Sep 6, 2008 12:05 pm US/Eastern
NYC Schools Launch Anti-Bully Campaign
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
As thousands of kids head back to New York City schools this week, the city unveiled a new plan to protect students from bullies and keep parents in the loop.
This week, middle and high school students are heading home with a "Respect for All" brochure, 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 till now, we really had no way of knowing if harassment in our schools was getting better or getting worse," Mayor Bloomberg said.
So starting this year, parents will be able to go on the Department of Education website, look up their child's school, and find out how many bias incidents have been reported.
Attacks in school on Sikh kids 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," said Richmond Hill resident Briti Dhamija. "The Sikh's I would say are tortured. It's like a torture - it's racial discrimination."
Councilman John Liu says students have been suffering for years and the new regulations are long overdue.
"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," Liu said.
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.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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