Bullying sends mom to police for help

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Beech Grove City Schools has a policy in place to curb bullying. One parent, though, said that policy failed her daughter.

With tears rolling down her face like paint on a blank canvas, Dusti Clubs admitted this school year has been difficult. Since the start of the year her 9-year-old daughter has been bullied. The mother of two said she tried contacting administrators. When that didn’t produce the results she wanted, though, she filed two police reports.

“I thought maybe we would get somewhere if the police were involved,” she said.

The reports document the attacks. There were verbal assaults on Facebook, physical attacks on the playground, impromptu visit to the doctor’s office.

“She said she couldn't breath, and her chest was hurting her,” Clubs said, looking emotionally drained.

Beech Grove City Schools Superintendent Paul Kaiser declined our request for an on-camera interview, but he did talk about the incident at length over the phone. He said the district addressed the problem and also the bully.

Under the school system’s policy, the first step in such situations is a meeting with the victim and the bully. The second offense results in the student being suspended from school. The third and final strike leads to expulsion from school.

Suellen Fried, founder of Bully Safe USA – who is teaching a three-day seminar on bullying prevention at Washington Township schools - said a police report isn’t a good first step for parents. She said parents should first contact the school and go through its policies and procedures, documenting each time they speak with school officials. She recommended first contacting the school’s guidance counselor, then principal, superintendent, and finally the school board, if necessary.

But if nothing changes, Fried said, parents then have the right to sue the school district.

As for Clubs, it’s unclear what her next step will be. She said she is contemplating pulling her daughter out of Beech Grove Schools.

“My father lives in Avon,” she said. “I’m thinking about pulling her out and making her go to school out there.”