Anti-Bullying bill in Conference Committee - to decide between House and Senate versions

Will it include the radical sections that parents fear?

POSTED: April 9, 2010

Relentless hysteria by media. The "bullies"
issue was front page news in the Herald
just about every day this past week.

Anyone who has been following the news in Boston knows the unbelievable hysteria that the news media has generated over bullying incidents in the schools. They are using a few tragic incidents to stir up emotion. There's a rush to radically change the laws without really stopping to think about what they're doing and whether it will actually be effective.

The House and Senate have passed two different bills. There's now a "conference committee" to re-write them into one bill, which will go before both houses again for a quick vote before being signed into law by the Governor.

We've analyzed both of those bills, and they're very troubling. Much of the House version is copied from a homosexual activist web site. As we've reported, a coalition of homosexual groups, led by the Anti-Defamation League, has been working with the Education Committee and steering the PR campaign in the media to support it. Their national goal is to make it easier for them to include homosexual programs in the schools across America under the banner of anti-bullying. It has nothing to do with actually helping kids.

Part of this includes mandates for comprehensive yearly diversity-type training for all staff, complicated school policies, and mandated reporting by all employees of suspected bullying incidents.

The other major problem with the bills is that they impose draconian fines and even jail terms for acts which could in many cases just be kids being kids. This will surely cause huge problems if put into law.

       MassResistance report on the bullying bills.

One thing we've learned is that bullying is not related to the "protected class" of the victim as much as the psychological dysfunction of the perpetrator and to some extent the way the victim reacts. These things can be dealt with in an effective and common-sense manner without heavy-handed state laws which are propelled by media-induced hysteria.

Here is the six-person conference committee that is meeting. So far there is no news, but feel free to contact them:

SENATE:
Sen. Robert O'Leary (D-Barnstable)
Sen. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton)
Sen. Michael Knapik (R-Westfield)

HOUSE:
Rep Martha Walz (D-Boston)
Rep. Elizabeth Poirier (R-North Attleboro)
Rep. John Scibak (D-South Hadley)

We will keep you informed on what happens.