Michigan House Bill 5616 and Senate Bill 1156 are two of several anti-bullying laws that are being considered by the Michigan legislature.
It's about time that this issue was tackled head-on and dealt with.
One of the most frustrating things I've seen as a past substitute teacher is seeing kids bullied by others and being told that "boys will be boys" by administrators in certain school districts when I reported the incidents. In those schools the only way administrators would get involved was if there was an altercation.
Other schools did an admirable job when I reported bullying. The problems were dealt with swiftly and decisively; reports were taken, kids were interviewed, parents were called and disciplinary action taken.
All schools should handle bullies as well as the schools I spoke of in the previous paragraph did. "Boys will be boys" is a lame-brain excuse for someone to duck the responsibility that they have to intervene when a kid is being bullied.
Fourteen-year old Matt Epling was harassed and harassed until he was driven to desperation and then to suicide because too few tood up for him as upperclassmen at his mid-Michigan school smeared raw eggs and syrup on him and laughed. People watching laughed too and thought nothing of it until they heard that Matt had killed himself due to many incidents like this one. I can't imagine the hell that his family has gone through.
The impending Michigan legislation is named for Matt (Matt's Safe Schools Law).
No kid should ever be bullied. No kid should ever feel the need to take revenge on fellow students in the form of a Columbine-like attack or be driven to commit suicide because of a preventable thing like bullying.
This is a major problem that is finally being given the attention that it is due. This should have been done soon after the disaster at Columbine High School and not six years on. That's too long.
After the bills are consolidated, this law will require school districts to train staff and students and provide age-appropriate punishments for bullies. These policies will be up to each school district; most of the individual schools I've substituted at are up to the task, but there are a couple where a change in leadership will be needed before there is progress. The problem IS that bad.
Some in the Michigan legislature think the local schools can handle the problem all by themselves and don't need the state to get involved. They're dead wrong. Their ignorance is regrettable.
This requirement will save lives. How can they be opposed to that?
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