SPECIAL REPORT: Bullying at schools on the Central Coast
Bullying at school is not new, and it’s not exclusive to our area. Several parents KION spoke with say it’s left them and their kids feeling hopeless.
“She woke up throwing up this morning from the stress. How is she supposed to go to school without any fear that the girl is going to do anything to her?” Greenfield mother Tanya Diaz said.
“I’m dropping my children off at school with the assumption they’re going to be safe. Well if you can’t do that, what should I do?” Salinas mother Christine Diaz said.
Christine Diaz’s daughter is a freshman at Alvarez High School in Salinas. She says the same group of bullies have been picking on her daughter, and threatening to beat her up most of the school year.
“She is basically afraid to be at school,” Diaz said.
Another parent echo’s her child’s fear in South Monterey County. Tanya Diaz has a daughter who’s a freshman at Greenfield High School.
“Most of the time I come home from school early,” her daughter said.
Diaz says her 14-year-old has been the victim of sexual assault and harassment. She’s filed several police reports. Greenfield Police say one case has been closed, and the other is working its way through the juvenile justice system. Diaz says her daughter’s been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
“My daughter used to be an honor roll student she’s in AP classes. I want her to be able to go to the school and feel safe and comfortable,” Diaz said.
Both school’s have suspended students involved in the bullying, but both mothers claim their daughters aren’t getting the support they need from the schools. Social workers say counseling is necessary for both the victim and the aggressor.
“That all comes from a lack of control, so when you see a bully as a kid they’re trying to gain some kind of control over something they don’t have control over,” Devon Corpus LCSW with Community Human Services said.
Corpus says they deal with bullying situations on a regular basis.
“No matter what parents have to get their kids mental health support, and support for themselves too on how to support their child and let them know it gets better. Sometimes it’s removing them from that situation,” Corpus said.
Corpus says there are ways schools can reduce bullying too.
“Some schools might suspend a kid for a day or two, but there’s no requirement. You need some counseling before you come back, and their family needs it too where is this behavior getting learned?” Corpus said.
According to Corpus most schools don’t allow the parents of students involved in bullying to meet to talk with each other, which she says a parent meeting can be a good thing.
“‘What if it blows up right there?’. Well it’s blown up already. I don’t know if that’s a good approach to not let parents meet to mediate. Sometimes things really get worked out,” Corpus said.
For now, these parents of bullied kids just want some kind of resolution.
“Kids are losing their lives over some of this. Families are losing their children over this. They don’t understand how big of a problem it is until it happens to them,” Diaz said.
