In the past year, bullying has become not only a pervasive danger for students to dodge in the hallways but a hot topic of debate in the media, among parents and around dinner tables nationwide. Tragic stories of bullied kids committing suicide show up alongside activists’ best efforts to combat the problem, but still it persists.

Lee Hirsh’s documentary Bully, which follows a handful of kids and families from around the country who have dealt with severe bullying, caused a stir before it was even widely released when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) refused to grant it the PG-13 rating that would allow it to be shown in schools. Dozens of news stories and a petition half a million signatures strong later, the MPAA relented and will change the rating.

It’s clear that people care about bullying, but the question is, who can stop it?

One former local student and his attorney are asserting that schools are responsible for preventing their students from being subjected to bullying. Eric Giray, a former student of the prestigious Calhoun School on the Upper West Side, recently filed a lawsuit against his alma mater and his alleged former bully, classmate Daniel Dworakowski, centered on an incident that occurred eight years ago. He’s seeking damages of $1.5 million for what his attorney says was a blatant failure on the part of the school to protect Giray as a student there.

“The school was notified over time, several times, that bullying was taking place,” said Ric Cherwin, Giray’s attorney. “The former principal kept on saying, ‘We’ll take care of it, we’ll handle it, don’t take matters into your own hands.’ But the school, in fact, didn’t really do anything.”

According to Cherwin, what began as students taunting Giray with names like “elephant ears” and calling him “gay” escalated to one harrowing incident on which their case rests.

“My client was dramatically singled out by the defendant, who violently pushed him with malice into the bleachers, and he suffered a serious injury: broken nose, 18 stitches and pretty serious psychological trauma,” Cherwin said.

Dworakowski’s mother told the Daily News that the scuffle was just an accident, which is how the school may have characterized it at the time as well. Calhoun could not elaborate on what policies they have in place to prevent and address bullying, either then or now. Several other private schools also declined to comment on their bullying policies.

“We are not able to comment on the matters under litigation, but Calhoun has clear standards regarding bullying and a long record of being sensitive and responsive to the physical, emotional and psychological needs of all of our students,” wrote Calhoun’s head of school, Steve Nelson, in an email.

Giray is now in college and his attorney explained that he and his mother didn’t want to file a lawsuit against the school until he was through the college admissions process—the statute of limitations on this type of personal injury does not begin until the victim turns 18. His case has ignited interest in who’s to blame for bullying, even while schools struggle to keep their classrooms safe and civil places.

For public schools, the city’s Department of Education (DOE) enforces a discipline code that prohibits all forms of bullying and has trained some educators in how to teach respectful interaction to their students.

“We launched Respect for All training programs in 2007, and to date, more than 6,000 teachers, counselors, parent coordinators and other staff members have participated in various components of the Respect for All training program,” said DOE spokesperson Marge Feinberg in an email.

“Each school has a Respect For All liaison that helps ensure schools comply with the regulation and work with the DOE central staff on programs that embrace differences in others.”

According to the DOE, the number of bullying incidents has remained fairly steady over the past 10 years, but experts say many students won’t always report bullying to authority figures and sometimes teachers don’t know the best ways to handle the problem.

“Teachers and school administrations need to be prepared to notice both the child who bullies and the child who is being bullied,” said Nancy Silberkleit, a former educator who has launched her own anti-bullying campaigns. “I have seen, too many times, teachers pushing children away for ‘tattletelling’ instead of encouraging them to come forward and dealing with their concerns.”

Upper West Side Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell has been working for years to pass legislation that would help teachers become better equipped to handle bullying. Last year, after many years of pushing the bill, the Dignity for All Students Act passed the state Legislature and was signed into law. It will take effect July 1.

“It requires training of professionals; there needs to be somebody onsite who understands that bullying is not just kids being kids,” O’Donnell said. The law also requires localities to report bullying to the state Department of Education so effective strategies can be compared and tracked.

O’Donnell, who said he has faced plenty of bullying himself, finds it especially important to protect kids in an age when bullying is ever-present—kids don’t escape harassment when they leave the school building anymore and can be driven to despair by a particularly pointed Facebook post.

“I think the changes in the culture, the changes in the exposure to information and the ability to immediately communicate without thinking, which is what 13- and 14-year-olds do, creates this explosive environment,” O’Donnell said. Since the Dignity Act passed, he has also authored an amendment that addresses cyberbullying.

He also said that kids are exposed to sex, and are thus defining their own sexual and gender identities, at earlier ages, making young children who identify as gay or somehow different potential targets.

“This was the first time in New York State history that gender identity and expression were written into state laws,” O’Donnell said. “I know all too well that those children who violate gender stereotypes are the first targets.”

While the law will expand the requirements for how teachers and administrators address bullying, some say that it will be difficult to implement if parents and communities don’t also get involved.

