Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
The bipartisan "Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights" will soon be headed to Gov. Chris Christie's desk with both the Assembly and Senate granting approval of the legislation on Monday.
The legislation (A-3466) is the product of nearly a year of research and discussions with bullying experts, advocates and victims in an effort to combat harassment, intimidation and bullying among students.
It is estimated that roughly 160,000 students nationwide avoid school each day because they fear bullying. New Jersey's rate of bullying, according to a U.S. government report, is actually higher than the national average. Anti-bullying experts believe that New Jersey now has one of the weaker anti-bullying laws in the country because the state's anti-bullying law, enacted in 2002, was one of the first such laws and other states' laws have since surpassed it.
The process of crafting such broad legislation began in January following the issuance of a December 2009 report by the New Jersey Commission on Bullying in Schools, which was established by the governor and Legislature to study the issue of school harassment, intimidation and bullying and make recommendations on how to reduce such incidents. The sponsors stressed that the bill employs smart and efficient uses of existing resources.
In the past 10 months meetings were held with victims and advocates such as Garden State Equality, the Anti-Defamation League, the ARC of NJ, and the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention. The legislative result is a broad initiative to create a standardized way to identify and investigate incidences of bullying and to train teachers, administrators and school board members in identification and prevention techniques.
"The truth is that every day there is a student in an elementary school, high school or even a college who feels a sense of fear and emotional dread every time he or she steps foot into the school building or signs onto the Internet," Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), a co-sponsor, said. "The negative impacts can be life long.
For some students, it will hinder their academic performance. For others, it will mean something unspeakably worse. This bill is about changing the culture that drives these incidents and ensuring that when they do occur, they are properly addressed."
The legislation is an attempt to address instances of harassment, intimidation and bullying in a timely manner. The measure creates school safety teams that would involve a cross section of the school and give ownership of the problem of bullying to the entire school community.
Additionally, the bill requires annual reporting on bullying instances from schools and districts to be passed up directly to the state education commissioner and it grades each school on how it handles bullying, harassment and intimidation. It also extends bullying protections to off-school grounds and addresses college and university students.
In striving to create a new culture of accountability, the legislation also includes penalties for education officials who fail to report or respond accordingly to incidents of harassment, intimidation or bullying.
"In a perfect world, government would not have to legislate what most of us know as the golden rule: ‘treat others as you wish to be treated yourself," Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington), a co-sponsor, said. "However, cruelty inflicted upon young people by their peers carries too high a cost to ignore. Every public school in New Jersey should be a place where all children feel safe and are able to learn and grow. The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act accomplishes this by holding teachers and administrators accountable for addressing predatory or aggressive behavior among students. The law will empower parents with information as to a school's progress addressing bullying issues, and inform parents and guardians who to contact if they have questions. Lawmakers cannot change human nature, but in passing this legislation we have ensured that those who bully others will face consequences."
Among other things, the legislation provides that training on harassment, intimidation, and bullying be part of the training required for public school teaching staff members in suicide prevention. The instruction is also required to include information on reducing the risk of suicide in students who are members of communities identified as having members at high risk of suicide.
The bill provides that by the 2011-2012 school year all candidates for school administrator or teacher certification will be required to complete a program on harassment, intimidation, or bullying prevention, and that training in this area will be a part of the professional development requirements for these individuals.
It includes training regarding harassment, intimidation and bullying in schools as a part of the training program provided to all school board members.
It also provides that the training course for safe schools resource officers and public school employees assigned by a board of education to serve as a school liaison to law enforcement must include training in the protection of students from harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
