SCHOOL TASK FORCE FAVORS EXISTING DISCIPLINE PLANS

It's Studying Problems Of Bullying, Drug Abuse

Members of a task force dealing with bullying and substance abuse said last
night that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools should focus on using
existing discipline plans rather than creating new ones.

"It's almost, here we go again with something else," said Steve Flora, the
principal of Easton Elementary School and a member of the task force. "Do
we have something in place that we could just tweak?"

The task force was formed to suggest discipline plans that could help
schools improve problems that were identified on the districtwide survey on
school climate.

The survey was completed by more than 8,000 students and identified
bullying as a major problem. In addition, two-thirds of seniors said they
had seen someone at school with drugs or alcohol, or under the influence of
drugs or alcohol.

Doug Punger, the school system's attorney, said that many teachers may not
be aware of the discipline resources that schools have now. Perhaps those
should be used before new plans are designed, he said.

The task force also conducted focus groups to see how students interpreted
the survey questions. The groups were made up of students, teachers and
parents.

Marty Ward, an official in the system's accountability services, gave
preliminary results from the nine focus groups that she conducted with Joe
Park, a staff psychologist for the district.

Many of the students' comments were not surprising, Ward said.

"There's a recognition by everyone that the bully has problems of some
sort," she said. And anyone can be bullied, but it's usually someone who
appears different, students said.

Students said that bullying usually starts as verbal taunting before it
escalates into physical violence, Ward said. They reported that teachers
take physical confrontations seriously, but teachers' reactions to verbal
confrontations vary, she said.

Students also reported that most bullying takes place outside of school,
where bullies are less likely to be caught, Ward said. "A lot of bullying
takes place on the street."

And she said that students did not think creating a drug-free school was
realistic.

"The most common reaction was laughter among the students," she said.

The task force will meet next on Dec. 8. Officials say they hope that it
will finish its work by February.