Anti-Bullying Bill is a Waste of Time

There is a hearing this morning in the Senate Education Committee on something called the "Safe Schools for All" Act (Star Tribune). This bill would prohibit "harassment, bullying, intimidation and violence" based on a student's personal characteristics such as race, sexual orientation or religion." The bill number is S.F. 971/H.F. 1198.

District 110 already has policy 413 which states, "It is the policy of the school district to maintain a learning and working environment that is free from religious, racial or sexual harassment and violence. The school district prohibits any form of religious, racial or sexual harassment and violence."

In addition, we also have policy 514 which prohibits "bullying" regardless of the motivation behind said actions.

So if we already have policies in place to prevent bullying in our schools, why do I care if the Senate mucks about with it?

Because I don't think it is their place to tell me a policy that already covers everyone in general and religious, sexual, and racial people (again, pretty much everyone) specifically needs to somehow be expanded. According to OutFront Minnesota's website:

This bill would address an all-too common problem in our schools - that of kids being forced to endure environments hostile to their education because they are personally targeted on the basis of things like sexual orientation/gender identity, disability, national origin, and physical characteristics. The legislation would simply expand the categories of people that schools already cover with their anti-bullying policies.

Well, no it wouldn't. Not here anyway. These people (everyone) are already covered. So what is the real agenda?

The current statute (121A.0695) provides:

Each school board shall adopt a written policy prohibiting intimidation and bullying of any student. The policy shall address intimidation and bullying in all forms, including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms involving Internet use.

This policy simply protects every student equally. And it works - easy to enforce, easy to administer. Don't Bully. The end.

The new proposal:

By January 1, 2010, a school board must adopt a written policy that prohibits harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence based on, but not limited to, actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, physical characteristics, and association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. The policy shall address harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence in all forms, including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms requiring internet use.

Doesn't protect everyone equally does it? It makes some people more equal than others. If you can manage to bully someone based on none of the above reasons, you're in the clear!

The state is billions of dollars in the hole and we waste our time carving the population in to smaller and smaller groups so we can all push our own little agendas. Let's not pretend that that this is anything less than social engineering, and we should have the political will to stop it before it wastes any more of our precious time and resources.

If you ask me, the real bullies are the special interests pushing the local school boards around on the playground of St Paul. In fact, here are a list of the main bullies, and their contact information. I say we need to give them all some time in detention.

Senate sponsors are:
Senator Scott Dibble
Senator Charles Wiger
Senator Sandy Rummel
Senator Tom Saxhaug

House sponsors are:
Representative Jim Davnie
Representative Jeff Hayden
Representative Karen Clark
Representative David Bly
Representative Jerry Newton
Representative Carla Bigham
Representative Will Morgan
Representative Carlos Mariani
Representative Roger Reinert
Representative Mindy Greiling
Representative Nora Slawik
Representative Margaret Anderson Kelliher