On that website. Were going to have a breakout later today to talk more about the website and some of the great information that is involved. I just want fed to say that. Due to the time, well go ahead and leave it at that. I believe these ladies are going to be here throughout the day. So i feel free to come up to them or any of our speakers today if you have some follow up questions and lets give them another round of applause. Republican incumbent is running for a second term against jason carter. Recent polls show governor deal ahead by an average of nearly 3 . Within the usual margin of error. You can watch the debate monday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. A Justice Department official told the audience that 11. 5 Million High SchoolStudents Experience date abuse. It is an effort to create a National Bullying prevention strategy. This panel is about 45 minutes. As i mentioned in the last session, im darling john sovenlt im a director on the violence against women and office within u. S. Department of justice. Our office is mandated. We provide Grant Funding to state, local, tribal governments, Higher Education and am i covering everybody . Nonprofits. I mean the list goes on and on. Were primarily focused to providing funds to address Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence and stalking in communities. The reason why im here today to talk about teen dating violence. Teen dating violence, you know, just based on what i heard about bullying, there is some differences and there are some similarities. My overall goals for my short presentation is im going to define teen dating violence, im going to identify the prevalence of teen dating violence and talk about what weve learned through our Grant Programs over the years and to tell you about funding opportunities once again funding was mentioned earlier. Teen dating violence. Teen dating violence is physical, sexual and psychological emotional violence within an intimate partner relationship. Teen dating violence is a pattern of abuse, behaviors used to, i want to say exert power and control over a dating partner. It may occur between a current or former dating partner. I think that is the key. There are a number of types of abuse. There is physical abuse, Emotional Abuse things like yelling, name calling, bullying here. Embarrassing, keeping you away from your friends, things of that nature. Sexual abuse is similar to similar to forcing you to do something sexual like, you know, especially speaking from the u perspective, kissing and touching and things of that nature. We also have stalking which refers to a pattern of harassing or threatening tactics that unwanted. Thats what stalking is. It is causing snoomeone to have fear. Financial abuse, thats telling you cant buy this or that. Especially from an adult perspective, you know, someone holding you hostage to be able to have some what of a financial freedom. Digital dating abuse is the use of technology such as texting, social media networking, things of that nature. I want to talk a little bit about the prevalence. I guess whether i first started working i didnt know how widespread i guess teen dating violence or what is the true impact. Nearly 1. 5 million Students Experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. One in three adolescence in the United States is a victim of sexual or verbal abuse. One in ten High School Students have been purposely hit, slapped, or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend. Girls and young women between the ages of 16 and 24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner. Almost triple the national average. Eight states current dloi not have dating relationships in the definition of Domestic Violence tlachlt is a problem because they dont recognize it. On the federal level, we recognize dating violence along with Sexual Assault and stalking as a crime. Current think is one juvenile Domestic Court in the country and i believe thats in new york. Thats the only one that recognizes it. One the things that came up in the previous section session in the importance of language. When dealing with the youth and dealing with talking about teen dating violence and that is language. As you know, most of us who have teenagers, they speak their own language. They have their own code. They dont necessarily refer to boyfriend and girlfriend relationships like we used to do. You know . They use terms like hook up and things of that nature. So if youre not in tune to the language that they speak, its hard to really connect with them to teach them that, you know, teen dating violence or this power control dynamics is not a healthy, you know, way to be in a relationship. There are a number of identified youth specific barriers. And this is when youre talking about, you know, healthy relationship, unhealthy relationships and dealing with or truly addressing teen dating violence. For most youth, experiencing teen dating violence this is their first, i want to say intimate relationship or their first, you know, boyfriend or girlfriend. So the lack of relationship experience. The age also comes into play. You know, most services that are available are geared towards adult victims of Domestic Violence. So, you know, not every community, jurisdiction will have youth specific services. The lack of youth specific resources, so if something were to happen, whats next . Who are you referring them to . So its almost like you have to find out who in your neighborhood is really focusing on addressing or helping youth who experience dating violence. Tr transportation is an issue too. If you had an issue, where would you go . If you had an issue, where would you go to get help . If do you get help if you want to go to counseling and things of that nature, you need transportation to get there. So transportation is also a barrier for youth. If you dont buy into me im the captain of the Football Team and if that dynamics of the power and control, do you what i say, you know, every step of the way, then if you dont buy into that role of the Football Player and you, the average joe blow student that can cause some isolation among others in school. Distrust of authorities like Law Enforcement or teachers. You are going to tell, youre going to out me if i say im experiencing teen dating violence. The environment also plays a key role, too. Imagine if youre experiencing teen dating violence and youre in class with your abuser, what dynamics does that cause . And the fear of being out. And this is really geared towards maybe underserved students or gay and lesbian. Im afraid theyre going to reveal, you know, my personal business. The different between teen dating violence and bullying. Bullying is unwanted. You know that. Aggressive behavior and physical strength, access to embarrassing information, popularity among school age children, to control or harm. Its also a repetition type of, i want to say behaviors. According to cdc, bullying includes attack or intimidation. It is also includes physical, verbal, imbalance of power. I think our friend here at the table at the last session and she does a lot of training on bullying and she always use this analogy when talking to students. And she said, you know, picture a bully. Its like a big round circle. The person is being bullied is like a small circle. You have that big circle and small circle. So the Playing Field is not even. You know what i mean . That is almost like a senior bullying a freshman. That type of thing. Or a boss to an employee. So the dynamics is not the same. Bullying is defined as abuse between two people in an intimate relationship. And power and control in