Bullying Prevention In New York City Public Schools

• In Event: School Discipline Policies and Programs

Abstract

Research on school-based bullying gives little attention to how school-based law enforcement personnel perceive their roles while addressing alleged and real acts of bullying, and whether their roles influence their decisions to get involved in instances of bullying. Assessing the perceptions of NYPD School Safety Agents (SSAs) in NYC public schools concerning bullying is important to understanding how their views influence their involvement or abstention in reported instances of bullying. Personal and contextual factors of SSAs were analyzed using logistic regression and path analysis to test their influence on SSA involvement or abstention in reported incidents of bullying. Logistic regression analyses of individual and contextual factors suggest that SSAs’ identification of bullying was a strong predictor of involvement and intervention. Path analyses supported these results, suggesting a strong, direct effect between SSA identification of bullying and degree of involvement. Results from this study suggest that ensuring that SSAs identify instances of adolescent bullying is vital to maintaining and enhancing a school’s anti-bullying efforts, and more importantly, increasing and maintaining law enforcement personnel assigned to schools’ awareness of bullying through training and strong partnerships with school officials aid prevention of school bullying.

Author

• Gabriel R. Paez, University of Tampa