LANSING – The Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a bill addressing the issue of cyberbullying, which Sen. Glenn Anderson said fills holes in the current anti-bullying law that even Governor Rick Snyder previously said needed to be addressed.
Current law says that schools must have a policy about bullying and that the policy must be reported to its school board, Anderson (D-Westland) said. But SB 74 would require the respective boards at a school district, intermediate school district or public school academy to include cyberbullying – as defined by that board – as a form of bullying in its bullying policy.
“How they want to word it, we’re going to let the school districts develop it,” Anderson said. “I believe most people that look at it … it’s pretty clear that it’s a major problem. And it’s just an element that was not addressed in the current law.”
The bill would also require school districts and public school academies to report incidents of bullying to the Department of Education per a form and procedure established by the department.
Anderson said by having the reporting requirement to the state, legislators and others can assess whether the anti-bullying law is actually working.
“I submit that you have to have that kind of information to know whether or not it’s making a difference,” Anderson said.
He also said he is unsure how the committee will vote on the bill, but that he is hoping it will pass. He said he has not talked to committee members, but he has talked to Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and “sounded as though he was supportive,” though he noted Jones did not give a firm commitment.
“I think for the most part everyone acknowledges that bullying is a problem in our schools,” Anderson said. He said there are differences on how legislators approach the issue, but for the most part people are “very reasonable” about trying to resolve the matter.
Jones said that he expects the committee will approve the bill “as long as it’s found to be constitutional.” He said there have been some arguments against such legislation because it was found to be unconstitutional, but to his knowledge Anderson’s bill does not face that problem.
He said there’s been “several attempts” to deal with cyberbullying, including work by himself and Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Certainly we are supportive of some change so children aren’t attacked constantly in school,” Jones said, adding that while he’s had a number of constituents come to him about this problem, one of the most notable was a woman contemplating moving her child into a private school because of cyberbullying to her daughter.
“It destroyed this girl’s will to go to school,” he said.
