Protected from Bullies

Bullies come in all forms and sizes. All of us have worked with 'em. As children, many of us put up with them in school. Bullies harass, though we didn't call it that when I was in elementary school. And their targets are frequently kids who are different. Maybe they are the only white student in a mostly black school, or vice-versa. Maybe they stutter or have a lisp. Maybe they are short or tall or fat or of a different religion. Their difference becomes a bullseye for the class bully. This week, The Alabama Department of Eduction will begin implementing a freshly approved state law designed to protect Alabama children from that kind of harassment. Act 2009-571 was titled The Student Harassment Prevention Act, and Governor Bob Riley signed it without fanfare last week. As with virtually all legislation, it is the product of much political wrangling and emotional hand- wringing. HB 216* was designed to protect students with certain characteristics and students who hang with students with those characteristics. The harassment must be more than a one-time incident, and it must be reported by the student or the student with his or her parent or guardian, but not by a teacher. It specifically avoids harassment between a teacher and a student, so bully coaches or math teachers are home safe: this act apply only to student against student harassment, intimidation, violence, and threats of violence in the public schools of Alabama, grades prekindergarten through 12 Free speech is reasserted in Section 7...a graduated system of punishments is proposed...and $10,000 (of a $6.2 Billion budget) is earmarked to pay for implementation by the SBOE. There's no money provided on the local level. and on perhaps the toughest issue, the new law passes the buck, first to the State Board of Education, and later to local school boards. It requires the SBOE to draw up a model policy that will help determine when words or acts that are reasonably perceived as being motivated by any characteristic of a student, or by the association of a student with an individual who has a particular characteristic, if the characteristic falls into one of the categories of personal characteristics contained in the model policy adopted by the department or by a local board. So now the torch...or the hot potato...has been passed from lawmakers to the SBOE, which will develop a model and then pass it to local school boards. Will the SBOE's list of characteristics include physical handicaps? Mental impairments? Identifiable religious traits? Race or perceived race? Accents? Nationality or perceived nationality? Sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation? The law allows local boards to add to, but not subtract from the SBOE characteristic list. The reality is that the list the SBOE draws up will become the gold standard. What's the likelihood the local school board in Mobile or Pell City or Cullman or Lowndes County have a broader view than the state? The big decision for the SBOE won't involve handicapped kids, or those who are fat, or short, or from other countries. There won't be much debate about including race and gender on that SBOE list of characteristics. The big decision in Red-State Alabama will be whether the board agrees to protect gay kids and those who the bullies think are gay. The State Department of Education will be holding hearings to obtain public opinion on the list. The bill goes into effect on October 1, 2009. Local boards will have till July of 2010 to implement the policies.

[NOTE: You can read the bill online. Make sure you select Regular 2009 Session by clicking on the top left panel, then click on bills and status. Then insert HB216 in the window that opens.]