Anti-bullying plans are set; Most districts meet deadline.

Byline: Donna Boynton

As former principal of the Belmont Community School in Worcester, John F. Monfredo has been passionate about protecting students from bullying. For the past five years, as a Worcester School Committee member, he has pushed locally for measures to prevent bullying and has advocated for legislation at the state level.

"At the time, I don't think a lot of people gave it serious thought, but I saw it every day and I saw what it did to our children," Mr. Monfredo said. "Bullying is subtle - you have to pay attention to notice when a kid is distressed. A lot of times in the past, adults have said, `Just ignore it,' or told their child to stay away from the kid that is bullying them, but not realizing the emotional scars."

People started paying attention last year when the worst possible consequences of bullying played out: two separate student suicides in Massachusetts.

Now, to protect students, school districts across the state have submitted Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plans to the state.

With the tragic suicides of 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Springfield and 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley after torment by alleged bullies, what had previously been common schoolyard harassment suddenly became not just a rite of passage but an unacceptable social behavior.

As part of that law, school districts were required to submit bullying prevention and intervention plans to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by the end of 2010. The law was signed last May, and school districts worked during the summer and fall on those plans, building on programs that, in many cases, were

already in place. Districts that miss the deadline will be notified in writing by the DESE and asked for a progress update and when those plans are expected to be filed, said JC Considine, director of board and media relations at the DESE.

"Prior to this, there was nobody talking about bullying, but we recognize it now and its impacts," said Teri Turgeon, chairman of the Grafton School Committee. "Bullying used to get left at the playground or in the school hallway. But now kids are intimidated through technology, and bullying can trickle into your living room, or their bedroom."

The state had issued a template for a guideline, and school districts have reshaped the template to meet individual district needs and reflect current policies, procedures and programming.

In the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District...