×

AASD must remain vigilant vs. bullying

The Altoona Area School District claims to be addressing bullying, and the school board claims to be on board with the anti-bullying efforts.

However, on April 9, when I asked the school board representatives to show by a raise of hands, how many of them were familiar with the district results of the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS), Dr. Charles Prijatelj and Ed Kreuz were the only two who raised their hands.

The PAYS survey is a very valuable tool which can guide the interventions of the district. The PAYS, administered to our sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders every two years, is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Commission on crime and delinquency, the PA Dept. of Education and the PA Dept. of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

The survey gathers school specific data in regards to student behaviors, attitudes and knowledge concerning alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and violence.

Our PAYS data provides information about the number of students offered drugs at school, the number of students threatened or attacked (with or without a weapon) at school, and the number of students who brought a weapon to school.

The survey also provides data about the number of kids who report staying home from school because they’re worried about being bullied, the number of times a week bullying happens, the location of bullying, and even the types of bullying (physical, emotional, insults, threats, etc.).

All of this information is available to the board, yet Kreuz is the only one who took a look at the data and knew what the PAYS was. If a survey is important enough that our youth are missing instruction time to participate, why are we not using the data?

Is it not important to know how many students are reporting threats and weapons brought to school? Is it not important to know the amount of drugs in our district? Is it not important — or are our children not important?

Let’s stop claiming to be addressing issues when we are really only skirting the issue and creating policies of convenience, enforced when convenient.

Autumn Temple

Altoona

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today