defining what bullying is and power and control, there is somewhat a lot of similarities and there are differences. I think if i had to hone in on a similarities, the power and control is the common theme between teen dating violence and bullying. One of the things i also want to share with you guys is at the department of justice, we have four youth focus programs. We have grants to assist children and youth exposed to violence. We have services to advocate for and respond to youth grant program. We got services, training, education and policies to reduce Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, dating violence and stalking and secondary schools and we have our engaging men and youth program. Fy2012, the four program i mentioned were merged into the consolidated youth program. And so among those grantees from the programs, we have learned a great deal about teen dating violence. I want to share with you some of the successes from the programs, what weve learned. One of the things they said and the successes is the creation of youth specific services was key in the success of effective programming to address teen dating violence. They said new and revitalized community partners, folks that wouldnt normally Work Together are Work Together. Schools and community, youth focus organizations are starting to really come together on this issue. They have to come together. Targeted underserved youth populations is also key. Education of youth about healthy and unhealthy relationships. What is the difference between the two . School environment was also rose to the top. And engaging men and boys in violence against women work was also panned out to be promising practice. Training as we mentioned before, best practices and models. I also want to share with you the dhachallenges that we faced that our grantees have reported. Continuous engagement in services is still a clalg to continue to do this work. To sustain this work. Policy development, you know, trying to get that buy in from leadership. Mandatory reporting of laws and confidentiality rose to the top. Outreach to specific population. The stigma of being a victim. You do not consider themselves as victim. They cant, you know, if you mention the word victim or violence, they cant resonate to that. But if you put it in a context of what is healthy and what is unhealthi, they can relate to that. Services for young boys and men who may be abusers. I think we talked about that. That accountability piece. It may not look in our traditional me come from the department of justice, we take this prosecutoral stand. You know, lock them up. This say criminal act. But whether you deal with youth, youre trying to figure out innovative or creative ways to make them understand that this behavior is not acceptable. The lack of Awareness Among service providers. People have varying agrees of their understanding of teen dating violence. Some people with wo dismiss it because youre talking about youth. They dont know what theyre talking about. Theyre confused. Things of that nature. So about funding opportunities. We normally our announcement comes out for funding opportunities anywhere between early fall to late winter. Nonprofit organizations, School Districts are eligible to apply for Youth Programs. If you want to find out more about our programs, can you go to our website. Www. Ovw. Usdoj. Gov. And to the left there is Grant Programs and then you can descriptions of all the programs. And we have i think for our Youth Programs thats about anywhere between a 10, 15 Million Program and we disperse funds each year. So, you know, check us out. All right. Thank you. If everyone can give another round of applause for darlene johnson. Apologize for the technical difficulties and thank you for rolling it with and going ahead and starting. I appreciate it. I just want to make sure that i give her a proper introduction. Darlene currently serves as the associate director in the osts of violence against women. In this capacity, she supports the director and managing the Community Engagement division and implementing Grant Programs that respond to violence against women. So thank you. Now were going to hear from elizabeth allen. Dr. Al sen professor of graduate studies and Higher Education at the university of maine and director of stop hazing consulting. Dr. Allen was Principal Investigator for the National Study of student hazing and is currently directing the hazing prevention consortium. So lets give her a round of applause. Thank you. Can everyone hear me okay . Great. Its great to be here. Thanks so much for choosing to come to this session today. Thank you also to sarah and her colleagues at the u. S. Department of education and partnering agencies who worked hard to organize this wonderful summit. Its been a great day so far. I appreciate you providing me the opportunity to be here. As you know, im here today to talk with you about hazing. And id like to begin by asking you what comes to mind when you think of that word . College. Fraternities. Initiation. Okay. All right. So it didnt take long for some images to pop into your head. And, thank you. And youre like many others who think about some common images as they relate to hazing. And one is young men in college fraternities, beating each other, passing out or even dying tragically from alcohol poisening because of hazing. Also people think about professional athletes like last years headlines of the rookie Jonathan Martin and more recently, people think sometimes about marching bands with the tragic death of drum major robert champion down at florida a m university. And now more recently over the past month weve heard news of a sexually harassing culture and hazing in the ohio state universitys marching band prompting them to fire the band director. While these images and headlines reflect realities of hazing, they only paint a partial picture. So what is missing . For one thing, the images rarely portray the extent and range in which hazing occurs. Now its probably difficult to see on the left hand side, ill let you know, certainly hazing does occur in varsity athletics and in greek life or fraternities and sororities. As the headlines and images suggest, but according to our research of College Students and this these are results from the National Study that i was a Principal Investigator for. We surveyed more than 10,000 College Students at 53 different colleges and universities across the United States. And as can you see, the figures confirm that hazing in a range of different clubs and organizations. And activities. Including intermural sports. Club sports, Service Organizations and even academic clubs and honor societies. So the predominant images of hazing and sports and fraternities and marching bands while theyre real, they dont capture the fuel extent to which hazing is occurring across many kinds of groups and organizations. And the predominant images rarely reflect the realities of hazing for middle and High School Students. Where our Research Indicates that nearly half or 47 of students report experience hazing in high school. Headlines provide a glimpse of hazing in schools. Hazing that includes humiliating, degrading, often dangerous and illegal activities. Lets look at the formal definition of hazing. Hazing is any activity expected of someone seeking membership in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers them regard less of a persons willingness to participate. Breaking it down, there are three key components to defining hazing. First, behavior that occurs for the purpose of membership or trying to maintain ones membership in an established group, organization, or