“Teachers are overwhelmed with outside requirements to get students through tests and standards,” said Silberkleit. “There is very little time and energy left to deal with the social aspects of the students’ lives. Bullying occurs primarily before and after school.”

Kat Eden, communications director for Education.com, which works on anti-bullying issues, said that according to the results of a nationwide survey they conducted of 1,000 principals, many schools don’t have the resources they’d like to have to combat bullying.

“Principals surveyed reported a lack of resources to prevent and manage bullying—only 38 percent of principals report that they have sufficient resources to effectively implement bullying programs, curriculum and policies in their schools,” Eden said.

O’Donnell acknowledged that that is a particular challenge for many cash-strapped school districts, but insists that changing behavior is mostly a matter of awareness and education for current educators.

“We need to get rid of the idea within school environments that kids will be kids with regard to bullying,” O’Donnell said. “That’s just not OK.”

Patrons at the Battery Park City library, which is part of the New York Public Library system. Photos BY Patricia Voulgaris

When people think of libraries, they think of taciturn old librarians, stacks of musty books and repressive quiet zones where the smallest sound is met with a harsh shush! The reality couldn’t be further from this image. Walking into the Battery Park City Library on North End Avenue, the first thing you notice is that it’s bright and sunny, with large open windows. Dozens of kids are playing quietly in a children’s area. Adults are sitting at computers doing research alongside young students doing their homework. It certainly isn’t filled with an oppressive air of silence—the library is a surprisingly vibrant community center.

Library usage in the city keeps going up—in the last fiscal year, the St. Agnes branch on the Upper West Side had nearly 300,000 visits and the entire NYPL system had 15.1 million—but funding continues to drop precipitously. Now the NYPL system is facing severe budget cuts again; the proposed 2013 budget slashes $36 million, a 32 percent decrease that, if implemented in the executive budget, would surely mean reduced hours, staff and services all around Manhattan.

“More patrons than ever are coming through our doors, checking out more materials, attending more programs and accessing more information,” said Dr. Anthony Marx, president of the NYPL, at a City Council hearing last month. “This cumulative cut means that [fiscal year] ’13 funding, excluding inflationary reimbursements, would be a full 44 percent lower than the FY ’08 adopted budget.”

It’s a particularly cruel irony that the same economic crisis that squeezes the library budget is the same force sending New Yorkers into those libraries in droves. Library advocates point out that the loss of hours and staff would mean fewer librarians to help people find and fill out job applications, fewer free activities for cash-strapped parents to bring their kids to and fewer English as a Second Language courses, one of the many types of free class the NYPL provides.

“Especially in an economic downturn, libraries just become more necessary,” said Lauren Comito, a librarian who runs the organization Urban Librarians Unite. She said she has probably helped over 1,000 people in the past six months search for jobs, write résumés and apply to positions online. Last year, 440,500 people attended job-related classes at the city libraries.

The steady decline in funding has forced libraries to get by on shoestring budgets and operate with military-like efficiency to avoid cutting services.

“The cuts have definitely been tough,” Angela Montefinise, director of public relations and marketing at the NYPL, wrote in an email. “We’re down 500 employees since [2008], and yet we still manage to have an average of six-day service around our system. We have worked extremely hard…to ensure that public service is not impacted by these cuts, but there’s only so far we can push to maintain that level of service as resources continue to decline.”

According to the NYPL, about $100 million of their $259 million adopted budget for FY 2012 comes from private donations, a number they say remains consistent. It’s the city money that fluctuates and that the system is constantly negotiating.

“I call it, in the words of Yogi Berra, ‘Déjà vu all over again,’” said Council Member Vincent Gentile, chair of the Libraries Committee. “It seems like every 10 months or so, we’re back to where we started.

“Last year, we had to close a gap of $3 million [after larger cuts were restored to the budget],” he said. “Now it’s come to the point that we’re looking at a gap of $96 million,” the total combined amount for the NYPL, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island as well as the research libraries, and cuts to the Queens and Brooklyn library systems.

Gentile said that the libraries should receive a baseline budget—something they can count on every year—but that he doesn’t see that happening in this administration.

“The fact that we haven’t baselined it really leaves everybody with no ability to plan and no ability to have some sense of security,” he said.

Maureen Sullivan, president-elect of the American Libraries Association, said that urban libraries around the country are suffering similar budget restraints and that lawmakers need to be made aware of the tremendous return on investment that libraries offer in terms of public services and community benefit.

“I think there’s really a need for the financial people, the policy makers to understand what people who work in libraries do and how people in the community use libraries,” Sullivan said. “It’s critical to recognize that the public library is often the only resource available for those in our communities who are not yet using the technology or don’t have the ability to get the information,” for things like online employment resources.

