Back to school safety
The summer flew by! It is already time for our kids to go back to school. With school starting back up, it is important that we are confident our children are safeguarded from harm. During the legislative session, I sponsored and supported legislation that protects our children.
It is important that parents and children are aware of the dangers of bullying and harassment that can occur in school. Too many children are affected by bullying behaviors. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 1 in 3 students have reported that they have been bullied at school. Additionally, 70.6% of young people say they have seen bullying in their schools, as reported by the American Society for Positive Care of Children’s (SPCC) website. Please watch out for any changes in your child’s behavior during the school year. Bullying can result in reluctance to go to school, while truancy, headaches and stomach pains, reduced appetite, shame, anxiety, irritability, aggression and depression are also frequent effects, as stated on the SPCC website. It is critical that we protect our children and ensure they have a fun, safe learning environment.
We, as guardians of our children, need to do a better job to put an end to bullying. To address the ongoing harassment our children face, I have sponsored Jacobe’s Law (A.8259) with Sen. Tedisco. In April 2015, 13-year- old Jacobe Tares tragically took his own life after being subjected to bullying and harassing behavior. Sadly, this tragedy is not an isolated incident as bullying continues to negatively impact hundreds of thousands of students on a daily basis in schools across New York state and throughout our nation. This legislation works to address bullying in schools and helps to address it to avoid future tragedies by requiring schools to make a good-faith effort to notify the guardian of a child when there is an incident of harassment, bullying or discrimination. We must do our best to keep our children safe by providing them with environments free of bullying and any form of harassing behaviors. Please contact your child’s school if you have any concerns about bullying behaviors.
In addition to bullying prevention measures, we must ensure that our children are protected from any harm as they ride school buses. On August 6, 2019, legislation authorizing school districts to install stop-arm cameras on school buses in order to catch and fine people who illegally pass school buses (A.4950B) was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The number of vehicles that illegally pass school buses is alarming; studies have estimated that more than 50,000 drivers throughout New York illegally pass stopped school buses a day. By allowing cameras on the stop-arm of school buses, it is our hope that the number of vehicles that ignore current law by illegally passing buses will drastically reduce, thus preventing injuries to our children.
As a mother myself, I understand the immense importance of keeping our children safe. As your assemblymember, I will continue to be an advocate for child safety and ensure that our children’s health and welfare are secure.