The Renton School District is updating its bullying prevention materials at the high school level, which are now about 20 years old.

In the last two years the district has trained all its elementary school teachers, assigned a harassment, bullying and intimidation compliance officer as required by the state, and is now developing tools for secondary staff to use with middle and high school students.

According to administration, bullying is not as widespread and out-of-control in the district as one might think. Last year there were only three cases that rose to the attention of the compliance officer, Ginny Knox. Two of the incidents were at the elementary school level and one was at a high school.

The state defines it as repeated bullying of a targeted student, where there is an imbalance of power.

“I think the only difference (now) is that everybody’s much more aware of it,” said Knox about the climate for bullying awareness in schools today. “So when it happens, if it ends up on the news, it’s more publicized and people are talking about it more.”

Knox is quick to point out that bullying has always been around, but people used to blow it off as “kids being kids.”

“They would address it, but it wouldn’t get as much attention and now people are really noticing it because there’s been some links to suicide,” said Knox. “Kids now who’ve been bullied have been doing some of the mass shootings. I mean they’re seeing that bullying really does have an effect on kids. It’s not just kids being kids; we need to address it.”

Now there is a whole language and lesson plans around bullying prevention. For 20 years the district had materials from the Committee for Children’s Second Step program that talked about empathy and inclusion, but didn’t specifically offer lesson plans on bullying prevention.

Two years ago the district purchased updated materials from the same company that it has been using to train staff.

Not only are classroom teachers and principals receiving training, but bus drivers and custodians, who might also encounter incidents are included too.

So far, training at the elementary level has gone well and teachers are committed and engrossed in providing the curriculum. Librarians teach a cyber-bullying component at all of the elementary schools too.

McKnight Middle School staff seems to have implemented their lessons, but Nelsen and Dimmitt middle schools still have work to do, in part because they have a lot of new counselors on staff, Knox said.

Dr. Jason Breaker is in charge of all the counselors in the district.

“It depends on how the schools respond to it is what makes the difference,” said Breaker. “And I think Renton is doing a very good job of trying to implement a systemic approach to responding to bullying.”

This year there’s been just one case so far that’s risen to the administrative level. Most of the incidents are being handled at the schools between the teacher, principal, students and families involved.

“Most of the cases aren’t true bullying, if you look at the definition,” said Knox. “It’s a kid who has behavior issues, but they’re not targeting one student.”