team. Second, it involves behavior that risks emotional or physical harm. And third, it can occur regardless of a persons willingness to participate. And its that third part of the definition that is often a sticking point, especially for students who assume it cant possibly be hazing if someone agreed to do it or appeared to just go along with it willingly. While it may seem counter intuitive by definition, hazing can and does occur even if a person goes along with it. So why is this clause included in statutes and policies related to hazing. There are several key ingredients that explain the need for that particular clause. Those include the first strong desire to block to a group. A human need we all have, and combined with intense peer pressure that is associated with that Group Context of hazing. And you know peer pressure can be explicit like come on, come on, just do it tshgsz a tradition. Or it can be implicit where youth go along with splg to prove themselves worthy of membership or to avoid the possibility that their peers might think less of them or consider them a weak link among the group. So taken together these dynamics can create a coercive environment. So that strong desire and need to belong, peer pressure, contributes to creating a coercive environment. Since coercion can impair judgment, it can impede a true consent. So what does hazing look like for middle and High School Students . Imagine a young person who has been playing a sport throughout childhood. Its his or her dream to make the varsity team. They give it their best effort in tryouts. They earn a place on that High School Varsity roster. They attend several practices where the rookies are asked to carry the Water Bottles and Team Equipment and so they do because thats what its been done before. And everybody sort of earned their way. And then they go on the bus to several scrimmages and the veterans tell them well, the rookies have to sit in the front of the bus. And the rookies also have to clean the bus after the veterans depart. If theres litter or trash left over, et cetera. And the coach doesnt really say anything or doesnt seem to notice. And so the rookies follow suit. It just seems like the norm. So you can see how the stage begins to be set. Taken for granted, hierarchies and stat justice differentials that appear to be accepted as the norm. Then a teen team party is planned for the weekend. When the rookies arrive, they are told its initiation night. A tradition passed down from year to year. All the veterans have gone through it and its fun. Not exactly not knowing exactly whats in store, the rookies assume the teammates, you know, take the teammates word for it, its naul good fun. So what happens next . Well, the story unfolds in a number of different ways. In california, these are based on real incidents. In california, incoming freshmen were unexpectedly driven to an unknown location by seniors, covered in cat food, various sticky substances and rolled in the sanld. In mississippi, veteran members of the Cheerleading Team forced new members to wear diapers while veterans threw food at them. Illinois, rookies on the girls soccer teams with bound up with plastic wrap while teammates smeared their faces with makeup and whipped cream. Florida, band members were called into a dark hallway while veterans threw drumstick at them. . Massachusetts, teammates were expected to drink their teammate yurn. In indiana, rookies were beat within a metal pole in the locker room. They were beat within bats to the point of drawing blood. Massachusetts, new york, new mexico and numerous other states, rookies have been sexually saulted with brook systems or baseball bats or other instruments. These are a myriad of recent sc examples. It cuts across a range of different groups not limited to just athletics but including performing arts groups, class hazing, rotc, and other kinds of clubs and organizations. Some of these examples might sound xrikistrikingly similar t bullying r hazing and bullying the same . Is hazing a type of group bullying . While there are a number of similarities between the two, there are some important nuances that distinguish them. One of the more obvious is that hazing occurred for the express purpose of inclusion. While children who bully are typically seeking to exclude and marginalize at child. In some cases, incidents of hazing can meet the cry tear yaf bullying. For example, they can be explicitly aggressive. They can intend to cause harm. They can be a pattern. And for those cases, we might call them a type of group bullying. For example, fraternity pledging, it can involve aggressive behavior like kidnapping, paddling, beatings, lineups, pledges are screamed at, cursed at, yelled at. And all these activities can occur over a period of weeks culminating in what is referred to as hell night prior to initiation. And in that scenario, it seems that hazing meets the criteria that commonly define bullying. However, there are many instances of hazing that do not fit squarely within the scope of the bullying criteria. For example, sometimes it can involve a single incident. Sometimes the activities are not necessarily dont appear aggressive on the surface like xaf efr x scavenger hunts. Frequently they cross the line into hazing when they include expectations for sexual favors, other forms of personal servitude, the performance of sexual simulations and consumption of alcohol and other drugs. So why is it important to understand the comparison between bullying and hazing . Well, i worked with many educators who believe the schools bullying policy will sufficiently address hazing, too. Because hazing is more expansive, it causes some confusion and because hazing tends to be associated with inclusion, it will often go unrecognized or be overlooked if the school simply relies on its bullying policy to cover hazing as well. It can cause emotional harm death. E ironically students participate in hazing to build relationships. They breed mistrust among group members, causing anger, resentment and leaving lasting emotional and physical scars. And in light of the many problems associated with it, understanding it and preventing it is vital for the health and wellbeing of our youth. And its important to recognize that hazing isnt exceptional. It occurs for both boys and girls. It occurs in both public and private schools. And all regions of the country and it doesnt appear to be racially identity. Students experience hazing is off the 47 of students who experience in high school only 8 called it hazing. Major disconnect. Curious about this discrepancy, we explored it further on hundreds of interviews with students. And based on the research so far, we believe the gap is largely due to students failure to identify hazing except in cases of extreme physical force and abuse. So whether you ask students to define hazing, theyll Say Something like, well, its forcing snoun do something they dont want to do to be part of a group. Whether you probe further and say what do you mean forcing someone . What does that look like to you . Theyll describe tying someone to a tree or a chair or holing them down or putting them in the trunk of a car, kidnapping, those kind of physical force. But rarely do they account for the power of coercion. The power and control that can happen and is so central to hazing. Another challenge is that many students will just we lost it. Where did it go . Ill keep talking now. Many students will justify hazing based on the perceived positive intentions of the activity. Not there. So youll aven, its not uncommon to hear them rationalize by saying things like that wasnt hazing even if the