A revised policy on how to handle bullying incidents in Columbia Public Schools is heading back to the Columbia School Board for a vote next month.
The biggest changes to the policy include broadening the list of people who are required to report and intervene in school bullying incidents as well as how investigation findings should be handled.
The revised policy also removes any mention of hazing, which would have its own policy pending board approval.
The Policy Committee unanimously approved the latest revisions at a meeting late Monday afternoon.
Before approving the policy, committee members discussed how investigation findings should be handled by the district.
The revised policy states, “If bullying is substantiated, the principal or designee will document the decision in the files of the victim and the perpetrator. The district will send, to the parents/guardians of the victim and the perpetrator, a statement of the allegations and whether they were substantiated within five school days after the investigation has been completed, even if bullying is not confirmed.”
Under the current policy, there is no mention that the parents/guardians of the victims or the alleged bullies will receive a statement of the investigation findings.
In July, the board sent an earlier revision of the policy back to the committee to get public input on the entirety of the policy.
The committee received the public feedback but ended up holding on to the revised policy a bit longer because members disagreed about whether the school principal should notify the alleged bully’s parents/guardians before the investigation takes place.
That has not been required and would still not be required under the revised policy.
“It has to do with being able to investigate with fidelity,” the district’s general counsel Susan Goldammer said. “The concern is, is that if we notify everybody we’re going to investigate, we’re going to potentially lose some evidence.”
Under the new policy, the principal still would be required to notify the victim’s parents/guardians within two days of the report, before the investigation begins.
The revised bullying policy also identifies a broader range of people who must intervene if they witness bullying on school grounds. They also must assist the victim and report it to the building principal within two school days.
The people that would be affected by the change are school employees, substitutes, educational contractors that work directly with students and volunteers, according to previous Missourian reporting. Training would be required.
Now, only district employees are required to report bullying, also within two school days, but they are not required to intervene or assist the victim.
The revised bullying policy removes any mention of hazing. To separate the two concepts, the committee proposed a new policy specifically describing how the district responds to incidents of hazing.
The proposed hazing policy describes what hazing is, how district staff, coaches, sponsors and volunteers should report it and the consequences for the alleged perpetrators.
The committee has worked to revise the bullying policy since August 2025. The decision to reopen the policy to revisions came after committee chairman Paul Harper raised a discrepancy between the frequent number of anecdotal reports of bullying the board heard and data provided by the administration.
The board will hold its next regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 12.
