School emails 'hurt feelings' form to parents
The Brandywine School District is apologizing after a staff member inadvertently sent parents a sarcastic "Hurt Feelings Report" that makes fun of "whiners."
The one-page blank form was attached to an email sent by Lombardy Elementary for an upcoming "Exercise Your Brain Day" event at the Brandywine Hundred school.
The document is structured like a bullying report "to assist whiners in documenting hurt feelings" and offers that "an EMS team will be dispatched to soak your socks in coal oil to prevent ants from crawling up your legs and eating their way up your candy ass."
The same fake form appears on several Internet humor sites.
Included are places for "Whiner's Name" and "Type of Whine Used," as well as responses for "Did you require a 'tissue' for tears" and "I want my mommy."
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The parent who forwarded the letter to The News Journal, who didn't want to be identified, called it "completely offensive and mocks children who are bullied in schools."
Brandywine School District spokeswoman Alexis Andrianopoulos on Wednesday said a staff member accidentally put the wrong attachment in a regular email the school uses to communicate with parents. She said the satirical form came from "a source external to the school" and that it was "not an official document of Lombardy Elementary or the Brandywine School District."
Officials would not reveal the staff member. Lombardy has grades kindergarten through fifth, as well as a special education program.
"This was an embarrassing mistake, but it was just that – a mistake," Andrianopoulos said in an email. "It should not have happened, and we apologize for the error."
Parents picking their children up from the school Wednesday declined to be named and did not see the form as harmful.
"If the children didn't see it, what is the problem?" one man said as he picked up his child from the school. "It was a dumb prank, but I don't think it was malicious."
Schools all over the country have taken steps over the past few years to reduce bullying in schools. The Obama administration held the first White House Conference on Bullying Prevention in 2011.
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In Delaware, the state created a position for a bullying ombudsman who helps families handle incidents in their schools. School websites are supposed to post the contact information for that person prominently on their websites.
State leaders have also pressured schools to do a better job informing parents when bullying incidents occur.
In 2012, new laws went into place that put more responsibility with schools for battling cyberbullying and strengthened requirements for reporting incidents to parents and the state.
The Brandywine School District also has an anti-bullying committee and an online form that allows incidents to be reported anonymously.
The Student Code of Conduct says bullying is "unacceptable and a culture of openness is the best way to counter such behavior" and that students, staff and parents have the responsibility to "report instances of bullying or suspicions of bullying, with the understanding that all such reports will be listened to and taken seriously."
Anna Mendez, executive director of the San Clemente, California-based National Association of People Against Bullying, said the Brandywine School District should take the email seriously. She was sent a copy of the form by The News Journal and said the district should consider additional anti-bullying education and counseling in light of the document being sent out.
"Child suicides have been on the rise since 2010 and before anyone attempts to sweep such a harmful act under the rug, they need to be cognizant of the ramifications of their reactions," she said.
Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.