Bensonhurst

Boody principal calls new anti-bullying device ‘a win-win’

April 10, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Dominick D’Angelo says he took a proactive approach to combating the problem of bullying at David Boody Intermediate School. Photo courtesy of Domonick D’Angelo
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When Dominick D’Angelo became the principal of David A. Boody Intermediate School eight years ago, one of the key decisions he made was to confront the school’s problems head-on and not to sweep them under the rug.

At the time D’Angelo arrived, Boody had several problems, including a situation with bullying. The issue was so intense that parents didn’t want to enroll their children there, the principal admitted. “Boody was a school that nobody wanted to come to,” he candidly told the Brooklyn Eagle in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Boody, named after David A. Boody, who served as the mayor of Brooklyn in 1892, is located at 228 Avenue S in Bensonhurst.

Two years into his tenure, D’Angelo decided that he had had enough. “We got fed up with this. I officially declared a war on bullying,” he said. “Bullying goes on everywhere and a lot of people try to deny it. We decided to confront the problem. We don’t sweep anything under the carpet. You have to deal with it. If students are not comfortable, if they don’t feel safe, they can’t focus.”

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D’Angelo put together a strict anti-bullying program and got teachers and students on board. As a result, enrollment skyrocketed. “We have increased our enrollment by 65 percent,” he said. Boody, which is a Title I school, currently has 1,280 students in grades six to eight. “We’re at 120 percent utilization. It’s a good problem to have,” he told the Eagle

Fifteen months ago, at a performance of “Dragon Slayer,” an anti-bullying musical that Boody students worked on with members of the Council for Unity, a Bensonhurst organization that promotes racial harmony, D’Angelo was introduced to Jeff Ervine.

Ervine’s company, Bridg-it, located at 299 Park Ave. in Manhattan, created Bridg-it School, a new smartphone program for reporting incidents of bullying. The program also allows school officials to see immediately when a report has been filed so that they can take steps to address the situation. 

“I like what Jeff came up with,” D’Angelo said. He decided to have Boody take part in a pilot program to try out Bridg-it School. After winning the approval of the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Legal Services, he gave the project the go-ahead. “I also consulted our P.T.A. They agreed it was a good idea. The best P.T.A. in New York City is at Boody,” he said.

Bridg-it School allows students, teachers, parents and administrators to securely file a confidential report in less than one minute from anywhere at anytime. The program immediately alerts the appropriate stakeholders when a report is filed, and also provides educators with data about a school’s behavioral climate and trends.

Bullying is a troubling problem across the country.

Twenty-eight percent of students in grades six to 12 in the U.S. reported experiencing bullying in 2014, according to the website www.nobullying.com. Nearly 30 percent of middle school students said they had experienced bullying in the classroom and another 23.4 percent had been bullied in the school cafeteria. Victims could not escape bullies in two other spots — the school gym and bathrooms — where 19.5 percent and 12.2 percent had been bullied, according to studies cited on the website.

Bullying takes on many forms, according to experts. Types of bullying include name calling, teasing, spreading rumors about the victim, physical incidents, isolating the victim, threats, stealing the victim’s belongings and cyber bullying. 

Bridg-it School is designed to help schools handle the problem, according to Ervine. “With our approach, schools can ensure that all incidents are addressed appropriately and that everyone — from the student to the parent to the school faculty and administration — feels confident that there is a process that is secure, compliant and supportive,” he said in a statement. 

“It’s a win-win situation. There is no downside,” D’Angelo said. 

The best part of Bridg-it School, D’Angelo said, is that reports can be filed confidentially. Students who witness bullying and might be otherwise reluctant to report it conquer that fear because they feel secure knowing that the information is confidential and that the bully won’t trace it back to them. 

“It’s great for us,” D’Angelo said, referring to the school administration and staff. Educators can take action to stop the bullying. “If we know about it we can do something about it,” he said.


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