While job search resources are critical, local libraries also serve as cultural and social havens for Downtown residents. On a recent weekday afternoon at Battery Park City, a mother played with her young child in a foam play area. Behind her, several nannies talked amongst themselves as their charges read books or used computers. On the other side of the library, teens surfed the Internet or read books. A quick jog upstairs brings you to the library’s quiet area, where Tammy Keller helped her daughter go over her homework.

“I bring my daughter Olivia and her friends here, and it’s a bright, wonderful space. We do homework here, go to story time and check out books. If anything happened, we’d still come here, but we wouldn’t be as happy.”

Back downstairs, Lolita Atilola organizes a Spanish story time with two dozen infants and their parents. Through song, dance and puppets, Atilola immerses these young children in the Spanish language.

“Some parents take their kids here because they want them to learn about their roots or their culture. Others do this because they want their children to have an early exposure to another language,” said Francesca Coraggio, who manages the library.

Liza Polanco, 50, is a nanny for two children who are here for the Spanish story time. “If they closed the library or cut its hours, I don’t know what we’d do. Lots of children come here. We come here every week for the readalongs, the story times and all the other activities. They had animals at the library once,” said Polanco, as the children piped up their experiences with the animals.

“They had an owl here and it was the coolest thing ever!” said the little boy with Polanco.

“They talk about basically cutting the most vulnerable folks in this city who depend on us for access to ideas—the bedrock of democracy, the bedrock of an economy,” Marx said in his Council testimony. “That would demonstrate fewer items being circulated, libraries being closed, youngsters being deprived of access to books and programs. It really is a horror show.”

By Renee Flax

So many factors go into choosing a summer camp that it’s often difficult even to know where to begin. Here, the seven most crucial camp questions parents should ask.

How do I prepare my child for overnight camp?

If you can, take your child to the camp ahead of time so that he or she can meet the people there and become familiar with the surroundings. Once you take away that feeling of it being a foreign experience, it makes the child feel a whole lot better.

Should my child go to a co-ed camp or a single-sex camp?

Each offers things that the other one does not. With a co-ed camp, if you have a boy and a girl in your family, you can send them to the same camp. And kids become good friends with people of the opposite sex at co-ed camps; it’s not like school, where there’s a far more rigid environment. Co-ed camps are also pretty “rah-rah” kinds of places—there’s a lot of spirit in a co-ed camp.

What’s the difference between a structured camp and a non-structured camp? Which type of camp is a better fit for my child?

A structured camp has a bunk with generally two counselors, and those two counselors are with the same kids all day long; they’re taking them from activity to activity.

The non-structured, or “elective,” camp, where the child chooses his or her daily activities, is terrific for the older child and for the child who is very independent and knows what he or she wants to do.

Should my child go to camp with a friend?

If you can convince your child to go by himself or herself, it is the greatest gift you will give your child. When you go with a friend, you’re bringing all the baggage from home when you get off that bus.

Should I tour the camp before sending my child there?

Absolutely, if you can. A lot of day camps have open houses in the spring, which gives you an opportunity to meet them, meet some of their staff, meet some of the other kids that are going there.

What is the camp’s philosophy and program emphasis?

In order for a camp to be a successful fit, you need to be on the same page with the camp on what you believe is a good experience.

How can I be sure the camp is safe?

A camp being accredited by the American Camp Association (ACA) is a parent’s best evidence of a camp’s commitment to safety.
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Renee Flax is program services director for the American Camp Association-New York. For more information or to speak with Renee, call 1-800-777-2267 or visit aca-ny.org.

Parents of children who attend schools around West 96th Street say they have tried to make these blocks safer. They have gone to community board meetings and reached out to elected officials with their complaints and recommendations. But nothing has improved. So now the unsatisfied parents and school administrators have joined with a local pedestrian advocacy group to detail the traffic problems. Eight schools are now working with the group Upper West Side Street Renaissance on the “Corridor 96 Project.”

The busy intersection of West 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Tila Duhaime, one of the project’s organizers, said 14 volunteers stood on the corners tallying infractions from car drivers. There was plenty of red-light running and failing to yield to pedestrians while making a turn, she said.

“There is that behavior in a lot of places in the Upper West Side, but we haven’t recognized how dramatically bad it is,” Duhaime said. “There was more aggressive driving and instances of aggressive driving on this corridor.”

Like other pedestrian safety initiatives, this one aims to protect those most vulnerable to aggressive driving: seniors and school children.

Julie Margolies, a parent of three with two children at the Studio School on West 95th Street, said pedestrian safety in the area has been a consistent problem.

“I think individuals have tried over the years—individual schools, individual parents—to be heard on this issue,” Margolies said. “It’s great that schools are getting involved because they have teams of parents behind them. Not everyone knows the Byzantine system of local city government.”

