Standing up to bullying:

Advocates say safety is at stake; others question need

Advocates seek uniform protections for students as National Bullying Prevention Month raises awareness.

Some educators and politicians say Arizona doesn’t have enough laws protecting students from bullying, even after teen suicides in recent years have drawn national attention.

But others question whether the state needs more laws addressing the issue.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and local and national figures are pushing for more policies at both the school-district level and at the state Legislature.

For the past several years, advocates have unsuccessfully tried to pass several bills that would crack down on school bullying.

Advocates for more policies and legislation argue that many people fail to understand bullying is a major public-safety issue.

“You nip a smaller problem in the bud so that same student doesn’t get to 10th grade and get into an assault,” said Lawrence Robinson, a member of Phoenix’s Roosevelt Elementary School District board who helped write the district’s anti- bullying policy.

But Cathi Herrod, president of conservative advocacy group Center for Arizona Policy, said she isn’t sure more legislation will decrease bullying.

“The question I have with any proposed legislation is: ‘Is the solution being proposed truly going to address the problem?’ ” she said. “Twice the Legislature has addressed the bullying issue. How aren’t the cur- rent laws addressing the issue?”

Every day, 160,000 kids in America stay home from school to avoid being bullied, according to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, a Minneapolis-based anti-bullying advocacy organization.

Bullying does not only affect the perpetrator and the victim, said Nicole Stanton, who

launched Stop Bullying AZ to advocate for anti-bullying legislation.

Children witnessing bullying need policies that tell them how to respond to the issue, she said.

“Most kids will tell you they see it, but oftentimes they didn’t know how to report it or who to report it to,” said Stanton, wife of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton.

The groups of people hurt by bullying are much broader than most people realize, Stanton said.

“It’s about getting more folks engaged. Children with disabilities are a population that are particularly affected, and so I think we need to have more diverse voices speaking out on this,” she said.

School-district policies

Arizona Education Association President Andrew Morrill said state law required all Arizona districts to have anti-bullying policies years ago, but the association does not know if all districts complied.

The Roosevelt Elementary School District did not pass a comprehensive anti-bullying policy until this past summer.

Some districts may be slow to take a tougher stance on bullying because doing so comes with a lot of responsibility, Robinson said.

Even among those districts with bullying policies, there’s no consistency, Stanton said.

“There’s no guiding principle behind what schools are required to do. They’re just left to their own devices ... and when left, some don’t come up with any anti-bullying training whatsoever,” she said.

The AEA advocates for comprehensive anti-bullying policies that teach everyone in the community how to respond to the issue.

“This is a serious problem, and we can’t just chalk bullying up to the idea kids will be kids,” Morrill said. “As we’ve seen recently, it can lead to unthinkable tragedies in the lives of the victims.”

Legislative efforts

would expand the definition of bullying to include harassment based on race, sex, religion, color or sexual orientation. The law would also protect students from cyberbullying, or bullying done over the Internet.

She plans to introduce the bill again in the next session.

“There’s a big push to get things done at the local school level, but I still think it’s important enough to keep running the bill at the state level as well,” Hobbs said.

She said the bill has failed because of misunderstandings by the opposition.

Hobbs said groups such as the Center for Arizona Policy have lobbied against her bill, fearing that students who share their faith-based beliefs against homosexuality would be punished.

Herrod said she has not seen Hobbs’ latest proposal, but her organization does not support laws “singling out” certain groups for special protection.

“To elevate bullying against certain groups of people as being worse than bullying others is questionable public policy,” she said.

Hobbs said her bill would not punish those who do not support homosexuality, but it would protect kids from being bullied for their religious beliefs.

“Students who aren’t gay are still being bullied, and that’s some of the worst bullying going on right now,” she said.

Beyond policies

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 41 states had anti-bullying policies as models for schools as of December 2011.

Getting laws to discourage bullying is the first step but not the final one, said Julie Hertzog, director of PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center.

“Legislation is certainly a driving force, but we also have to have our community and kids enforcing that message,” she said.

PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center is partnering with the business community in launching CustomInk’s Be Good to Each Other campaign to get students and families involved in bullying prevention.

Equipping families with what’s needed to raise healthy kids can help reduce bullying, Robinson said.