Bullied students seek help

A local eighth-grader skipped school one day recently so he wouldn't get kicked or hit.

He figured if he stayed home, his classmates couldn't slap him, either, like they tried to do the other day in the hallway.

When other students at Orchard Knob Middle School aren't being physically violent toward him, they're calling him names, hurling spit wads at him or instigating fights, he says. One student insists the alleged victim bring him a cell phone and threatens him when the middle-schooler shows up empty-handed.

"It happens in all of my classes and at lunch," the student wrote recently in a letter to Orchard Knob Middle School Principal Maryo Beck.

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He also sent a copy of the letter to Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales. It's one of two letters Scales has received in recent weeks from students -- the other from Dalewood Middle School -- desperate to escape being bullied.

"I was wondering if you can give me a letter saying that I may attend another school because I'm trying to do better and last year was horrible for me," the Dalewood student wrote.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press is not naming the students to protect them.

Scales, who said he forwarded the letters to Secondary Operations Director Robert Sharpe, said it is "very seldom" that he receives such letters. But after several recent incidents of teenagers committing suicide as a result of being bullied, Scales said the topic is definitely on the agenda nationally and in Hamilton County.

In September, a 15-year-old boy from Greensburg, Ind., hanged himself inside his family's barn after students picked on him and called him gay. And just last month, a 16-year-old from Graham, Wash., shot himself after derogatory text messages about him had circulated at school.

Last year, Murray County, Ga., teen Tyler Long killed himself after years of bullying at school and on the school bus, according to allegations in a federal lawsuit filed by his parents against the school system.

Scales said he plans to talk to principals about bullying at a districtwide meeting Wednesday.

"These are the only two letters on bullying I can recall receiving [this year]," Scales said. "I take them very seriously because you never know."

Orchard Knob Principal Beck said after talking to students involved in the alleged bullying at his school, he was unaware the issue had persisted until he received the letter, dated Oct. 25.

The Orchard Knob student's mother also wrote a letter to Beck on the same day claiming educators have done "little to nothing" to stop bullying.

"Your lack of action shows that you not only condone the behavior, but also support it 100 percent," she wrote.

Since then, Beck sat down with all involved students and their parents to try to determine exactly what happened, he said. Teachers and administrators are on watch to make sure no one else bothers the student, and Beck said he hasn't heard any more complaints.

"All three parents very aggressively dealt with their children and assured us that [the bullying] wouldn't happen again," Beck said. "I feel like I've done everything I possibly can."

Dalewood Principal Rodney Johnson did not respond to a message seeking comment..

Sharpe, who is working on disciplining students involved in the second incident, at Dalewood Middle, said administrators in Hamilton County, like others across the country, especially are dealing with cyber-bullying more frequently.

He said at least three parents have come to him this year with copies of harassing comments left on their child's Facebook page. It's something principals are "chasing down all the time," Sharpe said.

Most of the time, the incidents occur after school hours, so it can be challenging to determine how involved school officials should get, Sharpe said.

"It's new territory for us; we're finding our way," he said.

Maury Nation, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of human and organizational development at Vanderbilt University and a school bullying researcher, said the playful teasing that most people remember as a rite of passage in middle school has "transformed into something more sinister now."

"The real focus in the last few years is on kids who are chronically victimized, which is not what most of us grew up thinking bullying was. Kids are really being terrorized," he said. "It's going to be hard to get rid of [all] types of bullying or harassment that goes on in the context of schools, because there's such a continuum of behavior from what is fair play or picking on friends, to things that become more problematic."

Although bullying is a national hot topic, Nation said it is doubtful that alleged victims are stepping up only now because the opportunity has presented itself.

"One of the things we've found in our research is that being labeled a victim is never something that kids really seek out. Students are more willing to identify themselves as a bully rather than a victim," he said. "It's just not in our culture, particularly for young people, to say that they're the ones at the bottom of the totem pole."

Contact Kelli Gauthier at kgauthier@timesfreepress.com or 423 757-6249. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/gauthierkelli.

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