Recently at a Santa Barbara County public school, two students held another student in the restroom against his will, threatened him, insulted him and asked about his gang affiliation.
In another case, two students attacked another in retaliation for “ratting out” another student.
These aren’t isolated incidents.
Hundreds of students feel unsafe and have engaged in fights in Santa Barbara County public schools, according to a new report issued by the Santa Barbara County Civil Grand Jury.
And though school administrators take action to address it, these efforts have been inconsistent.
Inappropriate conduct even extends beyond student-on-student cases. They also include student-on-staff incidents.
For example, a student threw a large explosive firework at a staff member. Another case reports a student stabbing a staff member with a pencil.
California Education Code defines bullying as “any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act of conduct, including communications made in writing or by means of an electronic act, and including one or more acts committed by a pupil or group of pupils,” including ones that places students in fear of harm to themselves or property, have a substantially detrimental effect on students’ health, academic performance or ability to participate in school activities.
Current Santa Barbara County public school policies prohibit bullying and cyberbullying against students or staff. Any complaints of bullying must be investigated and appropriate corrective action must be taken.
The report reveals that bullying remains a chronic problem in county public schools, and issues findings and recommendations to address them.
Concerning cases of bullying in public schools
The 19-member Grand Jury is a citizen watchdog group that investigates county and city governments, issuing yearly reports in June.
Its school bullying report draws on interviews with school administrators, surveys, school incident reports and state and federal laws.
In addition to school incident reports detailing specific student misconduct cases, it also presents data from a California Department of Education survey of students in county public schools conducted from 2023-2025.
Of the 16,307 students who responded to the survey, 962 said they felt unsafe, 347 were pushed, shoved or kicked multiple times, 231 were afraid of being beat up multiple times at school and 385 engaged in fights multiple times at school.
Findings and recommendations from the report
Through the analysis of this data, interviews with school administrators, and state and federal laws, the jury found that bullying on campus can be reduced through more safety measures, administrators don’t always inform school counselors when their students engage in bullying and parent participation in bullying outreach programs remains low.
The jury’s recommendations focus on safety measures, counselors and parent outreach.
It officially recommends that school boards increase staff presence in areas where students frequently congregate and place sufficient cameras in those areas. The report states the two measures prevent and monitor bullying.
Additionally, the jury recommends that school boards add more counselors to achieve a ratio no greater than 250-to-1 and to inform counselors when students under their guidance are bullied.
Currently, many of the county’s junior high and high schools only have one counselor for the entire student body, who can be responsible for as many as 500 students. The state counselor’s association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors.
Counselors can work directly with students to address bullying and can share students’ information when their safety is in question.
Finally, the jury recommends scheduling parent meetings during more accessible times, implementing non-monetary incentives to increase attendance and encouraging parents of students who’ve repeatedly engaged in bullying to attend.
The report says that parent participation in school bullying programs has been poor for the last few years. Many parents work multiple jobs, work long hours, have a long commute or don’t speak English fluently, making programs difficult to access.
Response from relevant bodies
Per state law, Santa Barbara County Education Office Superintendent, Susan Salcido, has 60 days to respond. Santa Barbara County District School Boards and the County Board of Education have 90 days.
Each body must state whether they agree, disagree with explanation and disagree partially with an explanation to the report’s findings. They must also state whether they have implemented, will implement, require further analysis of or not implement the listed recommendations.
Isabel Guerrero, communications manager for the county education office, told the News-Press it does not have a comment on the report at this time, but will respond to the jury within the required timeframe.
“The Grand Jury applauds the efforts already undertaken by school districts to limit
bullying in recent years,” the report said. “School administrators and counselors agree that while progress has been made, additional support is needed to address these problems and limit their
impact on students and families.”
