When “bullying” is reported in Great Bend schools, the conflict that triggered the report often turns out to be something other than bullying, Assistant Superintendent John Popp said. That doesn’t mean that nothing can be done, however.

At a recent Great Bend USD 428 Board of Education meeting, board member Chris Umphres raised questions about how unspecified instances of student battery and threats that have occurred in schools are handled. 

At last Monday’s meeting, administrators presented an overview of the policies and procedures in place for student discipline.

The district website has a page on bullying and harassment, Popp said.

“There are lots of resources in here,” he said, including prevention information. Anyone can access that page to report an issue. Reports can be anonymous if desired.

“They tell us all the information about what happened,” Popp said. 

The report goes directly to him, Superintendent Khris Thexton and Assistant Superintendent Tricia Reiser, and then it goes immediately to the school principal, who gets to work on the problem. If the report included contact information, the principal will notify the parents about what’s been done in response.

Once the information is received, administrators look at it and determine whether the incident is a conflict or a case of hurt feelings, or if it’s a confirmed case of bullying, sexual harassment or cyber bullying, for example.

“One of the biggest pieces of any bullying-type (report) is follow-up,” Popp said. This is where the educators hope to make a positive impact.

Bullying or conflict?

“One of the biggest problems, when we talk about bullying, is that a lot of times when two students are in a conflict, both parents or both kids will report that to us as bullying, when it’s actually a conflict where two kids are equally involved,” Popp said. “There are three main things that have to happen for it to be bullying.” First, it must be an intentional act. Next, it must be repetitive, severe or pervasive.

“And then the third thing is, does it create an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment? If it doesn’t do all three of those things, it’s not bullying – it’s a conflict,” Popp said.

“It’s not necessarily something that we’ll ignore. We’ll still want to deal with it,” he added.

“There’s a lot of things that are reported to us as bullying, and a lot of times they’re more of a conflict,” Popp said. “It doesn’t really matter what the title is; we’re going to try to get into it and we’re going to try to fix it.”

He acknowledged that conflicts can be messy and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to discipline. “Honestly, I will say – this is my own personal feeling – nine out of 10 times if we investigate and work through conflict situations, or bullying situations, if we make both sets of parents unhappy, we’re probably doing the right thing. ... Either they both deserve a little bit of punishment or neither one deserves punishment.”

What parents can do

“If a parent calls us (at the district office), one of the first things we do is ask them if they’ve talked to, first, the teacher, or, second, the building principal, before it comes out to us,” Popp said. “You can call us and we’re happy to listen.” But problems are best settled at the lowest level. “That building principal, that teacher, those are the ones who are boots on the ground. They’re the ones who are actually going to help those kids work out problems.”

He said it’s important to follow through until the issue is resolved.

“The first time the principal gets involved in this, it will very likely get worse,” he said. “I mean, most of the time when the adult gets involved it’s (perceived) like you’re snitching, those kind of things.” But if parents continue to report and ask for support, the staff can and will follow through.

All of this is documented by the school principal, Thexton said.

Other questions the administrators ask are, does the behavior cause fear or physical harm? Does it cause actual damage to property or reasonable fear of damage to property?

If a problem does rise to the level that a student may be suspended beyond 10 days, there is a hearing process.

That’s one of his duties as superintendent that Thexton does not like.

“Our job is to keep kids in school,” he said.

Find more information on bullying, school policies and related matters on the Great Bend USD 428 website, greatbendschools.net, under the Parents & Students menu.