(Guest Conbribution – Mike)
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
Finally there is a wholesome and intelligent way for kids and youth to do social networking as well as check homework assignments and post questions to teachers from home. Weella.com introduces kids and students 17 years old and under to safe social networking and exceeds guidelines established by COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
(From Dr. Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute.)
On Oct. 22, the final day of Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week 2011, William Barth, editor of the Beloit (WI) Daily News published an editorial screed mocking state Rep. Roys and Sen. Coggs for introducing the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill with much fanfare. Barth’s perspective was pedestrian Chamber of Commerce drivel mixed with sarcastic insults of adults who dare to claim they have experienced workplace bullying.
This type of essay is common in the American business press. We typically ignore them. But in light of Freedom Week, we thought it useful to reply sarcastically in order to defend our constituents — bullied workers. No malice is intended, just an attempt to provide facts for the falsehoods and adjustment for those with arrested moral development.
The Minister commented: “Bullying is unacceptable in our schools, in any form and for any reason. Bullying can have serious consequences for our pupils, thwarting their experience of education. The physical and emotional distress caused by bullying can lead to underachievement, poor attendance and mental health problems with terrible consequences such as eating disorders, self-harm and at worst, suicide.
Fordland schools will host a presentation on Internet safety and cyberbullying from 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27.
Students and parents in the Logan-Rogersville and Seymour school districts are invited to attend the event, coordinated by the Safety Council of the Ozarks, the Webster County Juvenile Division, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“This is a very important subject and one that affects each of us and our children every day,” said Fordland PTO President Karla Gress, organizer of the event. “Come and learn ways to keep your children safe on the web and how to help your children understand the effects of cyberbulling.”
TALLINN — A recent report from “EU Kids Online” has found that Estonia has the EU’s largest problem with cyber-bullying.
The report found that nearly 15% of Estonian child aged 9-16 have been the victims of cyber-bullying, which involves sending repeated hateful or threatening messages via phone or computer. It can also include releasing embarrasing pictures or
“We are on a firm leading position in regard to cyber-bullying: 14% of children in the age of 9-16 have been cyber-bullied,” said Tartu University media studies professor Veronika Kalmus, who coordinated the Estonian section of the report.
SEATTLE – Schools using a bullying prevention program saw significantly less physical bullying and fewer teachers reporting fighting as a big problem, according to a University of Washington study to be released this week.
“Outcomes from a School-Randomized Controlled Trial of Steps to Respect: A School Bullying Prevention Program” compared schools using Committee for Children’s Steps to Respect program with control schools and found:
Friends and classmates of the 16-year-old Palmetto Ridge High School student who was stabbed to death Monday afternoon after getting off the school bus, and the 14-year-old student accused of killing him, said the stabbing was the result of ongoing bullying.
I’m glad that media outlets and public officials are shining a light on cyberbullying and bullying in general. It’s important to pay attention to this serious problem, but we need to keep it in perspective. As bad as it is, cyberbullying is not an epidemic and it’s not killing our children.
COLUMBUS, OH., (Indiana’s NewsCenter)— Cyberbullying has Ohio legislatures and local school officials scrambling for a solution.
The Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate both have new bullying legislation in their education committees calling for schools to provide a policy against cyberbullying, which the house bill defines as “harassment, intimidation, or bullying by electronic means.”
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