Kilgore ISD Board Discusses Policies after Bullying Incident

KILGORE — Kilgore ISD board members Monday night approved changes to several of the district’s policies, but not the one Todd McElmurry had hoped to hear about. According to KETK and the Longview News-Journal, McElmurry said his 5-year old son spent most of his first year at Kilgore Heights Elementary School in a state of constant worry after being bullied. Beginning in October, McElmurry said his son was spit on, tripped in the hallway and verbally abused by a student from another class in his grade. That student was later moved into his son’s classroom despite the family’s objections. The last straw, McElmurry said, was in February when the child urinated on his son’s jacket in the school bathroom.

McElmurry filed a grievance with the district at the end of March after he said meetings with the principal and assistant principal failed to achieve change. In May, with three weeks left in the school year, the board agreed with McElmurry that the incidents amounted to bullying and moved the child to another classroom. The board said district policies would be reviewed. At Monday night’s board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Dennis Williams said the district is working on intervention programs. “We held off on possible behavior intervention programs right now because there are so many things our people are trying to learn,” he told the board.

McElmurry voiced his displeasure with the apparent inaction as a new school year nears. “It appeared through their words they are tied up with attorneys trying to give their interpretations,” McElmurry said at the meeting. “So for 2013-14, the policies on bullying are going to stay the same, which currently is open for their interpretation.”

Since 2005, every public school Student Code of Conduct must prohibit bullying, harassment and the making of hit lists as defined Texas Education Code. McElmurry said the policy that governs the Heights campus seemed to be a “watered down” version of the district policy. Williams said in June administrators throughout the district have been looking at ways to form and put in place a consistent discipline policy that also would allow principals to have some flexibility in evaluating individual situations. The goal is to decrease suspensions and stop bullying before it escalates.

In December, developers of Whisper, a social networking application for smartphones, instituted a blanket ban over hundreds of Kilgore users after bullying increased in the schools. The district has anti-bullying programs in place, but McElmurry said more needs to be done. Meanwhile, he said he is using this time as a tool to teach his son about how to treat others. “He’s excited (for the new school year), he’s been a real trouper through the whole process. He’s become very protective of his friends, but the intimidation has subsided,” McElmurry said.

There is a possibility for the two children to share a classroom again this year, however, according to board policy. “We have already decided if we go to meet the teacher and that kid is in his classroom, we will move our kid to another class from day one, that way he starts fresh, without all the fears,” McElmurry said.