Massachusetts: Anti-Bullying Bill Calls For Schools to Crack Down on Bullies
publication date: Nov 17, 2009
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author/source: Hannah Clay Wareham/Bay Windows
Nearly forty percent of self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual students reported being bullied while in school in 2007. A new piece of legislature that will be heard Tues., Nov. 16, will hopefully change that.
The anti-bullying legislation coming before the Massachusetts legislature this week will hold schools more accountable for the actions of their students; the law would require schools to report bullying incidents -- and any subsequent disciplinary measures -- to the state.
The bill saw an outpouring of grassroots support after the April suicide of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, a student at a Springfield charter school. Classmates teased Walker-Hoover, telling him he was gay and acted like a girl. The bullying and taunting became unbearable for the 11-year-old. Walker-Hoover hanged himself with an electrical cord in his family’s home after leaving behind a note telling his family he loved them and giving his Pokémon cards to a six-year-old brother.
"This is an urgent matter," Walker-Hoover’s mother, Sirdeaner Walker, who supports the legislation, told the Boston Globe. "There are other kids like my son Carl who are being bullied every day in school. It happens in every kind of school -- urban, suburban, and private ... Schools say they are taking care of bullying problems, but they are not."
The results from Massachusetts’ 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Study revealed that almost thirty percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students attempted suicide that year.
The Anti-Defamation League is leading the multi-group coalition to pass the bill. The Massachusetts Gay/Lesbian Political Caucus, The Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts, Join the Impact - MA, and several more organizations have offered their endorsements of the bill.
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