Steve Zuber has seen his share of bullies as a former high school teacher and counselor for 30 years.

And during his most recent work as the Washington State Education Ombudsman, not much has changed with school bullying, he said.

A recent incident brought to his attention involved a 15-year-old disabled boy who was bullied and tortured in front of peers. The boy kept reporting the incidents to teachers and administrators only to be ignored. One day the harassment became physical and the boy fought back, managing to land one punch. The shot bloodied one of the bully’s nose. But the disabled boy ended up in the hospital for two days with a concussion and suspended from school thanks to a zero-tolerance policy.

“I went and advised the family this morning,” said Zuber, who was the guest speaker during an Eastside Children and Adults with AD/HD (CHADD) meeting Oct. 16 at Evergreen Hospital. “I advised them to file a formal complaint, which they had not done. They didn’t call us until the 10th day of the suspension, so there wasn’t much we could do from that aspect.”

Zuber’s office is an impartial mediator out of the Governor’s office for disputes between parents and school districts.

The incident did not happen in the Lake Washington School District, but it can happen anywhere, at any time and to any student. And while 60 percent of all bullying and harassment incidents the Ombudsman Education Office responds to involve kids with disabilities, the overall problem’s impacts are far reaching.

“Every bullying incident has an emotional effect on bystanders,” said Zuber. “Your child will either be an aggressor, target or witness. There is no way you will not have to deal with this issue … We focus on the target but we need to change the way we think. We need to consider all aspects.”

Zuber said statistics have shown that when a bystander discourages the bully there is a 50 percent chance the action will stop. And while only 12 percent of bullying turns physical, the impacts of verbal harassment and intimidation can have devastating effects.

The first anti-bullying legislation imposing a zero-tolerance policy was passed a decade ago after the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

Still, statewide statistics show there has been no decline of bullying in the last 10 years. A recent survey showed that 32 percent of sixth graders were bullied in the last 30 days.

In the Lake Washington School District (LWSD), the number of bullying incidents reported has grown 31 percent since the 2004-05 school year, according to data from the district’s Executive Limitations report. Students reported 54 incidents of harassment districtwide during the 2004-2005 school year.

The district has seen a surge in that number each year, with 173 incidents reported last year.

Bullying incidents are described as “a persistent and pervasive imbalance of power, leading to harassment or intimidation, leading to an intentional electronic, written, verbal or physical act.”

“Instead of just saying ‘that is what girls do,’ we need to take a look at these things and what is going on in these situations,” said Zuber.

School administrators are continuing to make adjustments to the anti-harassment policies.

All LWSD elementary schools implement the “Steps to Respect” anti-bullying program. In addition, several district schools have also implemented the Olweus Anti-Bullying Program, one of the few programs identified by the federal government as an evidence-based program that shows a solid reduction in bullying behaviors.

Recently, LWSD was one of four organizations to receive the Committee for Children’s Visionary Leadership Award, because of its anti-bullying program.

Zuber said that workplace laws are much better for harassment because that problem has been taken seriously for a longer amount of time.

More recent school legislation has worked to impose standards and guidelines for school administrators.

Zuber said that the worst time for bullying is in September and October as kids “jockey for power,” but can happen at any time. In fact, October is National Bullying Prevention Month.

Parents are encouraged to learn the warning signs of a child becoming a bully or a target. Some of those warning signs can be marks from a fight, having money or possessions that the parent does not know of, seeing the child bully siblings, uncomfortableness with discussions about bullying at the dinner table, secretiveness with cell phone or computer time, making racist or discriminatory remarks and opinions and a low tolerance level for other people’s actions, looks or statements.

“As parents we have to be vigilant about how we exercise our power,” said Zuber.

One thing that parents can do to see if their child is a target of a bully is asking if the child has a nickname at school and what it is.

Some of the warning signs of bullied children include anxiousness, having a lack of self-confidence, abruptly hating school, faking an illness to stay home, lower performance in school and having personal or school items damaged.

Zuber’s office only gets involved with bullying incidents when parents or students feel that the response from the district is not sufficient, about 20 percent of all incidents.

“One mistake that parents can make is making contact with the family members of the bully,” said Zuber, who added that it normally just intensifies the situation. “It is a natural response to want to protect your child.”

Zuber encourages all parents to go through the channels that are set up by new policies. Parents can find the policies on the school district Web site.

The Washington State Office of the Education Ombudsman can be reached at www.waparentslearn.org or by calling 1-866-297-2597. For more information about CHADD’s Eastside branch, visit www.nwchadd.org/eastside.html