behavior meets the definition of hazing, no, that wasnt hazing. That was just a tradition. That was just an initiation. That was just group bonding. No, no. It wasnt hazing. And as students often justify it based on the perceived gains, sometimes teachers, coaches and even parents condone it. Some of our Research Indicates as many as 25 of coaches and advisors knew about the hazing or participated in it. What can be done to prevent it . What can you do to make a difference after you leave here today . First, its important to understand hazing with an alarger context. And learn lessons from prevention and other arenas. Because as of yet, we dont have an Evidence Base around hazing prevention. So we are translating from other fields. But one of the lessons we know is we have to consider it context. Its not a few bad actors out there who are doing this hazing. Or ano, maam lus groups. Its about something that is in the culture. And often goes unrecognized or normalized. And its not an isolate theed problem. So we need to draw on prevention science. And take a kprens af proech using the ecological model. I had a slide but looking at hazing at the individual level, group level, the school level and the Larger Community level. And looking at the factors that contribute to it as well as protect from it, protect, you know, the individuals and groups. So at the group level, some students are more likely to engage in hazing if they dont see alternatives to promote group bonding. A protective factor is to engage students in developing cool and desirable alternatives for Building Group unity and achieving something without having to participate in hazing. This can be a protective factor. Educator educators, Community Members sh parents, friends, we all have a role to play. Our research has found that a good deal of hazing in high schools occurs in plain view of adults. Students talk about hazing and manyeople know it is happening. There are many bystanders. The five step process of Bystander Intervention is something that were using to promote hazing prevention efforts. And thats what we can think about here. When we leave here, what are some things we can do . Some concrete things it notice hazing, step number one. Interpret it as a problem. To help others see the harm associated it with. Three, to recognize our responsibility to change it. Four, to acquire the skills needed to change it and five, to take action. We need to reframe the issue. Its not harmless antics and prafr pranks on willing participates. Its abusive and undermines the School Climates we need for our children to thrive. Its a community issue. Hazing is occurring. And so much of what theyre learning, you know, theyre learning about how to be a leader, how to be in relationships with others, how to be a member of the group. And this is what theyre learning about team development. It will obviously have a neg fife consequence. This is not the kind of world we want to live in. The kind of leaders we want to help our students, strong leaders that can build cohesive groups with members who feel engaged. At the local level, i urge you to share information about hazing and engage family and friends and colleagues and communities and discussions about it. Include information in your news letters and its vital to help the kids and adults in their lives. Gsz can you have them to practice what they can say and do if they encounter a hazing situation. Challenging children to build new traditions and bonding activities that doesnt rely on hazing is vital. We can urge policy makers to include hazing as Research Funding and program attic initiatives. Finally, if we want all of our students to thrive in safe, supportive and respectful environments, then hazing has no place in our schools or communities. It is our responsibility to stop hazing. There is so much to be done and no time to waste. I challenge you to join me in taking action to prevent hazing and in the process well develop healthy students and communities and a better world. Thank you. Thank you, elizabeth. So now id like to open it up to questions from audience members. You mentioned something about saying to people who is willing to be hazed. Where do we find that . Go to safehaven. Org. Thats my group. There are a lot of resources. And there are resource thats should be included on your little bracelet. Elizabeth and darlenes presentations are available on the wrist bands that youre wearing and then theyre also available on the web sites where you registered for this. There is also a Research Paper that elizabeth wrote about hazing in high school as well. If you want to take a look at that, too. Notice the events is an issue. In my case, notice hazing. Then you have to interpret it as a problem. Third, recognize your responsibility to change it or intervene. Third, acquire the skills needed to intervene. Can you be highly motivated and want to do something. You see something you think its wrong. And you really want to do something. If you dont have the xildz, you often dont ask. And then so then fife sj to take action. Thank you. [ inaudible ] do we know the statistics in terms of hazing . Do we know the statistics of teen dating violence . Do we know what the numbers are . I dont know right off hand. I think if you go to loveisrespect. Org, they have a lot of stats on their website. Yeah. Yep. Our football jamboree and the teams come and cheer. They have like a party. And it was like a scavenger hunt. They have to go around and get certain stuff. It wasnt anything like. That but the Football Players had one and it was like, you know, you get food thrown at you and i was like wondering if that is hazing. He was just like okay, they have to learn. They had to clean the buses. Is that hazing . It sounds like it to me, yes. And, again, its not about im glad you pointed ow out how the xaf efrpger hunt, its how it happens that makes it hazing. Hi. I have a question for elizabeth. You said acquiring the skills is key if you want to do something. Where is that that you acquire that skill . Well, we are learning applying whats been learned and violence, especially Sexual Violence prevention because there is an Evidence Base for Bystander Intervention there. And prevention innovations at the university of New Hampshire has a program called know your power. Were collaborating with them to translate what is being learned there for hazing. They have a Great Program that, you know, builds the skills and so, you know, there are so many different. But it takes practice. Its like you know, what they do is have people role play. And, you know, practice might be a potential scenario. Colleges and universities were trying to do that in new student orientation. They have skit to dialogalogue t the scenario and practice. I think we can do that thing also in schools. This prevention Intervention Group has statistics. And another thung i quickly mentioned is that what theyve also done which is really innovative and i love the data supporting it, its social marketing. So they have a really sophisticated way of having images of students intervening as bystanders. Theyre on poefers. Theyre on the campus buses and table tent and dining hall and developed by students who say, yep, that looks like me and my friends in a situation we might be in. And then, you know, and they have and then so they do a work shop on by stander intervention and then they use the social marketing as a booster. They have found that it effective in actually changing behavior and promoting the likelihood that people will intervene in those situations. I want to add a couple of resources. You talk about skill sets. You with go on