Time for schools to get tougher with bullies

Friday, July 29, 2005

Gov. John E. Baldacci signed a bill this week requiring every school board in Maine to develop policies that target bullying, sexual harassment and other forms of abuse among students.

The goal is to rid schools of behavior that can cause students to live in fear.

Being terrified is no way to exist and certainly no way to learn.

By passing and signing the bullying bill, lawmakers and the governor have taken steps to protect some of their more vulnerable constituents.

Maine now becomes the 18th state to enact legislation that addresses bullying and other forms of school harassment.

Sponsored by Rep. Carol A. Grose, D-Woolwich, the law addresses a serious issue that can be devastating to those who are victimized by schoolyard toughs -- whose courage often comes from traveling in packs.

Some of those victims were in the governor's office Wednesday as he signed the bullying bill.

One of them, Katie Moskowitz, 12, was abused, humiliated and alienated last year by a group of girls in her class at Saco Middle School.

"I got called names a lot and got taunted and teased and kicked and shoved and really isolated all year," the seventh-grader told a reporter.

Katie made it through the difficult, painful year, and, to her credit, she has spoken up about the horrible treatment she was forced to suffer.

Parents and teachers must encourage other children to speak up, too, if targeted by bullies. Few things are worse, especially for children, than suffering in silence.

The new law requires all schools to establish policies for getting rid of bullies by removing them from school, training students to identify and prevent bullying and advising superintendents on when to report bullying to police.

School boards will use model policies crafted by the Children's Cabinet, which was formed by then-Gov. Angus S. King Jr. in 1995 to help state government better serve the more than 300,000 Maine residents who are younger than 18 and their families.

The cabinet includes the commissioners of corrections, education, health and human services, public safety, and behavioral and developmental services.

The law also calls for the Children's Cabinet to create training programs for teachers and school staff members.

Before the new law, Maine's schools were required only to have student codes of conduct that did not have to address specific behaviors or lay out repercussions for bullying or other forms of harassment.

While many schools already have policies against bullying, lawmakers feel most are not nearly tough enough. Many of the policies also tend not to agree on how bullying should be defined or bullies punished.

The new law, which still allows schools to make bullying and harassment policies that meet their needs, creates a system in which experts will be available to help school boards develop more-effective policies.

After Baldacci signed the bill, Katie, the bullied seventh-grader from Saco, said: "I think it's a great idea. I'm excited and glad it got passed."

With that as their encouragement, school officials now have until September 2006 to develop enforceable policies that protect students from other students.

The new rules against bullying should be clear and the punishment severe.