by Mike Knaak
news@thenewsleaders.com
A listening session focused on bullying, harassment and social media quickly turned to the special challenges of keeping students safe on social media.
The Oct. 18 session was the second meeting organized by the Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s new Educational Equity and Student Experience Committee. During the first session a month ago, about 30 people attended. This time, seven adults, including three school board members, gathered for the session led by Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover.
Parents asked questions about how to educate their students to use social media safely and wondered how the school deals with reports of bad behavior after school as well as during school hours. One parent called the excessive use of social media an “addiction.”
“Bullying and harassment can come into somebody’s bedroom when they are trying to sleep,” Ridlehoover said. Even though the behavior happens at home, it can still be “destructive” to the learning environment, he said.
Another parent asked about consequences when there’s a report of bullying and harassment. Ridlehoover said the consequence for bad behavior needs to be a change in behavior.
“We need to create conditions so the behavior is not replicated,” he said. He suggested “sitting down with the person you inflicted harm on and talking about why it hurts.”
Privacy laws limit reporting on what discipline a student received, Ridlehoover said, and victims and parents don’t understand something has happened. For example, the district can’t reveal if a student has been suspended.
Like the first session on social support services, the discussion turned to adequate counseling and therapist staffing. There are three counselors for 1,400 high school students, but counselors focus on academics and are not trained to be therapists. Finding and funding therapists may be an option the committee will need to address.
“Student mental health is the No. 1 issue in the country,” Ridlehoover said.
The committee will eventually come up with suggestions for a bullying, harassment and social media policy. Ridlehoover pointed out that students on the committee will have a say in it and be involved in implementing it, a process that will hopefully lead to buy-in from students.
One speaker asked parents to take responsibility and “become parents instead of friends” and set limits. Elementary students don’t need an iWatch or an iPhone she said.
“Ask the kid to get off the computer and talk to me.”
