Several concerned parents reported a bullying problem at Philips at the beginning of this month. 

Neil Pedersen, outgoing superintendent, received letters from parents about bullying.  He said he looked into the reported incidents to determine if they were fact or rumor. 

Pedersen said there were consequences for the aggressor in all the incidents he had looked into.  Bullying is no more of a problem at Phillips than any other school, he said.

We requested the letters from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and just received them today.

Only a portion of the letters were deemed "public."  All of the letters containing specific examples of bullying were categorized as "confidential."

However, there were several comments from the School Improvement Team parent survey which reiterated that bullying at Phillips is a concern.

Here are some of the comments:

"Consequences seem non-existent.  Kids see this and perceive that there are no repercussions for violent behavior.  Many kids are too intimidated to report bullying and assaults."

"...bullying among girls is rampant..."

"Last year one of my child's friends left Phillips because of bullying."

"Get rid of the bullying program, it is not enforced equally..."

Among these comments there were also several containing praise for the way discipline was handled. 

"This school intervenes well before the situation escalates."

Despite the fact that the "letter to the editor" form on this blog and on our page at www.newsobserver.com/opinion sends you to an error page once you hit submit, rest assured that your letters are coming through. No need to keep sending them repeatedly. The problem is on the list of technical issues that are being addressed.

In the meantime, you can always just e-mail your letter to forum@newsobserver.com.

The editorial department met with members of The N&O's community panel Wednesday and answered questions about what we do. (If you'd like to be a member of the community panel, contact Ted Vaden at tvaden@newsobserver.com.). Then today, John Drescher, the paper's executive editor, told me he was speaking to some elementary-age children about letters to the editor, and he asked me how many we average, how many we print and what advice I would give to letter-writers. It occurred to me that might be information that other people are interested in. Here's my response to John. I would note that we have posted nearly 800 letters online-only this year, too, so that's another benefit of this blog.