Bullying and Harassment

by Kathleen Conn

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Foreword

In the years since the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, our nation has been obsessed with issuing school violence reports and taking measures that allegedly make schools safer than before. From passing state laws on bullying to suspending and expelling more and more students under the “one-strike, you are out” mentality of zero tolerance, the good senses of the legislative and educational establishments seem mislaid. One important thing that has gotten lost in this surge of reports and frenzy to reduce bullying in schools is the rights of students.

During an era when it is fashionable and all but permitted to ignore or abrogate the rights of students, Kathleen Conn has given us a book in which individual student rights are balanced with the rights of the group. Her book (re)turns our attention to gender-based and sexual harassment in elementary and secondary schools—problems all too real at both levels. Remarkable in its scope, Conn reviews, explains, and questions developments, legal and otherwise, in the fields of bullying, harassment, threats, and student rights.

Despite continuing guidance from the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, insights from surveys attesting to the issue's ugly entrenchment in our schools, and laws at both the federal and state levels that require attention and compliance from school officials, our nation's schools are riddled with examples of harassment. Conn takes the reader through a thicket of lawsuits with clarity and perspective. This book is well documented and researched, yet always offers simple and straightforward presentations of legal cases. Most remarkably, Conn provides multiple interpretations of legal decisions, giving the reader a chance to swirl around in the complexity of ideas that are often imbedded in any one judicial decision. Yet, all the while the legal explanations are written in an accessible, nonformidable manner.

Finally, Conn's book is up-to-date and very contemporary. She covers advances in the use of the Internet in schools and the tensions that may arise in a nation that values its freedoms of expression and speech. In addition, she points the reader towards abuses of zero tolerance and antibullying laws that have blanketed the nation's schools. She does not shy away from controversy.

I will be telling everyone I know who works in schools to read this book. Then together we can thank Kathleen Conn for giving us a great primer and review on rights in a democratic society.

—Nan Stein

Senior Researcher, Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts

May 8, 2004

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Copyright © 2004 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or chapters, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD.