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Massachusetts to Debate Anti-Bullying Legislation

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | March 6, 2010 at 05:46 pm

1086 views | 7 Recommendations | 2 comments

Legislation Bans 'Cyberbullying,' Compels Schools To Report Incidents

A bill scheduled to be debated before the Massachusetts State Senate if passed into law will require the state's schools to take a tougher stance on bullying.
Under the proposed bill, bullying would be prohibited in schools, with the legislation extending this to include emails, texts, and Internet postings or so-called "Cyber bullying".

PDF: Text Of Anti-Bullying Bill
The proposed legislation would require school administrators to publish an anti-bullying policy and design and attendant anti-bullying curriculum for students.
Adults working in a school setting would be required by law to report bullying incidents; furthermore, principals would have to investigate and take disciplinary action if they determine bullying incidents had occurred.

Rep. Marty Walz, the bill's author, said the legislation's goal is to create learning environments where students know they can't harass one another. A key to that is convincing teachers, staff and other school workers to send the message that bullying won't be tolerated. "If we do this right, there should be a dramatic decrease in the amount of bullying in our schools," Walz said. "Schools have to take action to try to prevent it, and when (bullying) happens, take action so things don't spiral out of control."

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Frank J Coscarelli (not verified)

at 06:24 on March 10th, 2010

How about a bullying form for every student. Make it mandatory that every student turn in this form folded closed every day filled out or not. They dont have to put their name, just turn it in.This way the teachers know whats going on and the bullies dont know if one student is telling on them or everyone is.

Josef Stalin (not verified)

at 20:41 on March 17th, 2010

What a great idea!But why just students? Why not make it mandatory that everyone fill out a secret form and send it to the police every day. The papers would go into secret file. You will never know who reported you as an enemy of the state. I'm sure all honest citizens would support such a law. After all, if you are innocent, you have nothing to hide. Right Comrade?