thatsnotcool. Com. And they have all kinds of apps, somewhat role play, skit type of ways of, you know, somewhat highlighting how you should handle certain situations. Also can you go to the teen b t dating abuse website for information as well. And lastly, greendot is a Bystander Intervention strategy which i think can you use in that case, too. Yes, thank you. [ inaudible question ] about the needs around the clubs that kids go through hazing to get into because i think when theyre interpreting the event as a problem, a lot of kids going into a club think of it as an art. Its kind of a brainwashing. And theyre going to the hazing but they feel its an honor that theyve been asked to do it. And so the Marketing Needs to be up front about the clubs and the aura so that the kids are alerted way before they even are in the situation where theyre intervening. Absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Were moving in that direction. Yeah. Unfortunately, were out of time. I do want to encourage everyone here to please read through the biographies. They have a lot of information about the work that theyre doing. What their offices are doing. Theyve provided you with some great resources today. And some great jumping off points. So thank you both sincerely for coming. Cspans 2015 student cam competition is under way. This nationwide competition for m mided and High School Students will win prizes totaling 100,000. Create a document on the three branches and you. Videos need to include cspan programming, show varying points of view and must be submitt january 20th, 2015. Go to student cam. Org for more information. Grab a camera and get started today. Our rebroadcast continues with a discussion about state and federal laws. This is about 50 minutes. Good afternoon. I think well get started. Apologize for running a few minutes late here. Im going to go through interductions fairly quickly. My name is torey cummings. Im a trial attorney. My work involves enforcing various civil rights statutes that apply to k12 schools, colleges and universities through investigation, litigation and settlement negotiations. Ive done a number of cases related to harassment. And particularly cases related to sexbased harassment including some lgbt issues. Next to me is dr. Jorge strabstein, he is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. Does he clinical and Research Work to detect, prevent and treat physical and Emotional Health problems affecting young people being bullied and who bully others. Hes also a Public Health advocate who has testified before the u. S. Congress, the Maryland Assembly and the district of columbia on behalf of antibullying legislation. Then we have charlotte landberg, a staff attorney here at the u. S. Department of education in the office for civil rights. She works in the Program Legal group and focuses on disability rights, guidance related to elementary, secretary airy and postsecondary education. And on my right is dr. Sarah allen who is also with the department of education. She is a Program Specialist for the office of special education programs, research to practice division. She leads the Personnel Development program, aimed at inproving the quality of general and special education teachers, Early Intervention and Early Childhood providers and related services personnel. Who are skilled in the use of effective instruction and interviewing interventions to prevent outcomes for children with disabilities. Were going to talk to you all today about state and federal laws, policies and guidance related to harassment. Were going to start by each of the panelists here doing about a ten minute presentation. And then well have some chunk of time at the end for questions and for the discussion. So without hesitation, ill let dr. Allen lead it off. Good afternoon, thank you. Id like to thank torey and others for including the office of special education and Rehabilitative Services in the presentation this afternoon. Im really pleased to talk about federal law that impacts students with disabilities in particular around bullying behavior, preventing and addressing bullying behaviors. This is the office wnt u. S. Department of education. We support programs that serve millions of children, youth and adults with disabilities. And one of the laws authorizing the programs and activities is the individuals with disabilities act. Idea governs how they provide Early Intervention, special education and related services to more than 6. 5 million eligible infants. There are 14 different disability areas. I work within osurs, i work in the office of special education programs. We have the authority to administer funds provided under idea. Just to give you the background and the context of the policy that ill be talking about in just a minute. For those who may not be as familiar with idea and services for children with disabilities, i want to draw your attention to a couple of terms within the law that are important when we think about serving students with disabilities who might be the target or the person initiating bullying behaviors. And the first is free inappropriate Public Education. As idea was reauthorizeded in 2004, lawsuit clarified the intended outcome for each child with a disability is that they be provided a free and appropriate education that prepares them for future education, employment, and independent living by providing an Educational Program designed to meet the unique learning needs of each child. Secondly, at regulations clarify that children with disabilities are to be educated in the least restrictive environment. As we understand the law, the least restrictive environment is intended to be the environment most like that of a typical setting that would meet the needs of the child with a disability. So the maximum extent possible. They provide the basis for a deer colleague letter released by the acting assistant secretary for osurs and melody musgrove, the director of osep about a year ago, almost this week a year ago in august that addressed and intended to provide guidance on how idea would be relevant for protecting students with disabilities. Osep is very active in and supportive of the department of educations policy and position, asserting that bullying any student by another student for any reason cannot be tolerated in our schools. You heard a few people earlier on panels talking about the work thats happened for 15 or 16 years coming out of our office, talking about multitiered services, talking about safe, positive healthy on schools for our students. And so we often talk about and support the idea of no bullying safe positive healthy students for all students. We have a particular focus on students with disabilities. Its hard the numbers. Its hard to get a good sense and to assign numbers really to describe the incidents of bullying. But we do know that consistently surveys and other reports indicate that students with disabilities are disproportionately affected by bullying. Two to three time more likely to be the target of bullying behavior than the nondisabled piers. Just to share a few statistics, in some reports, 75 of children with disabilities report being bullied at least once in the past ten months. 20 to 50 report being bullied at some point during the school years. 