Are Hamilton County Schools Applying Bullying And Harassment Policies Equally?

The Hamilton county school board has had strict policies on bullying for years, but it took the shocking incident involving the Ooltewah High school basketball team to bring their short-comings into focus.
The school board is exploring ways to make sure those policies are being enforced fairly and evenly throughout the county’s schools.

Every school board meeting since December 22nd, has operated under a shadow—the violent rape of a basketball player by three other students during a tournament in Gatlinburg. It brought the district’s bullying policies into question and school board members are now considering an external audit of individual schools.

DAVID TESTERMAN, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER “It has brought it to public attention, and probably to legal attention also.”

The board and the schools are required by law to report incidents like the one with Ooltewah players to the department of education in a timely manner.
But the board is looking for a plan to better manage future incidents like that.

DAVID TESTERMAN, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER “Our policies on bullying, harassment, various things ..they’re up to date. But are they conveying what we really want the public to know, and what we really want our faculty and our employees to know.”

The board wants to know the “culture” of each school that may drive the reporting of bullying incidents.

DAVID TESTERMAN ” A school climate survey of some type and you embed in that survey questions that deal directly with some of the things…bullying, and reporting from parents viewpoints, students viewpoints, teachers and administrators.”

David Testerman is a retired principal who was at 5 schools in Hamilton county. He says younger students are quick to report harassment, while older students may have external pressures that make them hesitate.

DAVID TESTERMAN “My rule of thumb has always been..in doubt?, report it…and let somebody else do the investigations.

Board chairman Dr. Jonathan Welch has asked the board to initiate and external audit.
That will be taken up at next weeks board meeting.

The three students charged in the Sevierville attack on a fellow student will be back in front of a judge on March 15th.
School administrators, including superintendent Rick Smith, will appear before Judge Rob Philyaw in Juvenile court in Chattanooga next Monday morning, to tell what they know about the Gatlinburg incident.