Heather Smith (formerly Pardo) said her 17 year-old son was involved in and injured in a fight January 18. “He ended up being taken to the hospital in an ambulance,” she said. “He was assaulted by a 15 year-old in the hallway of the high school.”

“Something needs to be done,” she continued. “This is not the first time. It has been going on. My children and other are always talking about students being picked on.” She said the same 15 year-old and a friend of his assaulted her son in a bathroom just a few months ago.

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A task force composed of about 30 students, teachers, parents, school officials and police officers led by Deputy Superintendent Paul Stein wrote the policy beginning in April. The task force was divided into two groups, with one working on a new anti-bullying curriculum and website, and the other focusing on the policy and procedures.

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The review of legislation and policies is based on a framework conceptualized by the U.S. Department of Education (“the Department”). In December 2010, in response to several requests for technical assistance surrounding the drafting of anti-bullying laws and policies, the Department released a guidance document titled “Anti-Bullying Policies: Examples of Provisions in State Laws.” The document identified key policy components present in state anti-bullying statutes as of the end of 2010.

READ THE ABSTRACT HERE >>>

READ THE STUDY HERE >>>

The state Senate overwhelmingly approved this morning a measure to require all Michigan school districts to enact an anti-bullying policy.

The Senate moved quickly to adopt a House version of the legislation on a vote of 35-2, after its own earlier anti-bullying bill attracted national attention for its inclusion of language providing a so-called religious exemption.

The legislation, now on its way to Gov. Rick Snyder, requires districts to enact a policy but does not proscribe specific behavior. Amendments to require policies to enumerate protected categories (e.g. gender, sexual orientation etc.) and to extend anti-bullying measures to cyberspace were rejected.

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The Federal Trade Commission and Facebook have reached a settlement on charges that Facebook deceived consumers “by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.”

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A House version of the proposed law, which requires all school districts to create a policy, passed the state Senate today by a vote of 35-2.

A previous Senate version had drawn criticism because it allowed an exception for bullies who have “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” It also didn’t clearly protect students who could be bullied because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

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This week the campaign called, “Bullies Against Bullying” made a stop at Fort Caroline Elementary School. The team is rewarding students for good behavior and for reporting bullying on campus with lacrosse tickets.

Mental health counselor Denise Marzullo also is working with the Bullies and spoke to students along with players.

“Most bullying actually goes unreported. So most kids who are bullied actually don’t tell anybody,” said Marzullo, the executive director of Mental Health America of Northeast Florida.

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These are all ways to own your online presence by controlling privacy and security settings.

But according to a new Microsoft study, Americans aren’t doing all that they can to protect themselves and their families when they go online.

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SB 137, also called “Matt’s Safe School Law” after 14-year old Matt Eppling who committed suicide in 2002 after being bullied, was approved in the state Senate by a 26-11 party line vote, and will now head to the House.

The bill lays out what exactly constitutes bullying, but in one key part it says that the legislation does not prohibit First Amendment rights, and “does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian.”

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By Warren J. Blumenfeld
www.warrenblumenfeld.com

In a move seeming more like a perverse parody or a distasteful joke than an official legislative action, the Michigan state Senate passed what I am calling the “Permission to Bully Act” in the guise of protecting youth from bullying and harassment in the schools. Divided along political party lines, Republican Senators passed the measure by a margin of 26 to 11.

The bill, which now goes to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in its vaguely-worded language, prohibits bullying and harassment, mandates the State Board of Education to hold at least one public hearing before implementation of the policies, and requires the Michigan Board of Education to report to the legislature on the status of the policies.

The bill includes no reporting requirements, does not incorporate any type of possible best practices found effective in research and in actual practice, and contains no enumerated categories that are included in many other states such as, for example, race, gender, sexual identity, disability, among others.

While the bill addresses issues of cyberbullying, it only applies to instances where technological devices owned by school districts are used as the means by which the cyberbullying is perpetrated.

The bill does include, however, Section 8: “This section does not abridge the rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States or under Article 1 of the state Constitution of 1963 of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian. This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or pupil’s parent of guardian.”

This extremely weak bill, with the addition of Section 8, grants anyone within the school environment permission to bully and harass on “religious” or “moral” grounds – permission as long as it stems from conviction.

According to Michigan Democratic State Senator, Gretchen Whitmer from East Lansing in an emotional speech on the Senate floor: “[T]he saddest and sickest irony of this whole thing is that it’s called ‘Matt’s Safe School Law,’” named after Matt Epling, a gay high school student in East Lansing who committed suicide in 2002 following a series of bulling incidents.

Kevin Epling, Matt’s father, posted on Facebook that “I am ashamed that this could be Michigan’s bill on anti-bullying, when in fact it is a ‘bulling is OK in MI’ law.”

I would ask whether this bill is actually intended to spare students the pain and heartache of harassment and bullying, or whether it is intended to give cover to those who justify fear, hatred, and persecution in the guise of moral beliefs or freedom of speech.

I wonder whether this bill is actually intended to prevent what happened to Matt to repeat itself, or whether it is intended to protect people like former Michigan Assistant District Attorney, Andrew Shirvell, who targeted University of Michigan’s gay student-assembly president, Chris Armstrong, with abusive and highly inflammatory epithets and images on his internet blog site by displaying a photo of a swastika placed over a gay-pride rainbow flag with an arrow pointing to Armstrong’s face while also accusing Armstrong of seducing “a previously conservative” student until he “morphed into a proponent of the radical homosexual agenda.” Shirvell claimed he had the right to defend his moral beliefs in his opposition to Armstrong’s homosexuality.

Whatever the Michigan Republican Senators’ intent, the impact of their actions and the underlying messages they are broadcasting will have serious negative consequences and increase safety concerns for all students throughout the state.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. He is co-editor of Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States (Sense), Editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Beacon), and co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge).

Permission granted to forward, post, print, or publish this essay. wblumen@iastate.edu
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Associate Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 Office 515-294-5931 Home 515-232-8230
Email: wblumen@iastate.edu
Blog: http://www.warrenblumenfeld.com