Pandora’s Blog

Thought I would share this letter from state legislature representative Donna Schlachman of New Hampshire about the efforts of the New Hampshire House of Representatives to help curb bullying in schools. Specifically, their goal is to tighten existing laws to include cyberbullying as a punishable offense.

A great step that all states should be taking…

Of course, PC Pandora monitoring software can help stop bullying too. If the parents of the bullies were aware of what their child is doing online, maybe they would stop it – at the source.

Happy Friday!

December 9, 2009
Trying to do more to stop bullying in schools, by Rep. Donna Schlachman

During the legislative session that begins in January, the Education Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives will consider a bill to amend RSA 193-F, the Pupil Safety and Violence Protection Act. This is the section of our education laws that deals specifically with pupil harassment, or “bullying.”

Since last spring, a group of parents, educators, legislators, school administrators, school board members, child development specialists and advocates, lawyers, the N.H. Department of Education, and other community leaders, has worked to address deficiencies in the current law. They have added specificity in defining the behaviors the law seeks to remedy and they have more clearly delineated minimum components each school must have in its policy.

The committee worked hard to address gaps in the current law that had been identified as problems both by parents who sought relief under the law and by school personnel responsible for writing and implementing school policies.

Our current law states that “all pupils have a right to attend public schools that are safe, secure, and peaceful” environments, and that one of our “highest priorities must be to protect students from violence by dealing with harassment, including ‘bullying’ in our public schools.”

The proposed legislation goes further in several ways. It expands the definition to include the words “intimidation” and “cyberbullying,” and it includes the prevention of the “creation of a hostile educational environment” as part of its legislative intent.

The proposed legislation provides very specific language to assist parents, teachers and administrators in understanding what constitutes “bullying” and “cyberbullying,” thus making it clearer what requires intervention.

“School property” is also defined to capture concerns that a lot of behaviors occur out of the view of classroom teachers and staff. In addition, the proposed legislation includes, at minimum, the components of policies that schools need to have in place to protect both victims and the perpetrators.

Many schools throughout New Hampshire deserve recognition for their hard work over the years in developing exemplary policies and providing teachers, staff, parents and pupils with training. The intent of the legislation is to provide the framework from which all schools can meet the goal of ensuring that our students are educated in safe learning environments.

Bills for the 2010 legislative session will be available online beginning Dec. 10 at www.nh.gov. The proposed legislation can be read at www.bullyfreenh.org. This version is not the end of the process. Further tweaks are expected during the hearing process as we continue to receive input from those involved in educating and caring for our students.

Rep. Donna Schlachman (D-Rockingham District #13, Exeter, North Hampton and Stratham) is the prime sponsor of this legislation, which is supported by both Republican and Democratic co-sponsors.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 11:55 AM and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.