At the Jan. 26 meeting of the Mt. Laurel Schools Board of Education, Interim Superintendent Sharon Vitella gave her report on the number of harassment, intimidation and bullying incidents in the district for the school year’s report period №1, from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
In the report, which is required by state law, Vitella said the district had 27 HIB investigations during the period, five of which were confirmed as actual incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying.
Vitella said that’s “not a lot” for a school district the size of Mt. Laurel, but said the district was always unhappy to have any number of incidents and would continue to work with victims and bullies.
She went on to say Mt. Laurel Schools’ principals and teachers do a great deal of work on a daily basis to create safe and respectful climates for students, and work hard to help children understand the proper way they should act to live and work within the community.
“The community is in the classroom, the school, our district, the families, and we really do a lot of work,” Vitella said. “We have a lot of children facing a lot of stressful situations, and we really do provide caring, loving, warm, embracing learning environments.”
Vitella said when bullies and victims of bullying are identified, the district works to help bullies understand the impact of what they’re doing and to help victims understand how they can manage such situations in a healthy way and to let them know there are support systems in place.
“Failing, and when I say failing I mean that in a very loose sense of the word, but failing and falling within our school system is the best place in the world to be when you do it because we have so many supports to help pick the children up and help them move forward,” Vitella said.
In other news:
• The board presented awards to recognize students for participating in the “Jump Into Reading Challenge” sponsored by the office of Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D) of the 7th Legislative District. Singleton challenged students in grades one through four to read as many books as they could from Oct. 1 to Nov. 23.
Students honored at the meeting were Fleetwood School first grader Mishika Bhuyan and third grader Vishvajith Jagadeesan, Larchmont School first grader Ioanna Moustakas and fourth grader Brandon Lyons (Burlington County champion) and Countryside School first grader Zachary Caldera and third grader Samantha Davis.
• The board approved the appointment of retired Mt. Laurel patrol officer Dave Beun as the district’s student residency investigator. Beun served as Mt. Laurel’s juvenile and school security officer from 2008 through 2015.
• The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Mt. Laurel Board of Education is scheduled for Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hattie Britt Administration Building.