The recommendations will eventually be presented to the Department of Transportation after administrators from partner schools and community board members add their ideas as well. Many of the pedestrian safety measures recommended will be relatively simple and low-cost, Duhaime said. Some of the changes the group is seeking include signals that let pedestrians cross the street before cars can turn into the lane, and removing parking spots close to intersections so pedestrians can see around corners.

Crossing guards help, said Amy Winarsky, a parent of a child at P.S. 75, on West End Avenue and West 96th Street. But children who stay after school or who go to weekend events are at risk.

“It’s the children that are responsible for crossing safely when in fact it should be the adults responsible for driving safely,” Winarsky said. “Unless [the city builds] in systems that govern the cars, they’re at risk.”

This is just a sample of complaints reported by parents at an October 2009 Community Education Council public hearing focused on crowding in District 3 elementary schools. At that meeting, the Department of Education assured parents that despite widespread complaints, there was in fact plenty of capacity. According to the department, roughly 1,500 seats were empty and available to accommodate new students.

The parent council disputed the department’s conclusions and appointed a fact-finding team to quantify these gut feelings. The team included representatives from the most overcrowded schools.

We reviewed relevant department data reports, toured schools with an eye toward classroom use and collaborated with PTA and other parent representatives from each school. We reviewed historical enrollment to project one-, two- and three-year demand; analyzed the impact of new residential development on student enrollment; analyzed all enrollment by district and zone residency; identified enrollment details of choice schools; and analyzed the impact of projected sibling enrollment.

The data team found that the parents were right. Each of the schools in the study area, from West 70th to 97th streets, were at or above capacity. The most crowded was P.S. 87, at 121 percent capacity. For three schools in close proximity to one another (P.S. 199, P.S. 87 and P.S. 9), the annual growth rate of students living in the catchment area was in the double digits for the past three years. We looked at projected enrollment for these three schools and found that they could not accommodate the 100 to 150 extra students projected to enter the public school system next year. And they certainly could not accommodate the many more children expected in 2011 and 2012.

By mid-December, the department reviewed our numbers and, using its own methodology, projected capacity in these schools of 200 to 300 seats for next year. It was great that they had come down from 1,500 seats, but we challenged their methodology again. According to our methodology, and assuming a kindergarten classroom size of 20 to 25 students, four to six additional kindergarten classrooms are required for the 2010-2011 school year.

Just recently, the department pulled a 180 and agreed that there is demand for classroom seats. Officials have announced a plan for a new K-5 school that will have three classes (“sections”) of 25 kindergarteners each, for a total of 75 new students in 2010. The school will add a new grade each year. The department plans to locate this new school in the O’Shea building on West 77th Street, right in the heart of the most overcrowded schools.

The parent council was pleased to vindicate concerns in the southern part of the district using hard facts. It’s also critical that we continue to get agreement on hard facts in the northern part of the district. We believe the deleterious impact of overcrowding cannot be overestimated and we’re glad that parents listened to their guts, and that we were able to back them up. The data proved that parents were right all along. 

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Rachel Laiserin is a P.S. 87 parent and Helen Rosenthal is the former Chair of Community Board 7.

That’s where the recently un-deadlocked Senate is slated to take up the Assembly’s school governance bill, which passed June 17, leaving mayoral control of schools fairly intact.

Senate Dems have a few amendments they’re rumored to add, including a provision that would create some sort of parent training academy. At press time, though, it sounded like those tweaks would remain ideas only, as the Assembly is unlikely to reconvene and approve additional changes.

That’s all right by us.

Certainly the Department of Education could do a better job at communicating with parents, and letting them know that their voices are being heard down at Tweed. But spending government money on a facility to help parents become better education advocates is misguided, a recipe for waste and just plain ridiculous. How will these “disenfranchised” parents find time to attend class? What, exactly, will they learn? What if the department is still unresponsive? And, most importantly, how much will such an institution cost? Whatever the price, that money is better spent in classrooms, where it can directly impact students success. Teaching advocacy is not the job of government.

Parent advocacy does, however, fall under the purview of groups like Insideschools.org, the subject of this week’s cover story. This comprehensive, informative and well-researched website has been a lifeline for city parents looking for answers. Already a respected independent public school resource, Insideschools has talked about expanding its mission to foster connections between parent users. Parents could train each other to advocate with the department, improve PTAs, navigate issues like school choice and testing and generally become more informed. This website is the ideal nexus for such an effort.

Hit hard by the recent economic downturn, though, Insideschools is struggling to stay alive. That’s a shame. We encourage the website’s users to support its mission by making a donation to the fundraising drive, and we wish staffers luck in securing additional funding. This type of independent, grassroots organization is just the sort of force that can help parents feel more included in public education—and push the department to continue striving for a higher standard.