Hampton School District To Take Action After Bullying Incidents

HAMPTON, NH — An administrative review of bullying incident against an African-American student in the Hampton School District has prompted officials to make changes to policies and procedures to prevent future incidents in the school system. The independent review was commissioned after a number of incidents, both inside and outside of school, between 2016 and 2018, according to School Superintendent Kathleen Murphy. SAU 90 commissioned the report last year.

The district has received and reviewed the findings and recommendations, Murphy said, adding that recommendations in the report would be implemented district-wide. Some have already been initiated by staff last year.

"I committed in the spring to do a thorough review of the facts and circumstances," Murphy said. "I want to make sure the changes that are necessary to protect our students are made to prevent such a situation from occurring in the future."

Report Findings

According to the report, the district received reports of two students involved in a bullying incident and investigated the matter in 2016. Both sets of parents claimed their child was the victim of the bullying and the district was unable to corroborate either report. The district then worked to keep the students separated and took "an active role" in working with all involved to ensure there were not any future issues.

In 2018, another incident was reported involving a third student who was accused of making "a racially-insensitive comment about the affected student to a classmate." A behavior form was written up about the student's comment and while the report was taken seriously, administrators failed to file the form when the incident was first reported.

"Plainly stated, the district did not classify the actions as 'bullying' from the onset," according to a summary of the findings. "The district continued to offer the affected student counseling support, (monitored) the situation and (reported) back to the student's parents following the incident. However, the administrative review found that the district did not adequately communicate the steps it took to address these issues with the affected student's family and did not adequately communicate its conclusions with the family."

Murphy said the situation "greatly disturbed our community, and rightly so," stating that bullying and racial discrimination were "unacceptable." She added, "We cannot simply say 'we did all we could do.' We must learn from every situation and make improvements whenever possible."

One of the affected students enrolled last year in a private school in Massachusetts, according to press reports.

Recommendations

Some of the recommended changes to policies and procedures include adding wording to the district's mission statement to promote a better understanding of diversity and acceptance; recruit a more racially diverse faculty; better training and re-training on bullying incidents, policies, and procedures; more workshops; and the hiring of a social media specialist to update and keep current district and school websites, use the district's social media accounts in a positive way while communicating with parents and other town residents about education plans in the system as it relates to diversity in the community.

"As our district continues to heal from this difficult chapter, we hope the recommendations in this review can support us as we become a more accepting, supportive school community," Murphy said. "It is critical that each and every student feels welcome in order for that individual to succeed, feel appreciated and included within our district. We already are and will continue to take steps to make sure that is a reality within our schools."

The report is being released in its entirety with only legally-mandated redactions and is available to residents at the SAU 90 office.

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