Lansing correspondent
LANSING –
Over 165 educators, parents, students, civil rights activists, law enforcment professionals and advocates for youth showed up for Safe Schools Lobby day in an effort to pass Matt's Safe Schools law March 26. The bill successfully passed the state House last year and Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said that if the bill passes the Republican-controlled Senate she will sign it.
The bill would require local school districts to adopt an anti-bullying policy and report it to the State Board of Education, creating a uniform way to deal with bullying across the state. The bill is named after Matt Epling who took his own life in 2004 after suffering from being bulllied at his school.
Democrats and activists were upbeat last Wednesday. However by Friday, the American Family Association of Michigan was claiming it had successfully stopped the momentum to pass the bill. In a press release sent out by the "family values" group, it claimed two Republican senators had withdrawn their support.
Gary Glenn, president of the AFA Michigan chapter reported in his press release, "The loss of a second senator previously on record supporting the legislation came as a blow to the bill's promoters after over a hundred homosexual activists and their allies gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday for a so-called 'Safe Schools Lobbying Day,' specifically intended to pressure more state senators to support the bill." Glenn continued, "The original list of 20 cosponsors had constituted a majority of the 38-member Senate. With the loss of two of those cosponsors, the bill no longer has a sure majority."
The AFA's release said Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe and Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, had withdrawn their support for Senate Bill 107.
But supporters of the legislation say Glenn and his allies are trying to muddy the waters.
"Playing politics and muddying the waters is Gary Glenn's modus operandi," said Derek Smiertka, executive director of Michigan Equality, a statewide gay rights organization and a member of the Safe Schools coalition. "This is someone who enjoys misleading the public and lying to the public and legislators."
Supporters of the bill are angry with Glenn's press release.
"The bigger issue is why does Gary Glenn not want kids protected from bullies?" asked Sean Kosofsky, director of policy at Triangle Foundation, another statewide gay rights organization. "Gary should have to answer to the parents who have lost their children to bullying, and to the kids who have suffered this violence."
"What's unfortunate is that they (AFA Michigan) don't understand the legislative process," said lobbyist Jean Doss who is working with the Safe Schools coalition. "We are looking at the most recently passed legislation."
Doss said that means the Senate is no longer considering SB 107 – the bill referenced by both senators in their emails to Glenn – and instead the Senate is considering the bill passed out of the House last year. That bill is called H 4.
Regardless of last-minute political moves by AFA Michigan and its supporters, Senate Democrats are wholeheartedly embracing the bill.
"I support it (the legislation) because I support safety for all children," said Sen. Martha G. Scott, D-Highland Park, as she met with students outside the Senate chamber on Wednesday.
Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, serves as the chair of the Senate Education Committee where the bills are currently awaiting a hearing. Kuipers said he is working on a substitute bill that would address the root of bullying through "character education."
Senate Democrats aren't sure what Kuipers means by "character education."
"Sen. Kuipers is looking to take a move towards character education. He has been very open to sharing the language," said Doss of Kuipers' legislation. "We are kind of excited to see his approach. There is always more than one way to skin a cat."
"I need to see what he means by that and see the bills," said Sen. Glenn Anderson, D-Westland, sponsor of the Senate version of Matt's Safe Schools law. At a noon press conference during the lobby day, Anderson said Kuipers appears to be moving some on the bills.
"I've seen more movement from the chair of the committee than I ever have before," Anderson said. "He's talking."
"I don't know what that means," said Scott about Kuipers' proposed character education bills. "Life is simple: Design something where all kids are safe."
Sen. John Gleason, D-Flushing, was frustrated with the pace of the movement for the bill.
"It's not far enough, fast enough," Gleason said of the bills before the Senate. "We arrest people for treating animals the way these kids are treated and we do nothing about that."
"It reminds me of the German people who turned their backs as ashes fell on their homes," Gleason said of the bullying crisis in American schools and the Michigan Senate's failure to pass the bills.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, has said he supports passage of anti-bullying legislation.
