AMHERST — A shift in culture has occurred at Crocker Farm School over the past decade, where even those students having a challenging time in their classrooms and in interactions with their peers are not sent to the main office.

For Principal Derek Shea, the school is using a modern approach to resolving possible disruptions and incidents at the school.

“The last thing you need in the modern day is to send a kid who sits in the office, and waits for, what, me to walk up and address them, and tell them they did something wrong, and send them back,” Shea told the Amherst School Committee at a recent meeting, where committee members learned about how the three elementary schools are dealing with bullying and harassment and other social and emotional issues.

Crocker Farm has been a leader in reducing what are known as “educator handbook” incidents, which Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman described as a teacher reporting platform where staff can file information regarding student behaviors — including those not necessarily escalating to bullying and harassment, but which do include physical contact, inappropriate language and disrespect.

In providing an update on the new bullying reporting platform known as BRIM, Herman presented data showing there have been no incidents at Crocker Farm from late August through early February, while during the same time period there were six incidents at Wildwood School and four at Fort River School.

Herman said BRIM is implemented throughout the district to enhance student safety and accountability and give details to school officials about how incidents are handled, showing whether the response remains in progress, the next steps, and those that have been resolved or were unfounded.

For example, at Wildwood, one incident of name-calling, insults, harassing sounds and threats and intimidation led to the separation of students and an agreement that they would remain separated. At Fort River, one incident of name-calling, insults, harassing sounds and sexual comments on the school bus led to a safety plan put in place to address the matter.

Specific to educator handbook incidents, the teacher reporting platform shows how Crocker Farm is doing things in a different way.

“It’s not that there is no bullying happening at Crocker Farm, or no issues happening, it’s that they handle it a little differently or they report it a little differently,” Herman said.

For instance, at Wildwood there were more than 1,000 educator handbook reports, because it is being used as a communication tool. At Crocker Farm, there were just two educator handbook reports, one for physical contact and the other for inappropriate language. Fort River had more than 150 educator handbook reports.

Shea said it was an intentional decision to modify these reports, with Crocker Farm having more than 500 in 2012-2013. But the school now sees only 50 to 100 contacts. That year, the reports showed 521 referrals, 44% occurring in classrooms and 26% in hallways, the playground, lunchrooms and bathrooms.

Educator handbook reports need to be aligned in all elementary schools, Shea said. The challenge is that teachers at the middle school can interpret this data in inconsistent ways. “This data has longevity in terms of following students as they go places,” Shea said.

Shea said rules need to be same for everyone no matter what classroom they are in.

Crocker Farm Assistant Principal Alicia Lopez explained the series of steps that have been taken at the school, such as creating single-stall bathrooms for students, leaving the multi-stall bathrooms for the teachers.

The school has scheduled single grades on playgrounds for recess and assigns classroom teachers to take them out to recess because they know their students the best.

Counselors have been asked to run lunches. “It’s a relatively calm lunch room,” Lopez said.

The school has also moved breakfasts to classrooms so there is no unstructured period at the beginning of the day, and staff have studied and trained in restorative practices. The school uses the Second Step Curriculum Skills for Social and Academic Success.

The Crocker School day begins by Shea and Lopez greeting students getting off buses and out of vehicles, and popping into classrooms throughout the school day.

School Committee member Sarah Marshall said she appreciates hearing about the supportive culture developed and would like to align the educator handbook reporting practices across the three schools. Marshall said it’s important not to miss any instances of bullying incidents, but also not to overreport if it will stigmatize children.

School Committee member Irv Rhodes said enthusiasm by Shea and Lopez and commitment of parents is leading to positive results. “Parents who live in Crocker Farm, who send their kids to Crocker Farm, are incredibly dedicated,” Rhodes said.

Herman said the data may differ, but students are put first in each school.

“Each building sits in one district, but each building has an organic culture, belief system, and at the end of it, the passion lies in making sure the children who walk through their doors are successful,” Herman said. “How they do it differs, but when you walk into each and every building, you know the children are the first thing.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.