Bullying Bill
07/25/2008 | 04:38 PM
The House and Senate passed very different versions
of House Bill 1366 in 2007. The House
version of the “School
Violence Prevention Act” included language
specifying students who identified themselves by
“sexual orientation” and naming in
state law, for the first time, groups of people
based on “gender identity or
expression.” The Senate version amended the bill by
removing this language, focusing on bullying of
any public school student.
The State Board of Education had already adopted an anti “bullying” policy,1 in 2004, requiring local school boards to adopt effective and enforceable policies to protect all public school students from all bullying, everywhere and any time.
State school board policy was working well. Most school districts already have a bullying policy and in line with the state mandate. But before the ink had dried on that policy, left-wing advocates immediately began lobbying for a change, to give special recognition to those who claimed they were being bullied based on “sexual orientation” (undefined) and “gender identity.”
The House originally passed H.B. 1366, making just those kinds of changes to the law, by a vote of 73 to 46. The Senate, by a vote of 40 to 8, passed its strong anti bullying version of the bill which reaffirmed the state school board’s policy. In 2008, the House voted 60 to 56 not to accept the Senate version. Voting “Yes” was to reject the Senate’s position. Voting “No” supported the Senate version to prohibit all bullying, anytime or for any reason in the public schools.
“Bullying is bullying,” State school board chairman Howard Lee said,2 when the bill stalled in the House in 2008. “I don’t think the problem calls for all these categories and specifications, but I don’t want to diminish the fact that bullying is a problem in the schools.”
A conference committee was appointed but no vote was taken on its report. In the end, the 59 Democrats who voted to reject the Senate version were apparently more interested in their categories than in stopping bullying.
The State Board of Education had already adopted an anti “bullying” policy,1 in 2004, requiring local school boards to adopt effective and enforceable policies to protect all public school students from all bullying, everywhere and any time.
State school board policy was working well. Most school districts already have a bullying policy and in line with the state mandate. But before the ink had dried on that policy, left-wing advocates immediately began lobbying for a change, to give special recognition to those who claimed they were being bullied based on “sexual orientation” (undefined) and “gender identity.”
The House originally passed H.B. 1366, making just those kinds of changes to the law, by a vote of 73 to 46. The Senate, by a vote of 40 to 8, passed its strong anti bullying version of the bill which reaffirmed the state school board’s policy. In 2008, the House voted 60 to 56 not to accept the Senate version. Voting “Yes” was to reject the Senate’s position. Voting “No” supported the Senate version to prohibit all bullying, anytime or for any reason in the public schools.
“Bullying is bullying,” State school board chairman Howard Lee said,2 when the bill stalled in the House in 2008. “I don’t think the problem calls for all these categories and specifications, but I don’t want to diminish the fact that bullying is a problem in the schools.”
A conference committee was appointed but no vote was taken on its report. In the end, the 59 Democrats who voted to reject the Senate version were apparently more interested in their categories than in stopping bullying.