Jeffery Alger is an experienced athletic director of health and physical education who has worked extensively in North Tonawanda and the NY area. As a teacher of young children, he has completed training with the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) to provide a safe environment for young people that protects their mental health.
DASA was first introduced in 1999 but wouldn’t be effectively signed into law until the early 2010s. Since then it has been a source of teacher training to emphasize the need for students to be taken seriously when problems related to bullying, discrimination, or harassment arise in a school environment. The act’s reach and the protection it provides is wide-ranging, applying not only to obvious school environments like the classroom but also on the school bus or even over electronic communication that takes place at school. Even out-of-school behavior might fall under DASA if it is having a significant negative effect on a student or students.
Training in DASA involves learning to see the students’ concerns as legitimate and to understand the things that young people do when distressed - things like faking illness to avoid school, declining grades, low self-esteem, etc - so that they can be discreetly addressed. Understanding signs that a child has been bullying others - disrespectful behavior, aggression, blaming other students, etc. - is also crucial to make sure the problems that arise at school are examined from both sides. Placing the pressure on the victim of bullying to do all the emotional work of dealing with a bully is unfair, as is punishing a bully without trying to understand why they became that way in the first place. DASA does not teach the adults in school environments to punish children but instead to support them and create a safe environment.
