This And That In The News - Bullying

"This And That In The News" is about articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to comment about. This time it is about bullying laws.

Anti-bullying measures left out of education bill
Keen News Service
By Dana Rudolph
October 28, 2011

In a blow to activists seeking to stop anti-gay bullying, two proposals to address bullying in schools were left out of an education reform bill approved by a U.S. Senate committee October 20. And a proposal to explicitly prohibit anti-LGBT bullying was stripped out. But senators who support the efforts have promised to try to insert language once the full education bill reaches the floor.

Now consider this bill that was introduced in the Michigan Senate,

Anti-bullying legislation passes state Senate
Detroit Free Press
By Lori Higgins
November 3, 2011

The Michigan Senate passed legislation Wednesday that requires school districts to develop anti-bullying policies, but the father of the boy for whom the bill is named says he has strong objections to language inserted at the last minute.

One of the reforms will require school districts to have procedures in place to address bullying complaints. But the bill now also has language that says requirements don't "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."

Whoa! So that means if a bully harasses and another student then that is OK if the bully says the other student is a sinner? What about if the bully trips another student and calls him a sinner, is that OK? What about if a bully shoots another students and says that they were an aberration under God, is that OK then? Does the amendment give a blank check to bullies? The House last week passed its own version of the law without that amendment, the bill now goes back to the Senate.

While in West Virginia, sanity prevails…

W.Va. policy aims to protect students from bullying over sexual orientation, gender identity
Washington Post
By Associated Press
Published: November 7

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A proposed anti-bullying policy for West Virginia schools acknowledges for the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity are common reasons for harassment…
[…]
The state Department of Education is taking public comments until 4 p.m. Tuesday about the 75-page student conduct and disciplinary policy that the Board of Education will consider Dec. 14. If approved, the changes that acknowledge the targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students would go into effect July 1, 2012.
[..]
The West Virginia Family Foundation, meanwhile, says it’s a “well thought-out, well-crafted design, done for no other reason than to promote the homosexual agenda.”

Ah yes, the infamous “homosexual agenda” to be treated equally. What a novel and radical idea.