Safe Schools Legislation . . . Anti-Bullying Round 2

As the MOHELA melodrama began to subside this week, the Senate got back to other business. Yesterday I had a hearing in the Education Committee on my safe schools bill, which would beef-up the anti-bullying policies for public schools.

Last year we passed a first step by requiring that all schools have an anti-bullying policy in place by September of this year. My legislation would significantly improve the existing legislation by creating a reporting mechanism, defining where bullying is off limits (schools, school events and school buses), enumerating categories of students who should be protected by school policies, creating a mechanism for publicizing the policies and ordering the state board of education to develop a model policy for schools to use when developing their own policies.

As I suspected, the biggest concern from the committee was regarding the addition of enumerated categories. Senators Loudon (R-St. Louis County) and Nodler (R-Jasper County) grilled me for an extended period regarding the subject. They both felt that adding enumerated categories (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, etc.) created special protection for certain kids.

I quickly cut through the politics and pointed out the obvious -- some people have a problem with inclusion of sexual orientation. I could have danced around the subject, but it is unlikely that anyone would have objected to the enumerated categories if sexual orientation was NOT included.

With all the cards on the table, I argued that this legislation provides protection from all bullying -- it simply stresses that bullying against certain categories of kids is not acceptable. The categories of kids listed are those who are most likely to suffer from bullying and it is often the bullying that is ignored by teachers and school administrators. Furthermore, states with enumerated categories have shown a statiscal decrease in the amount of bullying over those states with generic policies. Simply put, policies with enumerated categories help reduce bullying. Generic policies -- not so much.

Senator Champion (R-Springfield) was extremely helpful during the questioning and queried whether listing the enumerated categories would actually help educate teachers and students about what types of comments and actions can be classified as bullying. She also proposed language for the bill that seemed to appease some of the enumeration skeptics. Senator Champion is right -- including the enumerated categories does serve to educate everyone about what is acceptable and what is bullying. I was thankful for her insightful comments.

In the end, Senators Loudon and Nodler are not going to be happy with any policy that includes sexual orientation. I don't know if I have the votes to get the bill out of committee and even if I did, I doubt seriously the bill would be reported to the floor by Senator Nodler (the chair of the committee). I'm going to make the amendments suggested by Senator Champion and include some additional cleanup language and see what happens. I will also see if there is any bill on the floor that I can attach this to as an amendment.

The bill was supported by PROMO, MNEA, AFT and ACLU. I know other school organizations are supportive and regardless of an individual's views regarding sexual orientation -- I suspect that most people are in favor of providing a safe learning environment for ALL children.