40 to 70 say that bullying incidents in school take place often on class breaks and the lunch rooms, hallways, bathrooms. And typically are brief incidents but have an impact that show more than 60 of kids with disabilities report bullying as a part of their school experience. And again two to three times more than the typical peers. Here are a couple examples. A second grade we are a learning disability who difficulties with decoding unfamiliar words result in giggling and name calling. Whenever he is called upon to read allowed, to write on the board in class. With the taunting, more often than not carrying on into other settings such as the cafeteria, the playground and leaving an impression about this child that will carry with him for many years. A fifth grader with an emotional disability despite her creativity, her deep knowledge for the subject matter is always the last one to be closen by peers for a group of projects because of her disorganizationed approach to work and her need for modelling and structure on the work assignment. A ninth grader with an interlekt youll disability who is told not it climb on new gym equipment but is egged on by peers until he succumbs and breaks the rules. Resulting in punishment and further victimization by peers. An 11th grader with a learning disability who strug wells rapid reading and short term memory has comprehension deficits and is told by the guidance counsellor that he would not be a good candidate is scourdiscou from setting his ambitions and enrollment in a competitive college. Whether we think about situations in which kids are involved on a regular, none of those are extraordinary. There are extraordinary scam thamz we hear about in the news or publicized. These are kind of, sadly i think every day situations that happen in schools. They released a Dear Colleague letter that intended to clarify the responsibilities a school and school would have under idea. Heres the gift of it. Under idea schools and School Districts are obligated to ensure that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education, the least restrictive environment. Bullying of a student with a disability regardless of whether it is related to the disability or not is considered a denial of fate if it results in the student not getting a meaningful educational benefit under idea and must be remedied. The intent of the letter is to draw attention, raise awareness that idea considerations must may apply, could apply to make to sort of put schools on notice that they need to consider idea when bullying behaviors involve a student with a disability. If the student move to a more restrictive environment, i heard examples this morning of the students denied access to a program such as physical education, if hes or she is discouraged from participating in a program such as the example i gave you a minute before. It is incumbent upon the school to revisit have the iep team, the team that helps set up including parents the students individual Educational Program would reconvene and would gather information and make decisions to decide if the childs being provided meaningful educational benefit in the least restrictive environment. Okay, hold on. In addition to the letter, as an enclosure to the letter, we felt it was critical to make a statement about the importance of preventing bullying. So for a school to recognize that they have a responsibility to address bullying behavior under idea if a student with a disability is involved but more importantly, that as adults in schools and as parents and Community Members we have an obligation first to prevent bullying. In addition to the Dear Colleague letter, we had aclosure that outlined effective practices for preventing and addressing bullying. We encouraged schools to use a multitiered framework, Something Like pbis or the multitiered structures. Youve heard people talking about to teach appropriate behaviors and how to respond to provide active adult supervision. So to look at the Evidence Base, use the research to inform the practice thats would be implemented. And really what we would like to do is draw your attention to the letter, encourage you to make School Boards administrators, staff, teacher certified and otherwise working with xooldz in aware of the Dear Colleague letter and implection for bullying prevention and addressing their behaviors under idea. Encourage kids to reevaluate the practices. Schools dont have policies on the books but its important we reevaluate them annually if not more often to see that theyre including the guidance provided by this letter and others well be talking b reevaluate your policies and prevent bullying behavior. And secondly, be prepared to address it if it were to occur. Please check out our resources, the Dear Colleague letter and the Evidence Based practices are available on the website. Other funded resources, the pbis center for many years and i know paula and others are here. We funneleded the pacer center. There are wonderful resources for addressing bullying around for children with disabilities. And finally, the intensive Intervention Center is a National Center recently funded to talk about tier three kind of work. So when you are working with a child who has intense individualized needs, they can provide resources that might be helpful in addressing them. Thank you. If you have a question for dr. Allen, jot it down and save it for the end. Well go to charlottes presentation. And i dont have a power point. If its not on, that is as it should be. Hi, everyone. My name is charlotte landers. Im a staff attorney with the office for civil rights in the department of education. Today i am intending to talk first about our enforcement work with respect to complaints involving allegations of harassment based on a protected civil right. So harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age. And next i will talk about the section 504 implications that can arise from bullying or harassment. And then finally ill talk about how the two can interact at times. So ocr, the office for civil rights enforces several civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability and age. And essentially, as explained in our 2010 Dear Colleague letter on harassment and bullying, schools have several obligations as soon as they learn of bullying or hars harsing conduc. As soon as they know or should know that a child is being subject to bullying or harsing behavior, they have an obligation to investigate. If the result of the investigation shows that the student is being subject to a hostile environment which is essentially conduct that is sufficiently serious to interfere with or limit a students ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or opportunities offered by the school, the school is then required to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the bullying or the harassment. Eliminate the hostile environment and prevent the conduct from reoccurring and remedy its effects. We noticed that ocr we care less about if a student uses magic words to tell a School Official that they have been subject to bullying or harassment. Instead ocr is more interested in these schools obligation to respond appropriately regardless of how the child terms the incident. So if a child calls it bullying, teasing or hazing, isnt as important adds if its actually happening. If it is happening, at that point schools have very real obligations to act. So thats an important point to keep in mind. Earlier dr. Allen talked a bit about the implications on fape under idea. Section 5 o04 is a law i should explain. I fail to explain the definition. So section 504 requires that schools provide students with disabilities equal opportunities and must ensure that students with disabilities receive a free, appropriate Public Education. At times bullying or harassment can also implicate a childs ability to receive equal educational opportunities. So if a child is teased constantly at school and becomes less interested or able to actively participate in the school program, it may implicate their ability to access fape. And similarly to the other analysis, if the school is observing this or if the school should be observing this noticeable change in the childs ability to participate, they may have an obligation to act. They may possibly meet to ensure that the child is continuing to receive fchltd ape. Fape and could result in the schools failure to provide fape if that child is not accessing fape any longer. So how the concepts and interact is at times a child who is subject to bullying or harassment under a harassment approach, may also be experiencing a diminishment in their access of fape. Schools should be aware that bullying or harassment can implicate numerous legal standards. I think that is a very basic legal analysis. And thats probably enough for now. And then if individuals are interested in asking questions afterwards, id be happy to answer them. