Bullying Prevention & Intervention

Defining Bullying:  “Bullying” is defined as a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more students directed at another student that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in written or verbal expressions, expression through electronic means, or physical conduct that occurs on or is delivered to school property or to the site of a school-sponsored or school-related activity or on a publicly or privately owned school bus or vehicle being used for transportation of students to or from school or a school-sponsored or school-related activity that:

• (i) has the effect or will have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property;
• (ii) is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student;
• (iii) materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a classroom or school; or (iv) infringes on the rights of the victim at school.  Texas Education Code §37.0832.  

Rapoport Academy uses STOPit, an online and app-based system, to empower students, parents, teachers, and others to anonymously report anything of concern to school officials - from cyber-bullying to threats of violence or self-harm.

STOPit does more than just help schools address incidents and mitigate risk. STOPit will also help us go beyond reacting to bullying and inappropriate behavior, and instead start deterring it. As young people continue to engage more with technology every day, we are taking a proactive step to empower students to become Upstanders in our community in the way that they feel most comfortable. 

Our students will have access to the STOPit mobile app, which has two simple but powerful features:

• Report can be used by students to report incidents to school contacts anonymously.
• Messenger can be used to engage in anonymous two-way communication with school contacts. 

Go to STOPit ↗

Texas Bullying Laws

During the 85th Texas Legislature, SB 179 - "David’s Law" was passed and signed into law effective September 1, 2017. The newly enacted law relates to harassment, bullying, and cyberbullying of a public school student, a charter school student or a minor and encouraging certain mental health programs for public school students; increasing a criminal penalty, and providing a civil remedy.

Learn more about the Texas Bullying Laws:

⇣ Download Bullying Checklist (Full Color Version)

⇣ Download Bullying Checklist (Spanish Version)