New Jersey Passes Landmark Anti-Bullying Legislation With Veto-Proof Majority

[ProSense]

New Jersey Passes Landmark Anti-Bullying Legislation With Veto-Proof Majority

Joe.My.God points out that the New Jersey legislature has “overwhelmingly approved” the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, a measure “designed to combat harassment, intimidation and bullying among students.” The bill, which comes in the wake of the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi — who threw himself off the George Washington bridge after his roommate broadcast an internet feed of him engaged in sexual activity with another man — passed the State Senate and the General Assembly with a veto-proof margin of 30 to 0 and 72 to 1, respectively.

The Bill of Rights eliminates “the vagueness and loopholes that weaken the anti-bullying laws of the 45 states that have them” and establishes a method of enforcement to ensure school compliance. Below are some of the highlights of the new measure:

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[JackBeck]

1. Last Monday, I testified in front of the Senate and Assembly Education Committees

in support of this bill. I just got home from Trenton where I got to watch both votes from the Senate and Assembly floor.

After our devastating marriage equality loss earlier this year, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome to close out this year.

Now we wait and see how Christie handles the bill.

[ProSense]

2. Wonderful

This is a great thing to happen. There have been so many set backs in NJ, good news is welcomed. Let's hope that Christie does the right thing.

Thanks for your efforts.

[JackBeck]

3. The same group of Hasidim showed up to protest us and lobby against the bill.

They were overly aggressive this time, since they couldn't stand that we were about to have a win.

Steven Goldstein, Chair and CEO of Garden State Equality, was told he should be wearing a swastika, as we tried to enter the Senate floor. And they told the rest of us that all the Nazis were homosexuals.

Ironic that they would choose to bully us as we waited to hear the outcome of the anti-bullying bill of rights.

[laughingliberal]

4. Good job! nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Here's what the Bill does (according to the link in the OP).

- The legislation is the first in America to set firm statewide deadlines for incidents of bullying to be reported, investigated and resolved. Teachers and other school personnel will have to report incidents of bullying to principals on the same day as a bullying incident. An investigation of the bullying must begin within one school day. A school will have to complete its investigation of bullying within 10 school days, after which there must be a resolution of the situation.

- The legislation is the first in America to create a anti-bullying team at each school led by a designated anti-bullying specialist. Also serving on a school’s anti-bullying team will be the principal, a teacher and a parent, and others appointed by the principal.

- The legislation is the first in America to grade every school on how well it is countering bullying – and requires that every school post its grade on the home page of its website. Every school will also be required to post on the home page of its website the contact information for the school’s anti-bullying specialist.

- The legislation incorporates instruction appropriate to each grade to counter bullying, and creates an annual school-wide Week of Respect during which each school will provide anti-bullying programming.

- The legislation strengthens suicide prevention training for teachers, to include information on reducing the occurrence of suicide among bullied students.

[BlueIris]

6. That part about strengthening suicide prevention is key. nt

[derby378]

7. Some of this looks like so much hot air

Prospective employees are only interested in students' report card scores, not the school's own bullying grade.

[Posteritatis]

8. Lawyers, cops and maybe some parents might find those grades awfully interesting, though.

[JackBeck]

12. Holding adults accountable for ignoring at-risk youth's cries for help

can make other adults very uncomfortable.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. But that doesn't mean that anything that can be characterised as such is automatically a good idea.

There are lots of laws I could pass that could be described as "Holding adults accountable for ignoring at-risk youth's cries for help", many of which would be very bad laws.

Blaming a schoolteacher if a pupil in their class commits suicide, for example, seems likely to be a bad thing significantly more often than not.



Disclaimer: I am currently out of my skull on codeine; any sentiments in this post may be disclaimed after proper dental work has been performed.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. I'm afraid I'm not 100% convinced by this.

It rather looks as though legislators have thought "Bullying is a high-profile bad thing, we must be seen to pass a bill against it" rather than "here are some good ideas for tackling bullying in schools, let us put them into law".

I think that, for example, mandating an annual school-wide week of respect is much more about legislators wanting to be seen to be tackling bullying than about actually tackling it.

Each of these provisions will add additional regulation and red tape to an already over-red-taped education system. There are some good ideas in there, but a lot of stuff that I don't think needed to be legislated - I don't think that dictating to schools what the makeup of their anti-bullying team should be is worth it, for example. And the mandatory time-limits on school responses to bullying look like an idea likely to cause all sorts of problems.

There are a couple of possibly good ideas in there - I don't know how many students commit suicide per year, but if it's a reasonable number and if there exist training programmes that have been demonstrated to help teachers prevent is (as opposed to training programmes whose stated goal is to help teachers prevent suicide) then extending them is a good idea, and ditto for the "instruction appropriate to each grade to counter bullying", if there's any evidence it will work. But in general this looks much more like legislation intended to make a legislature look effective than legislation that will actually do much to reduce the problem it sets out to tackle.


It's incredibly easy to say "Bullying is a bad thing, therefore any provision aimed at forcing schools to oppose bullying more must by justified", but I don't think that's a sensible approach, because while the cost in terms of time, money and teacher morale of any one such bill may not be vast, they add up fast.

[derby378]

10. I agree

The Week of Respect sorta reminds me of the Celebration of Sameness from True Stories. A feelgood measure, sure, but is my Johnny able to read, write, and perform long division?

On the other hand, preventing suicides that result from bullying, provided that this legislation can even do that, is very important. I've been bullied mercilessly in junior high, and I know what sort of trauma that can inflict on a kid who just wanted to get along.

[tilsammans]

11. Bullying affect grades, definitely

I too was bullied mercilessly in junior high. Until then, I had been a model student. But because I was bullied in school, my grades slipped. The school's administration did jack shit to stop the tormenters.

Education is the total picture, interpersonal matters included. Unfortunately, because many of today's parents can't be bothered or even foster bad behavior, it's up to schools to fill the void.

Let's see what happens. It appears to be good news from New Jersey for a change.