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for organizers of summit for inviting me to be part of this panel. Im the medical directorst clinic for Health Problems for childrens medical center. In the next ten minutes i would like to highlight three main related points about the problem of bullying as seen from a Public Health perspective. It is involving, understanding, not only about the concept, the nature of what bullying is all about, but alsos ecology and about all the very serious Public Health related to this form of treatment. Number two, the enacted antibullying laws lack Public Health prevention measures. And, therefore, we need to consider future Public Policies that should include a three tier level of prevention strategy that i will discuss in a couple of minutes. This peyramid shows the 40 of u. S. Children are participating in bullying incident as victims or as perpetrators. Out of this population, a quarter of them, 23 , suffer from the rate of physical and Emotional Health problems associated with their participation in bullying. Furthermore, within this subgroup, 40 of them suffer from bullying related Health Problems. They try to hurt themselves or others on purpose. And we are left with the main Public Health question of how many deaths, juvenile deaths occur per year in the United States that are related to bullying . Victims are not perpetrators of bullying are at significant higher risk when we compare them to their peers who are not involved in bullying or suffering from a cluster of very frequent, by frequent, i mean at least once a week or more frequent array of physical or emotional problems including headaches, stomach aches, dizziness and daily depression, irritabili irritability, anger, anxiety, and insomnia. Furthermore, they are also at higher risk as compared to the peers that do not participate in bullying in attempting suicide, suffering from descental or intentional injuries, run ago way from home, abusing alcohol and drugs, smoking daily, carrying weapons to school, hurting others, having a declining academic performance and significant absentees and we see how bullying is at the cross roads of very, very serious Public Health risks. We dont know how many youngsters die per year with a history of bullying. We do know that bullying related mortality may include an unknown portion of the 2000 suicide deaths per year in the United States. And an unknown fraction of the almost 6,000 juvenile descental deaths. Plus, all the 2000 homicides per year from the Public Health points of view, homicides should be regarded as a maximum consequence of physical aggression of bullying. Any case of homicide, there is a situation of bullying behind. It depends on how you define bullying. Bullying is a very multifaceted form of treatment, pref lent around the world, across social settings and around the life stan. It can be physical aggression, verbal aggression, also we should consider the act of daring somebody to do something dangerous or inappropriate in exchange of being accepted in a group or favors. That has tremendous consequence in terms of considering that hazing is a form of bullying. Also in juvenile dating relationships the pressure put on one of the partners, if you love me, blah, blah, blah, that may lead to unwanted pregnancy and so on. But above all, bullying and probably we should change the term bullying is the realm of mistreatment that started 45 years ago with the discovery by a tee trapediatrician by the cof child abuse. If bullying isnt the center here, it shares elements of intimidation and harassment and one extreme verbal or physical aggression or abuse and violence and the other extreme, neglect, rejection or exclusion. It doesnt have to be a child to another. It can be an adult to a child and so on. It is important and i will expand on this in the questions and answers, to consider that intentional alt, imbalance of power and a repeative pattern over time may not be required criteria elements to consider bullying from a medical point of view. I think we have the definition that is correct. But for all of us that are out there in the trenches, the practitioners, can you not determine intention alt. Can you not determine i go more in details later. The bullying occurred is only significant within a la tithous framework. The question of whether the act is bullying may not be relevant from a Public Health perspective. Its in the eyes of the beholder. The most relevant aspect of the understanding of the ecology and epidemiology of bullying is that it occurs across social settings. It primarily happens at home between siblings that love each other and is being misconstrued by the community as socalled sib ling rivalry. But with all the love in the world they can kill each other. But it also occurs in the neighborhood, in the telephones and internet, walking to and from school, on the school bus, at school, during after School Programs in extra curricular activities in, summer camp, in the workplace. Yes, 30 of youngsters age 16 or above in 16 to 18 years age in the United States work part time. And this happens in the workplace. Last but not least, we should not forget the young people in correction alpha silts. Im talking about almost all the states have enacted laws including also the commonwealth of puerto rico and juan. What we find, number one, there is a preponderance of prohibition reporting mechanism and the concept and other alternatives. Now less predominant is the fact that this Public Policy calls for the prescription of victim, fostering civility and enhancement in School Climate wlachlt is almost lacking are the provisions to raise ware fls about the relevanth risk to bullying, protect the referral and clut Public Health part of the house. For the past six years at Childrens Hospital we have been advocating for a three Level Strategy for the prevention of Public Health relating to bullying. This is incorporated in a joint position statement of the American Psychiatric association and the American Academy of child adolescent psychiatry. Were talking about the measures to raise public awareness, about the nature and the public and the health risk of bullying. To promote safe social environment with respect to fathers and sensitivity and empathy and all the good programs we have heard this morning and we are debating which program is better. At the end of the day, in the best of circumstances, they can decrease the incidents of prevention in only 45, 50 . So were left with kids no matter which program we, have they continue to bully. And the question is in termed of secondary prevention, has bullying in Emergency Rooms in regular pediatric visits in psychiatric visits should be included. A reporting system not for the purpose of the kids being