Massachusetts anti-bullying bill, passed in response to suicides of Phoebe Prince and Carl Walker-Hoover, touted as 'gold standard'
Published: Monday, May 03, 2010, 6:09 PM Updated: Monday, May 03, 2010, 9:07 PM
BOSTON - Phoebe Prince and Carl J. Walker-Hoover were not at the State House for the signing of an anti-bullying law Monday, but the spirits of the two deceased students were in the air on a landmark day in the battle to protect young people in school.
Walker-Hoover, 11, a student at New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, hanged himself in April of 2009 after being bullied in school. Prince, 15, a freshman at South Hadley High School, hanged herself on Jan. 14 following what investigators said was three months of harassment and bullying by fellow strudents.
The Northwestern District Attorneys Office has filed charges against six students in connection with Princes suicide. The alleged offenses range from criminal harassment to stalking to statutory rape.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick struck a blow for Hoover-Walker, Prince and all other students who face bullying in school when he signed into law a bill that bans it on all school grounds, buses and activities, and mandates that every instance of bullying be investigated by school officials and reported to the parents of the students involved.
Speaking both as a governor and a parent, Patrick said he was proud of the new law.
We are giving our teachers, parents and kids the tools and protections they need so that every student has a chance to reach their full potential, he said.
Sideaner Walker, Walker-Hoovers mother, was among 10 family members present for the signing in Boston. She met privately before the event with the governor, who told her he admired her strength and courage in pursuing social change in the wake of her sons death. Walker said she hopes the new law will make life easier for students in the future.
By passing the law, it will assist schools, she said. They will have to report incidents (of bullying).
Walker is hopful that the law, which is tough in cyber bullying, will help protect young people being harassed on social networking sites.
Our kids are faced with obstacles we werent faced with when we were kids, she said.
Although Massachusetts is among the last states to pass such a bill, state Rep. John W. Scibak, D-South Hadley, believes it will become the gold standard for anti-bullying measures.
Its probably the most comprehensive bill in the country, he said.
Scibak, who is on the cyber-bullying subgroup of South Hadleys Anti-Bullying Task Force, said the towns efforts are already in line with what the state has mandated.
Its very similar to what we put in the legislation, he said. It validates what the Task Force has been working on.
Many in South Hadley feel that the negative publicity resulting from Princes suicide has painted the town in an unfairly bad light. Scibak noted that the new law requires school systems to post their anti-bullying plans on their communties Web sites, which will allow parents to compare them.
(The law) provides a framework and structure for all schools to deal with bullying, he said. Some will clearly have to change their policies and practices.
State Sen. Michael R. Knapik, D-Westfield, was a member of the conference committee that worked on the bill. He is hoping it will lead to a cutural shift both in how schoool officials handle bullying and in student behavior.
People say Kids will be kids, Knapik said. Well, guess what? Kids wont be kids. They cant be taking that approach anymore.
The legislation also set up a task force of law enforcement officials who will consider additional legal sanctions for bullying, according to Knapik. He said the state might have to revisit the legislation as the climate surrounding bullying evolves.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/massachusetts_anti-bullying_bi.html
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Bullying bill OKd in House, 148 to 0
Advocates praise late changes in measure
By David Abel, Globe Staff | March 19, 2010
The Massachusetts House, after an emotional debate,
unanimously approved a bill yesterday that seeks to curtail bullying in schools and in cyberspace, mirroring similar legislation passed last week by the Senate.
House lawmakers, as senators did last week, invoked the deaths of Phoebe Prince, 15, of South Hadley and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, 11, of Springfield, who committed suicide after allegedly being bullied in separate incidents over the past year.
This bill aims to secure our students from bullying, both during the school day and after school hours, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said in a statement. In light of recent tragedies, the House has taken the appropriate steps to protect our students from the terror of bullying and cyber-bullying.
The legislation will now have to be reconciled in committee between the House and Senate. Governor Deval Patrick has indicated he will sign the bill.
Earlier in the day, proponents of the anti bullying bill criticized the measure that emerged from the House Ways and Means Committee, which they said would have stripped away vital protections.
But after the 148-to-0 vote, they said the House passed more effective legislation than the Senate.
Its a stunning turnaround, said Derrek L. Shulman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England. They took a bill that was so weak this morning, one that we considered opposing after years of working on this, and made it stronger than the Senates bill.
He and other advocates said the bill was an improvement because it requires school officials bus drivers, cafeteria workers, teachers, and others to report bullying to a schools principal.
The bill defines bullying, in part, as the repeated use by a perpetrator of a written, verbal, or electronic expression, or physical act or gesture . . . directed at a victim that causes physical or emotional harm or damage to the victims property; places the victim in reasonable fear or harm to himself or of damage to his property; [or] creates a hostile environment at school.
If principals determine that the bullying constitutes a criminal act, they would be required to report the incident to law enforcement.
The measure, however, does not include a mandatory fine for school employees who do not report bullying, as one amendment introduced yesterday called for.
Some lawmakers said the lack of such of fine made the proposed law toothless; while others said that any official who does not report an incident would be subject to being fired.
The advocates added that the House version is an improvement because it requires school officials to undergo training to identify and respond to bullying, in person and online. That requirement will not take effect until the 2011-12 academic year.
Representative Martha M. Walz, a Boston Democrat and House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Education, said it was not clear how much it will cost to train school employees across Massachusetts. She said the costs will be borne by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Were not talking about millions of dollars, Walz said, noting that they had an initial draft budget of $150,000 for training.
The bill also requires officials at some private schools where the public subsidizes special needs students to report bullying and undergo training; whereas the Senate bill, which made reporting and training optional, includes all private schools.
The House bill is a very strong antibullying bill, and were very grateful that the leadership heard our concerns, said Arline Isaacson, cochairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus, which has long lobbied for such a bill. This will help thousands of kids across the state.
In a news conference after the bill passed, DeLeo said he decided to make changes in the legislation approved by the Ways and Means Committee after hearing from Walz and other members at a meeting earlier in the day.
I was bullied, actually, DeLeo joked. No, I listened to the members.
The earlier version lacked the reporting mandate and the required training.
Ways and Means chairman Charles A. Murphy did not return calls to explain why he voted for a significantly different bill than the one that emerged from his committee.
In a statement, he said:
Our schools need to be free from bullying in all forms whether it comes on school grounds, away from school, or over cyberspace. With our actions today, were putting school officials, teachers, parents, and students on notice that bullying will not be allowed to interfere with a childs ability to get an education.
http://www.boston.com/news/educatio...9/bullying_bill_okd_in_house_148_to_0?mode=PF
Are you saying the bullies get away with things because rules against bullying are not enforced? Are there rules against it that apply to kids at home on the weekend? Or, are you saying that parents get away with pushing schools to involve themselves outside of what would have previously been their jurisdiction because they can get away with it and no one is enforcing limits on the parents? Or are you saying schools can get away with sticking their noses in the kids' personal lives because no one is enforcing that they can't? Seriously, I get that a segment of society will do what it can get away with as oppossed to jsut following the rules to follow them (thus the sudden slamming of breaks in nearly every vehicle on an interstate when a police car is parked on the shoulder
). What is not clear is how you are relating it to this argument.
There are many GREAT parents out there, and many over involved ones and many who want the fun of parenting without the responsibility (which is what the family in the story sounds like) and many who pretty much ignore their kids . . . 
?
