The Mid-Prairie School Board heard a presentation from Anne Morgan about bullying and harassment during their regular meeting on Monday, April 11. High School principal Chuck Banks said Morgan is one of the foremost experts on bullying in the state.

Morgan was careful to explain that there is a difference between conflict and bullying, and that unwanted behavior may still need to be addressed even if it doesn’t meet the requirements for bullying by the letter of the law.

In order for an incident to be defined as bullying, the behavior must be intentional; unwelcome; cause harm; be severe, persistent or pervasive and interfere with education.

“You may have unwanted behaviors that have to stop. In no way am I saying that if an incident is decided not to be bullying, that the behavior was OK. Behaviors need to stop, but in order to meet the letter of the law in Iowa, the behavior does have to meet certain parameters,” Morgan said.

“When you have something thar occurs, you have to ask if it was intentional… if it was unwelcome, if harm occurs, if it was severe, persistent and pervasive… all of these have to be ‘ands’,” Morgan said.

Morgan said the piece of whether harm occurs is determined by the target of the possibly bullying behavior — no one else but the target gets to determine if the target was harmed.

“I hear, ‘I was just teasing,’ or ‘We were just joking around,’ or ‘I’m just kind of sarcastic, I didn’t really mean those things,’ but it’s not the call of the accused to make that decision, it’s the effect that it has on the target,” Morgan said.

Morgan said that a lot of cases that parents or others might feel are bullying might not meet the letter of the law for bullying.

“The behaviors still need to have consequences,” Morgan said. “Even though it may not become a bullying-founded complaint, doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be consequences.”

School board President Jeremy Pickard asked Morgan what the board’s role should be in combating and dealing with bullying at Mid-Prairie.

“As a board, it’s tough because you are the policy maker, but you are also, somewhere along the line, part of the due process.”

Morgan shared an example of a school district she worked with where the board did not have a policy that required parents to be notified if their student was being investigated for bullying.

“If that’s not a practice, it’s probably not a bad idea,” Morgan said. “For you as a board, it’s making sure that your process and procedures are in place, making sure your process and procedures are consistent and the steps that you follow are the same no matter who is doing the investigation.”