Schools warned on legalities of anti-bullying October 24th, 2014

October 23, 2014 | By Jane Meredith Adams 

Citing an “ever-increasing” number of complaints about the bullying of students with disabilities, the federal government issued a letter this week reminding schools of their legal responsibility to stop such bullying or risk violating federal anti-discrimination laws.

Schools need to address the bullying of all students, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education acknowledged in its letter, but it reiterated that bullying can be a form of discrimination against students with disabilities, particularly if bullying interferes with students’ legal right to a “free and appropriate public education.”

Schools “cannot stand by” if they know, or should have known, that a student with disabilities is being bullied, said Maggie Roberts, associate managing attorney for Disability Rights California, a federally mandated watchdog group. “It is unlawful.”

The Office for Civil Rights received 58 complaints alleging harassment or bullying of California students on the basis of disability last fiscal year, the office said. Nationwide, more than 2,000 complaints about the bullying of students with disabilities have been received at the office since 2009.

Bullying is characterized as “aggression used within a relationship” where the aggressor has “more real or perceived power than the target, and the aggression is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time,” according to a 2013 letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the U.S. Department of Education.

Students with disabilities are two to three times more likely to be bullied than their non-disabled peers, according to the National Bullying Prevention Center, which is part of the Minnesota-based Pacer Center, a nonprofit organization that assists parents of children with disabilities.
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