Anti-bullying statistics from the Mantua school district for the 2022-’23 and 2023-’24 school years – including a self-assessment score – were announced by the school district at a board of education meeting on June 24.
School Superintendent Christine Trampe’s report revealed a 75 out of 78 score in the district’s self-assessment under the state’s anti-bullying bill of rights, an increase from last year’s score of 72.
The district approves and sends its self-assessment to the state for ratification in the fall of each year. The state then sends an official score to the district around the end of spring and beginning of summer.
“We submit our self-assessment to them and then this is them sending it back to us saying they affirm that that’s our score,” Trampe explained. “You can see that we’ve improved our score based on our trainings and our programs, hence the correlation with how many investigations we’re doing and looking into the reports.”
The exact number of investigations and reports was not shared to the public during the board meeting. But there were statistics reported from the district’s Student Safety Data System (SSDS) that revealed the number of HIB (Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying) alleged-unfounded incidents from January to June of this year is four.
Such incidents mean an investigation was made but no evidence was found. The number was 17 for the 2023-’24 school year. As a result, the school board approved the hiring of one anti-bullying coordinator and six anti-bullying specialists for next school year.
“If you look at how many confirmed (reports) from January to June of last year compared to this number, you can tell we are taking harassment and bullying very seriously,” said Trampe. “People are clearly learning more about what the definition of harassment, intimidation and bullying is.”
The exact number of confirmed reports was not shared with the public. The number at Sewell Elementary of total restraints and seclusions – when a student could potentially harm themselves or others – from January to June of this year, according to the SSDS, was four. The numbers at J. Mason Tomlin and Centre City elementary schools were not revealed.
“One student had a majority of those and had a behavioral plan with a one-on-one para-professional and a behavioralist,” Trampe explained. “I’m happy to share that the physical intervention, where they were one minute to two minutes in the beginning, were at the end of the school year just a few seconds.
“We’re required to do this if a child is going to harm themselves,” she added, “such as banging their heads, and doing something that is going to harm themselves or others.”
Trampe credited professional training for the bullying results.
The meeting was the board’s final session for this year. The next meeting – and the first for the 2024-’25 school year – is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 19, at Centre City Elementary.