punished, but to support the victims and to counsel the perpetrators. And last but not least, medical referral. On this basis, most specifically we need bullying prevention Public Policies that help to raise community awareness. About the nature and toxicity of bullying across social settings and along the lifespan, to promote a emotional and social safety and community environments, not just the school. But develop neutral youll respect and sensitive to others. Ensure adaptation as bullying and the other forms of treatment bullying is intertwined with many other forms of mall treatment. And the child that is being bullied today if school may have been victimized crossing the border and an illegal immigrant to the United States or may have been physically abused at home or witness Domestic Violence or have other things. Avoid the requirement constraints within the concept of bullying of international and balance of power and repettive patte pattern. Very important to advocate against the use of Corporal Punishment as a way to prevent this. At least 20 states still have in their codes physical punishment in the schools. And its time to call attention to this matter. Its a very serious Public Health problem. Furthermore, most of the states have in their codes a Public Health message that is called reasonable Corporal Punishment. You tell me what reasonable is and we can discuss that. Future policy should promote a clinical detection of bullying and related Health Problems. Foster the Community Acceptance to report bullying and ensure Health Intervention and the children should understand that they are not being considered a snitch if they are doing it. But definitely they are helping for a health problem. Advance the support of the victim and counsel of the perpetrator. Make streement available to victims bystanders and perpetrators who suffer from related Health Problems. Make treatment available to perpetrators who are able to stop bullying in spite of all got offices from the school. And finally, facilitate the partnership to support the implementation of the strategies. Visit privilege in the last year of coordinated efforts for the launching hopefully next month of this socalled Global Health initiative for the prevention of bullying. This will be an effort to raise awareness about the resources associated with bullying and to promote the very vengs, detection and treatment by all Health Professionals in all countries within a whole community and this will be implemented by the direct communications with those schools of medicines across the the world and medical societies and provide them with a website that is almost being finished right now that has links to studies that have been done and they are included in the National Library of medicine. So they have direct links. And just to raise Awareness Among physicians, nurses, psychologists and so on. Thank you very much. Thank you to all three panelists for their very interesting presentations. Id like to opt floor to questions if anyone has any. If not, ill as the first question. To my colleagues from the department of education, im wondering if you can share a little bit about what types of remedies might be appropriate for School Districts to implement once there is a violation of idea in terms of a denial of fape as a result of bullying . Sure. Go ahead. Well . Assuming for a moment that the allegations involved a child with a disability who alleges both that he or she was harsed based on his or her disabilities and also that he or she has not received a free appropriate Public Education in part because of the bullying and assuming that ocr completed an investigation and entered into a resolution agreement with a recipient, it could find, for example, and this is completely a hypothetical, that the it could first require that the childs iep team or the team meet to talk about the extent to which the bullying has had an adverse effect on the childs ability to receive fape. It could also consider Offering Counseling to the student to remedy the harm. It could also monitor to see whether bullying persists and if so they could reconvene the 504 team or iep team to talk about other approaches. They could develop and implement a school wide bullying prevention strategy. They could devise a voluntary School Climate survey for students and parents to assess the presence and effective bullying based on disabilities. They could revise the districts antibullying policy to account for what happened in this particular case. And they could also train staff and parent volunteers again to look for signs of bullying or harsing conduct and also to respond appropriately if they think any of these apply. I just want to agree and reiterate my background is not legal, but from my work as a School Psychologist and thinking that support an individual student, i think a first step is to reconvene to the iep team. And to consider as you said, the impact of the bullying behavior. Part of the reason we issued the guidance sometimes a Quick Response is to take the child out of the dangerous situation or the problematic situation. We really wanted to make clear that child with the disability may not need to be removed from the situation but the situation may need to be addressed. You know, changing instruction, changing, you know, other putting additional supervision in place, additional supports and intervention. Butimmediately removing a child from a situation. So, for example, a child with a disability is in a science class. This was a i work with the school around us. And if its difficult to have the child for whatever reason participate, so they just cancel all the field trips. Eliminated that portion of the science curriculum. And that wasnt a bullying situation, necessarily. Instead of just eliminating the Educational Opportunity or removing the child with a disability, its important to look at the situation and consider some alternatives. And you suggested a number of them. Im sorry. Yes. Sorry. One of the recommendations we make to parents that need to meet with the principal and the counsellor to report the situation of bullying is not to discuss this matter in the context of a potential iep meeting. Not to mix apples and oranges. Just to discuss the merits of the bullying incident itself and request that the rights of the child for physical and emotional safe environment should protect it and the other children should be counselled, not punished. If it gets discussed in iep meeting, it gets sometimes the issues get a little bit confused. Although if its a child with a disability, then i will fully agree with you. But talking about iep meetings, the mistreatment doesnt come from child to child. The mistreatment comes from adults to children. And the schools many of my patients complaining that the yelling of a teacher, you know, they feel like being mistreated. About all they feel mistreated whether the adults, the powers that be, dont recognize that bullying really has happened and he says, no, you have not been bullied. It doesnt meet the criteria whatever it s so losing support from the powers that be is worse than the victimization itself. Last but not least in, term of being mistrited and sometimes not being provided services when they are needed. And one typical example i see frequently is the 20 or 30 of children that have significant long processing and difficult in term of processing information, expresses are perspective and if they are latin american extraction, these kids are assigned to iso. Iso was not designed to treat speech and language problems. So there you have mistreatment coming to the kids on top of the situation of bullying. Screeria