CLOUT Calls for Expanded Bullying Policies

Officials with the organization known as CLOUT say city schools are lacking in solid bullying policies.Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together is hoping to draw attention to ongoing problems it says have become evident from its research.Education Research Committee co-chair Chris Kolb says most of the research consists of face to face meetings with members of the school communities. This year, the focus was on bullying.“What we found is that JCPS uses a definition of bullying that doesn’t contain a lot of the key criteria that are necessary for people to be able to identify instances of bullying," he says "also there’s not any system wide training that’s done so there are a lot of people who just don’t know how to identify bullying and what bullying is.”CLOUT will hold an action assembly on Thursday at Bellarmine University to deal with school bullying problems. Mayor Greg Fischer as well as officials from JCPS will attend.A representative from the Jefferson County Teacher’s Association will state the group's support for CLOUT’s actions and read a letter from The White House.“We’re going to be focusing on that definition of bullying," says Kolb "asking JCPS to look at expanding that definition of bullying, because we really feel like that’s the foundation of any good policy of preventing and intervening in instances of bullying is we have to really know what we’re talking about.”The organization says it wants to expand proactive solutions in JCPS and the courts. They also plan to take further action against what they call the “school to prison pipeline” as well as payday loans.