Fewer than one in five city schools fessed up to even a single incident of bullying on a new tracking system run by the state proof, advocates say, that Education Department officials and principals have failed to address a dangerous crisis. The Dignity for All Students Act of 2010 requires all city schools report incidents of bullying to a public state database, so that school leaders and education officials can better address the issue. But for the 2012-13 school year, the first year for which data was collected, a whopping 1,378 city schools reported zero incidents of bullying or harassment, including violence-plagued Intermediate School 117 in the Bronx, where police say emotionally disturbed 14-year-old Noel Estevez fatally stabbed his classmate, Timothy Crump, 14, on Wednesday. That’s nearly 80% of city schools reporting not a single incident of bullying or harassment.“They don’t take it seriously when parents come to administrators and teachers saying their child is being bullied,” said Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union. “They’re not taking down the reports. They’re just not.” Maria Estevez said Noel’s father, Felix, spoke to the principal the night before the stabbing to complain about Noel being bullied by Crump, who had previously been suspended for punching another student in the jaw. Efforts to get a safety transfer for Noel failed “The school did nothing,” the boy’s mother told The News. Other schools such as DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx and Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum High School, where reports of violence and mayhem are commonplace, also failed to report even one example of bullying to the state.Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said the status quo is unacceptable. “We will redouble our efforts to ensure that our schools accurately report incidents of bullying and that the law fulfills its intent of keeping our children safe, both inside and outside of the classroom,” she said in a statement. At Williamsburg Charter High School, Xavier Diaz, 15, endured bullying starting late in 2013, his father, Richard Diaz said. The dad said he warned school administrators that a student intended to exact revenge on Xavier for a previous beef but that they did nothing. Xavier, who has autism, was beat down on Monday by a group of kids, leaving him bruised and scared to return to school, Richard Diaz, 48, said. “I feel very helpless. You send your child to get an education they should be in a safe environment,” he said.
