New Year, New Laws on Bullying

SolutionsforBullying@gmail.com http://www.solutionsforbullying.com/

Illinois is just one of several states with beefed up bullying laws going into place in 2012.  House Bill 3281, sponsored by state Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) goes into effect today and allows schools to suspend or expel a student who threatens another student or a school employee via the Internet.  The only issue is that suspensions do not always work.  As we discuss in our book, suspensions are sometimes just a week to stay home, play video games and do nothing.  Perhaps requiring the bully and parents to do some research on bullying, its effects and the reasons why a bully would bully might just lead to some introspective thinking on behalf of the bully and their family.  Expulsion is definitely a harsher punishment to bullying that will get some attention by the bully and parents of the bully.

"Bullying no longer takes place only at school," Kay told the Belleville News-Democrat of the new law. "Bullies use the Internet to follow their victim home and harass them through social networking. This bill gives school boards and administrators a way to deal with online threats from students towards other students, faculty or anyone else."  Hopefully schools across the world will take a strong stance against cyber bullying in 2012.  If it happens online, it is happening at school.  Schools should also take a look at punishments for text bullying as well since the two are often done simultaneously.