www.healthy-kids.info

Effective School Leadership and the Hidden World of Bullying

Ellie Goldberg, MEd., January 16, 2003

Dear parents,

I highly recommend that you read "The Hidden World of Bullying" by Rosalind Wiseman, in Principal Leadership Magazine, December 2002, Vol. 3, No. 4.

This article provides a good analysis of school cultures and how a principal's leadership can create a safe or unsafe environment.  Wiseman doesn't write about managing food allergies but she discusses an important topic that is vital for the safety and educational success of students with food allergies, Effective Leadership.

The principal's effective leadership is one of the most critical elements in setting a standard of safety, cooperation and respect from all teachers, other students, parents, auxiliary staff and everyone else in the school community.

The failure of school leadership is a common problem. It is not unique to students with food allergies or other health conditions. Over the past few years, increasing numbers of students with a variety of needs have challenged the norm of most academic and social institutionalized systems. However, getting the right words on paper in an IHP or an IEP or 504 plan will not override the ineffectiveness of a school principal (or the school nurse) that creates or ignores an unsafe school culture.

In this discussion of bullying and school leadership, author Rosalind Wiseman points out what many parents of children with food allergies know too well:

"if principals do not provide this leadership, the school becomes an unsafe environment in which the people in the school who have power and privilege can do what they want without consequence to those in less-fortunate positions."

"... It doesn't matter whether we're talking about students' social hierarchies, racism, sexism, or any "ism," this is the way people assert their power -- which really translates into discrimination and bigotry."

Over the past few years, most schools have a mission statement and core values that celebrates diversity or inclusion. The school may even have a code of conduct in its manual or on its website that explicitly condemns disrespect or bullying.

"But most students ...believe there are two honor codes: the one that is in the school manual and the one that the students actually believe are the real rules of the school." This is the hidden code that makes many students feel unsafe and unwelcome.

If the student or a parent or even a teacher appeals for help to ineffective school officials, he may be dismissed or made to feel disloyal or unreasonable. School officials may treat him as a complainer or troublemaker or even a liar. He frequently may feel more exposed to victimization or subjected to humiliation or harassment for "making waves" or "not being a team player."

In "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1989)," scholar Peggy McIntosh explains the intimidating power of the status quo. "...People perceive the status quo as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal..." Thus, both [school officials and parents] see "discrimination" only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems of rules and attitudes that create conditions that stack the deck against someone."

One parent of food allergic children told me, "It is easy for officials to silence parents with suggestions that their children are a burden on the school or that meeting their child's needs somehow detracts from the school's obligations to "normal" children. For me, placing parents in the false position of choosing between community interests and their primary obligation to their own children creates a chilling atmosphere of intolerance."

Many school officials still do not understand safety to be a disability discrimination issue. And, even the US DOE Office for Civil Rights misses this element of many complaints. They simply ignore parents who report a failure of school leadership, or that a school official creates or ignores a child's physical or emotional insecurity and is operating a school culture that allows or ignores repeated safety problems.

However, many civil rights cases have established that failing to address concerns for personal safety and the need to exercise special precautions is discrimination because it makes education resources effectively less accessible. It can be an insidious form of abuse. This is the type of discrimination Section 504 was written to address -- not the isolated or individual act of cruelty or thoughtlessness but institutional policies, practices and attitudes.

Ineffective school leadership is an obstacle that is extremely difficult to overcome. I hope "The Hidden World" helps clarify the role of effective school leadership for parents who are wondering about whether a school is a good match for their child.

Best regards,

Ellie Goldberg, MEd., healthy-kids.info, January 16, 2003

Also see: A Study of Bullying in the Middle School, Sandra Harris and Garth Petrie
National Association of Secondary School Principals
NASSP Bulletin, Vol. 86, No. 633, 42-53 (2002)
c. 2002 National Association of Secondary School Principals

This study describes the bullying behaviors reported by 198 students in grade 8 in two middle schools in the same southern city. Of the students, 92% reported observing some type of bullying at their school at least "sometimes. " Nearly one half of the students did not tell anyone when they were bullied. Those who did report bullying were most likely to tell a friend or their mother Less than 3% reported that they would tell a teacher Findings also indicate that students perceived nearly 60% of teachers and more than 70% of administrators as "not interested" in reducing bullying on campuses.