Sep 3, 2008 8:01 pm US/Eastern
Program Hopes To Fend Off Bullies In NYC Schools
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
As thousands of kids head back to New York City schools this week, bullies beware: the city unveiled a new plan Wednesday to protect students and keep parents in the loop.
All city middle and high school students will head home with a "Respect for All" brochure, a pamphlet that teaches them what constitutes a bias-attack, which is harassment driven by prejudice.
The city announced new steps to stop the attacks, including a tracking system to monitor all reported bias incidents.
"Up til now, we really had no way of knowing if harassment in our schools was getting better or getting worse," says Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
So starting this year, parents will be able to go on the Department of Education Web site, look up their child's school, and find out how many bias incidents have been reported. Attacks in school on Sikh students were getting so bad in parts of Queens, specifically students getting their hair cut off, that the community held a protest rally.
"It's not only in this school, it's in so many other schools. The Sikh's I would say are tortured. It's racial discrimination," says Richmond Hill resident Briti Dhamija.
"These kids and their families have lodged complaints over and over again to the Department of Education to get no response; and then to see their kids physically attacked in their own schools," says Councilman John Liu.
Liu says students have been suffering for years and the new regulations are long overdue.
School staff will now be required to report cases of bias-harassment within 24 hours and each school will have a designated person for students to confide in regarding attacks.
A lot of bullying never gets reported because many students don't feel comfortable talking to an adult about what they're seeing in school, so the Department of Education has now set up a special e-mail address where students can anonymously send their concerns.
For more information on the Respect For All program,
click here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2009 Celebrity Deaths, July-Dec.
Click to enlarge
Police Step Up Presence In Central Park 56 mins ago 
Study: 1-in-3 NYC Traffic Deaths Are Pedestrians 3 mins ago 
Stumble It!
