Opinion Piece Reflection
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Ethical Considerations in Early Childhood Education
Aggressive Behaviours in Early Childhood Education
What Constitutes Bullying?
Summary
8 year old third-grader Gabe Taye took his own life after being repeatedly bullied at Carson (elementary) School (Cincinnati), most recently two days before his suicide, wherein a student pushed him into a wall, knocking him unconscious. The school, teachers and nurses did not do enough to protect him from repeated bullying, and worse, repeatedly covered-up and lied to parents regarding his constant injuries, which could have prevented his suicide. The parents filed a federal suit [charging that aggressive behaviour by students against each other was ‘rampant’ at Carson School, and for the covering-up by school officials], and received a settlement of USD 3 million dollars, and the implementation of reform programs.
It has provided the starting point of a blueprint for combating bullying in schools and forced all Cincinnati Schools to have to implement reforms. After the young child’s unfortunate death and the 4-year long court case, the following changes were set in:
The entire school district will follow the Cincinnati plan - It would identify bullying by tracking repeat offenders, repeat victims and repeat locations. Efforts would be made to intervene with students engaged in bullying to keep it from continuing. School nurses would be empowered to report suspected incidents of bullying.The settlement involves training and supervising staff and includes two years of oversight of its anti-bullying plan.
Julie Pautsch, Director of the anti-bullying project at Loyola University Chicago School of Law will oversee the Cincinnati schools anti-bullying program
The school was egregious and inhumane in its handling of the situation, so much so that the investigation shows how much longer his bullying, which we can call full-on abuse, went on for, and how extreme it was. Not once did teachers intervene and the nurse repeatedly lied to parents about what happened if she bothered to tell them at all. It is scary the number of times he experienced blunt force trauma to the head, even becoming unconscious at times, and even the principal, who found him lying on the bathroom floor passed out one time, did nothing. I was horrified hearing about this, and don’t think the reform program is sufficient. I think the school as a whole and its culture is toxic.
I would liken it to a breeding ground for bullying, violence and abuse behaviour to thrive. I think the nurse should be jailed for criminal negligence and as a bully-accomplice, and should not be allowed to continue to work in this profession or around children under 18. I think the principal and other teachers who were active bystanders should be charged with child endangerment and negligence, and lose their teaching licenses, or should not be allowed to work within the education system from Preschool to High school. I also think the parents of the bully’s and home-life should have been investigated as well based on the high levels of aggravated assault their children repeatedly displayed towards Gabe.
The school, teachers, nurse and other staff could have acted with even 1% empathy and common decency and it would have been more than what they did for Gabe Taye. This school and schools within its district must be completely re-modelled and have stringent anti-bullying prevention programmes implemented into the school operations and curriculum. Both students and staff should receive trainings, workshops and education to be knowledgeable on this subject matter. The school culture should reflect this ideology in daily practice. I think parents should be allowed access to the school video footage of any incident without question, as it was highlighted in the suit, that on a few occasions, they denied this request. To this day the school, principal, teachers and nurses refuse to admit any blame or take accountability, stating that his death had nothing to do with the school which shows a complete lack of morality, and proves the toxic culture of this school. I think providing counselors to the school would be helpful for students and parents as well.
I would also recommend having open two-way communication channel with all parents, and it should once a month/quarter meeting, coffee sessions to discuss important issues of the month, invite some parents into the school to do some activities with the students, have a PTA parent from every class to represent the parent voices in the school and have school wide-events, such as Halloween, Christmas, Earth day, etc. where parents attend the event day with their children, and this creates the opportunities for them to get to know their children's teacher/s, and build those relationships and connections.
It should also have programmes to support bullies that can help them work through their issues and support their retraining and development. This is such an extreme incident in comparison to other bullying or aggressive behaviour incidents I have ever seen at an ECE level so I think for this school and schools within its district, it is important, at least for the next 2 to 5 years, they maintain a zero-tolerance approach because it can quite literally save lives and destabilise the current school culture that enables such severe bullying.
Ultimately, I think if this school actually operated as a school, with good leadership and policies in place that showcased that it cared about the well-being and safety of their students, this would have never happened.
Furthermore, Gabe’s parents would still have their child with them, because no amount of money could ever replace their child, which is why addressing even small actions of ‘aggressive behaviour’ is important, and why teaching SEL skills and acceptable behaviour through curriculum, and anti-bullying programs are necessary. And it takes a village so everyone needs to be on board with this, from the students to the teachers and school, and for the parents and community to reinforce it out in their regular life as well.
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