter was harassed and bullied by three classmates during her first year at Northampton High School in 2018 and that it continued for several months. On Jan. 30, 2020, the 16-year-old killed herself.
The $2.5 million wrongful death lawsuit argues administrators misclassified the reported incidents as “peer on peer conflict” instead of bullying, and that this classification encouraged students to continue harassing the girl. Laura Mangini, an attorney representing the girl’s family, recently told the Globe that the incidents reported meet the school district’s and the state’s definitions of bullying.
In the last decade, Massachusetts has established and revamped legislation in an effort to prevent bullying in schools and improve responses to reported incidents.
Here’s what to know about some of those efforts:
How does the state define bullying?
Massachusetts defines bullying as repeated written, physical, verbal, or “electronic expression” acts that cause physical or emotional harm to a person or their property, create a hostile environment at school, and infringe on the rights of the victim or disrupt school operations.
The state does not define “peer on peer conflict” or “peer conflict,” according to a spokesperson for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
What laws are in place to prevent bullying in schools?
In 2010, Massachusetts enacted a law requiring districts to establish bullying prevention plans and training for school staff, following the suicides of South Hadley High School student Phoebe Prince and Springfield 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover — both victims of bullying. The law also required all school employees to report suspected incidents of bullying to school administrators and for principals or other designated educators to investigate each case.
That law was updated in 2014 and now requires districts to acknowledge in the prevention plans that certain students may be more vulnerable to being victims of bullying “based on actual or perceived differentiating characteristics” — which include race, religion, socioeconomic status, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Districts must also include specific steps to address how vulnerable students will be supported and provide strategies for students on how to respond to bullying or harassment.
What are bullying intervention plans?
After a student reports a bullying incident, school leaders are required by the state to follow the school’s bullying prevention and intervention plan. These plans should include taking steps such as notifying parents of the incident, investigating, determining if bullying did take place, and responding to the incident. Responses could include teaching students appropriate behavior, taking disciplinary action, or ensuring the safety of the student who was targeted.
Have the laws made a difference?
Elizabeth Englander, the founder and executive director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, said the state’s requirement that educators train on how to recognize and respond to bullying has mostly been effective and is an example of what should be done to help avert bullying in schools.
She said that prevention is an “important part of this” since bullying is a problem that should not solely rest on policies schools have in place for students. Englander added that since the implementation of the 2010 law, many districts have wanted to add programming and specialists in schools in an effort to be more conscious about bullying.
“There are social and emotional learning specialists now in many districts, and that used to be a job that didn’t exist,” Englander said. “Now it exists, and that’s because we increased awareness.”
Adria Watson can be reached at adria.watson@globe.com. Follow her @adriarwatson.