Youth Services Litigation Blog : Georgia Youth-Serving Organization Lawyer & Attorney : Debbie Ausburn Law Firm : Youth Camps, Day Care, Social Services

The Department of Justice has issued a report about bullying in schools.  It is part of the COPS series, so is geared toward school resource officers, but has some good information for administrators as well.  Some of the research that it cites suggests that a principal's involvement in addressing the problem contributes to fewer incidents. It also recommends such common-sense strategies as increasing supervision in "hot spot" areas, and perhaps even redesigning the environment.

I disagree with one strategy, which is "developing a comprehensive reporting system to track bullying and the interventions used with specific bullies and victims."  It is a good idea in theory, but, if not done effectively, will just provide ammunition for an opposing attorney in a lawsuit.  Like any school policy, do not create the policy unless you are going to follow and enforce it.  The only thing worse than no policy is a well-written policy that no one follows.

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A MedWire News article tells of a study published recently in the British Journal of Psychiatry  testing possible links between childhood abuse and psychotic episodes in early adolescence.  It comes as no surprise that the study found a strong link between childhood physical abuse and later psychosis. What I found interesting is that the study also found a stronger correlations with childhood bullying and exposure to domestic violence than with  sexual abuse.  

The importance of this study for youth-serving organizations is that bullying can be every bit as damaging as the forms of abuse that we traditionally watch for and try to prevent.

For lawyers, the takeaway is that in litigation involving this sort of claim, we need to investigate domestic violence in the home and bullying at other venues.  Our expert witnesses need to address those issues, and either rule them out or account for them as complicating factors when assessing damages.

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