Bolivar parents pull students from school because of bullying

BOLIVAR, Mo. — Several parents have reached out to OzarksFirst about bullying concerns reaching a new level in the Bolivar School District.

“Whenever your kid comes to you and he’s shaking and he’s crying, telling you that he’s terrified to go back to school, you got to do something about it,” Tiffany Campbell said.

Campbell is like many parents who say bullying has gone too far.

“There’s several people that have actually had to take their kids out of school because the bullying is so bad,” Campbell added.

This week, an anonymous social media account was created, created to post and glorify fights and bullying, on and off school grounds.

“We became notified earlier in the week, we immediately started notifying Instagram. That’s our procedures,” Superintendent of Bolivar Schools Dr. Richard Asbill said. “We hope that those social media sources respond to that in a timely manner in this time. That anonymous account has been open for several days now.”

Campbell said she was horrified to learn in one of the videos, teens were looking for her son, who by luck, wasn’t around.

“He is mentioned in a video that was posted actually yesterday morning. They were looking for him,” Campbell said. “From what I am told, this incident had happened before where a kid was told to do something and they didn’t do it and they got beat up.”

Campbell said in some cases, based on what she’s learned, a lot of the ‘fights’ are victims chosen at random.

“It was a safety hazard for him to go back to school, to a place where our kids are supposed to feel safe and they’re not,” Campbell said.

So what’s in the videos?

At the time OzarksFirst learned about the story, there were four videos posted online.

One in a bathroom, which district officials say happened off-campus, where two boys, surrounded by cameras begin to fight.

The second is another ‘fight’ at what appears to be a park, one student repeatedly punches another student [who does not fight back in the video from what OzarksFirst can tell], where cameras around them film.

Bolivar officials said the second video was also not on school grounds.

The third video shows a student punched a couple of times, and then walking away. The student who previously punched him follows and shoves the student several times but does not respond.

The district said that the fight happened at the district’s intermediate school, where students typically are dropped off from one bus to board another and go home.

The fourth video is from security footage from inside the school, re-recorded on a cell phone. It shows one student punching another before the two begin fighting and are separated by faculty.

“I don’t know how on earth they even got a hold of that video to begin with,” questions Campbell.

Dr. Richard Asbill has an explanation.

“It was provided to a parent in regard to a discipline matter. The parent requested it as an educational record and we provided it to them. Unfortunately, that was also then published to social media,” Asbill says. “We specifically requested and asked them that they use that appropriately. It is available to them for that review. Once parents take that to social media, it’s out of our hands.”

Asbill said an unfortunate side effect of the misuse of security footage could cause the district to be more stringent when it comes to giving it to parents.

Asbill and Campbell agree that social media has lent a hand in the issue.

“I think that as a society we have failed to say [bullying] is unacceptable. We’ve allowed people to laugh at it. We’ve allowed people to make TV shows about it,” Asbill said. “Publicizing fights and feeding off of that is just not acceptable.”

“I definitely think social media plays a lot into that. Just boys thinking that it’s cool to beat up other boys and it’s not okay,” Campbell said.

So what are Bolivar Schools going to do about it?

Dr. Asbill said the district is considering more staff in hallways, hoping to curb possible bullying before it starts.

“What we try to do is evaluate if it’s on school grounds and we can reasonably hold them accountable for that,” Asbill said. “Is bullying a pervasive problem in Bolivar? I do not believe so. I do believe we have some issues that will have to be addressed in all of our buildings.”

They’re working with SROs and law enforcement if needed to learn who created the account and posted the videos.

Another idea by Asbill is more tech-based.

“This is going to drive a larger question. Some school districts have already banned cell phones. We will have to have that conversation of whether or not this cell phone issue and the access to social media has become not only a distraction and become a greater issue for our society, which is instead of lending a hand, we’re more apt to just watch something terrible happened to someone,” Asbill said.

Asbill said this situation does not define Bolivar Schools or the education and safety they provide for students.

“I’m very proud of our teachers and our parents. They have a great community. It’s just a shame that a couple of individuals have taken advantage of that,” Asbill says. “It really overshadows all of the good things that most of our students are doing every day, all of the good things that our teachers are working on and teaching children with all of the good parenting that’s going on in our community by just one or two individuals thinking something’s funny and just being completely inappropriate. We would hope that if it’s a student, that they’re going to come forward, accept responsibility for a poor choice, and then accept responsibility for their actions.”

Campbell, like other parents, isn’t taking any more risks.

“I think I speak for all parents when I say we’ve had enough. We trust them with our kids and with their safety,” Campbell said. “The thought of sending my kid back to school Tuesday made me sick and he will no longer go.”

We’ll update this story as we learn more.

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