Two reports of bullying in Warwick high schools have been made public in recent weeks, raising questions as to how prevalent the issue is in the city's schools. One incident at Toll Gate in September involved harassment on social media and included a photo of the alleged bully holding a gun. The girl in the picture was suspended for four months. In the second incident last month, a Pilgrim parent said her daughter was assaulted on a school bus – two sisters were later arrested and charged in that case, one with disorderly conduct and the other with assault and disorderly conduct.

Despite these incidents, Secondary Education Director Bob Littlefield said Wednesday increases in bullying behaviors have not been observed. Littlefield asked principals at secondary schools if they had seen any significant changes in bullying, which he said all agreed was defined as a pattern of behavior not a single incident of conflict between kids.

“None are noticing an increase in [bullying] behaviors, but all did admit that the prevalence of social media does make teenagers’ lives more complicated when it comes to conflict with other kids,” he said. “On occasion, they do get reports and they handle them, which is usually something done by an assistant principal. When it comes to any pattern of bullying, the primary goal is to make it stop.”

What Littlefield is hearing appears to be consistent with the most recent Rhode Island Department of Education report.

RIDE compiles reports from students via SurveyWorks, which surveys them on types of bullying they experience, reasons for being bullied, if they report incidents, and whether they feel safe at school. The most recent report is from school year 2013-2014, but an updated one is expected to be released in the summer.

Student survey responses in the 2013-2014 data from Warwick's public high schools are as follows: at Toll Gate, 34 percent said they experienced two or more types of bullying, 23 percent said they reported bullying, and about 78 percent said they feel safe in school hallways; at Pilgrim, 40 percent said they had experienced two or more types of bullying, 19 percent said they reported bullying, and 81 percent said they feel safe in school hallways. At Warwick Vets, then a high school, 38 percent reported experiencing two or more types of bullying.

Warwick's secondary schools were not the highest on the list; at Trinity Academy for Performing Arts, 49 percent reported experiencing two or more types of bullying.

In addition, bullying numbers at Warwick's secondary schools decreased from the previous school year; 56 percent of students at both Toll Gate and Pilgrim reported experiencing any bullying in 2012-2013. Also in 2012-2013, 80 percent of Pilgrim students and 67 percent of Toll Gate students said they felt safe in the hallways at school.

At the middle/junior high level, 49 percent at Aldrich, 52 percent at Gorton, and 45 percent at Winman reported experiencing two or more types of bullying according to the 2013-2014 report.

At the elementary school level, 36 percent at Wyman, 41 percent at Wickes, 39 percent at Warwick Neck, 36 percent at Sherman, 39 percent at Scott, 37 percent at Robertson, 31 percent at Park, 29 percent at Norwood, 38 percent at Lippitt, 37 percent at Hoxsie, 43 percent at Holliman, 33 percent at Oakland Beach, 25 percent at Holden, 27 percent at Greenwood, 34 percent at Francis, and 31 percent at Cedar Hill reported experiencing two or more forms of bullying according to the 2013-2014 report.

In terms of why students were bullied, orientation, looks, religion, gender, background, weight, disabilities, personality and relationships were reasons listed. Students reported being bullied via teasing, exclusion, exclusion at lunchtime, had rumors spread about them, through electronics or social networking, coercion, with harm, destroyed property, or on the bus.

For those who said they did not report bullying, they reported that they did not do so because they didn't want to "snitch," they felt it would get worse, that it wouldn't work, that it wouldn't be taken seriously, or because they didn't know who to tell.

Superintendent Philip Thornton previously said, "Any reports of bullying are investigated and acted upon by the administration in each school," and had referred the Beacon to RIDE's bullying reports, but did not respond to request for further comment.

The Warwick Public Schools Student Code of Ethics defines bullying as "an intentional written, verbal, electronic expression or physical act or threat of a physical act or any combination thereof, directed at a student that causes physical or emotional harm to the student or damage to the student's property; places the student in reasonable fear of harm to himself/herself or of damage to his/her property; creates an intimidating, threatening, hostile, or abusive educational environment for the student; infringes on the rights of the student to participate in school activities; or materially and substantially disrupts the education process or the orderly operation of a school." Such behavior is "prohibited" and "not tolerated" in Warwick Schools, the code reads, going on at length to provide different instances in which bullying takes place. Punishments, dependent upon circumstances, can range from admonitions and warnings, parental/guardian notification and meetings, detention, in-school suspension, loss of school-provided transportation or student parking passes, loss of the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities, loss of the opportunity to participate in school social activities, loss of the opportunity to participate in graduation exercises or middle school promotional activities, police contact, or suspension.

Pilgrim Principal Gerald Habershaw said he isn’t sure if instances of bullying have increased, but that the issue has changed because of social media and cell phones.

“It’s a totally different animal than it was years ago,” he said. “I think a lot of it starts [on social media] and then it can continue afterward whether kids are at home or in the community because they’re constantly connected to their phones.”

Habershaw said that students learn about the issue of bullying as part of their health curriculum. In addition, he said students view presentations, participate in programs, and hear from guest speakers geared toward spreading awareness. Habershaw said students viewed a presentation of a video called “Bully” at the beginning of the school year and will soon partake in Project Respect, an offshoot of the national anti-bullying initiative “Challenge Day.” A group of Warwick teachers created Project Respect after bringing Challenge Day to schools became too expensive, Habershaw said. The project will be an “upbeat, loud music day full of activities where kids get to express their inner feelings.”

A call for comment from Toll Gate was directed to administration. The full RIDE report, entitled Student Reports of Bullying by School, is available online at ridatahub.org.