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Election dashes hopes of passing anti-bullying legislation

LANSING –
The considerable and historic gains by Michigan Republicans in Tuesday's election is giving new voice to outgoing GOP members who say legislation to address bullying that has languished in the legislature for years is not going to be taken up in the lame duck session.
In an election night interview in Detroit, Sen. Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland) said he has no intention of bringing anti-bullying legislation to a vote in committee and to the Senate floor. Kuipers chairs the Senate Education Committee.
"I told them what language we would consider approving, and they were never willing to negotiate or compromise," Kuipers said. "So that causes a problem."
Asked what language for the legislation Kuipers and his fellow GOP members had recommended, he said, "We had crafted some language that had taken out specific references to specific lifestyles and just treated bullying as a problem area."
Lifestyles is a term Kuipers and other opponents of the legislation have consistently used to reference lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The legislation does not specify any class, but does state that bullying based on any real or perceived characteristic was unacceptable.
"Bullying is bullying and it doesn't matter why you are being bullied, it should not be tolerated," Kuipers said. "That is what we were prepared to go forward with and they wouldn't take it. So I guess we'll have to wait for the next legislative body to do it."
"I think this became the sort of the cause celebre for a group, but I think most school districts have a bullying policy of some support."
Kuipers said that creating a policy was not going to stop bullying.
"The statement of creating a policy on bullying, if its not enforced properly, if it becomes an issue for trial attorneys to sue districts because they don't have it written properly or they aren't enforcing it properly, that doesn't help anybody," Kuipers said.
When asked if districts were already being sued over bullying incidents, Kuipers said "no," but when reminded of the bullying lawsuit in the Hudson schools, he shifted to focusing on the impact the lawsuit had on other districts.
"Some of them are. And to the extent that lawsuit forced other districts to get serious about adopting a policy, I think the issue is already being resolved," Kuipers said.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer responded to Kuipers' statements Tuesday night by saying it was an example of the "right wing policies" the new GOP majority in state government will pursue.

What is past is prologue

Two years ago, advocates nearly passed the legislation in the final hours of the 2008 lame duck session, but Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt) "killed the bill," as he said in an interview with Michigan Messenger.
Cropsey, as the majority floor leader, refused to let the bill be brought up for a vote, even after it had passed the Senate's Education Committee by unanimous vote. The 2008 late night battle was the closest the legislature has come to passing anti-bullying legislation.
And while advocates are hoping to get a vote in the Republican-dominated Senate, Cropsey said the lame duck is not the right time to move the bill.
"There ought to be a discussion about this during the regular session," Cropsey said in an exclusive interview with Michigan Messenger. "This is not something that should be done in the middle of the night."
"The idea that there is not enough time to devote to this issue is absolutely ridiculous. All of the concerns on this bill have been in play for over six years," says Kevin Epling, co-director of Bully Police USA. "Sen. Cropsey was approached by members of his own party asking for a vote which he denied, citing at the time that he had not had time to review it. So now he has says in an additional two years he still has not had any time to review a two page bill?"
Epling lost his son Matt to suicide. That suicide has been attributed to bullying, and Epling and his wife Tammy have become vocal advocates for anti-bullying legislation as a result. The legislation being considered by the Senate, which has already passed the Democratically-controlled House, is named for the Epling's son – Matt's Safe Schools Law.
Cropsey called bullying a "serious problem" and noted that "almost every kid is bullied." But, he said, rushing the legislation without having his questions answered would not be in the interest of the voters or the students the legislation is designed to protect.
For Cropsey, there are lingering concerns that he says still have not been addressed. First, Cropsey said he is not sure the legislation is necessary.
"The legislation is saying to school administrators, 'you must have a policy,'" Cropsey said. "My school superintendent told me we have a policy. So I want to know how many districts don't have a policy. I have never been given a list. If you are going to do something with the law, you need to know what the problem is and that the solution will address it."
Epling says he and his wife talked with Cropsey and his staff about the number of districts with policies in place. He said he shares that concern, but elevates it one more step and asks how many policies are there, but how effective they are. He says if Cropsey truly wanted that information, he could have gotten it.

At what cost?

"After 9 yrs every school should have a policy. It is seen only as a suggestion and not a requirement. Our schools are already required by law to provide a safe and secure environment, having such a policy helps schools and parents work together on the same page. Without a policy schools can simply keep changing the rules and keeping the parents in the dark," Epling said.
The legislation would, Epling said, address some concerns because it would require the school district to hold a public hearing on the new policy to seek input from students, staff and the community about bullying and how to address it as a community issue.
"Again, having a policy is one thing, implementing it is another, which is the deeper issue," said Epling. "How can you tell schools to enforce a policy when you are only suggesting that they acknowledge the problem? It doesn't work and it hasn't worked."
The new law would also mandate that schools define bullying, make sure that everyone involved in the school gets the policy annually and that the policy be filed with the Michigan Department of Education, which would create a database of policies.
And the issue that has really pushed Cropsey to blockade the legislation is in the definition. The current legislation would prohibit bullying on the basis of any real or perceived characteristic.
"The question becomes, if you start listing characteristics, where does it stop?" Cropsey said. "I am willing to go along with it if you take characteristics out of the equation."
"This greatly baffles me. The line in question has been in the bill since before it was passed out of committee, now it is being pointed out as if it was never there before. It is another last ditch effort to slow down passage of the bill and put more children at risk. Sen. Cropsey and others see 'perceived characteristic' as meaning gay, when it means for any reason," Epling said. "Children bully each other because there is a difference, there is something that pits them against each other — be it their clothes, their friends their hair, their religion, for every reason. Kids never bully for 'no reason.' If we don't begin to get to the root of why kids do this then we will fail."
Cropsey also said he had concerns the legislation would cause undue expenses as unfunded mandates from the state. He says he has consistently asked what the cost would be to schools, but "no one has told me."
Epling said that the policies can have a range of costs from free on up, based on what the local districts decide.
Ultimately, however, Epling said which is more – the cost of a policy implementation, or the loss of a young life?
"A single child's funeral expenses are close to $10,000 today, spending a few hundred dollars over the course of the year is well worth the trade," Epling said. "Since 2001 we've lost 8 children to bullycide, or close to $80,000 in funeral costs, while hundreds of thousands of dollars in educational support have been slashed from our schools by our legislators. Yet this says nothing on the emotional toll on the families and communities due to unexpected loss."
Cropsey also contends that it is possible that by passing the law, it could open the state up to being defendants in lawsuits, such as the one where a Hudson student sued over bullying.
"If the state has a law mandating that a school have a policy, and the policies fail, or the school fails to enforce the policy, does the state end up picking up part of the costs?" Cropsey said. "I don't know the answer to that."
"Any school can be sued currently and by having a policy and working with parents on how the policy is implemented can actually limit schools from being sued because there will be the paper trail of everything that was done within the terms of the policy. Follow the rules step by step, and you can show that you have a greater immunity," Epling said.
"Simply continuing to allow schools to have no policy, actually may put more schools at risk for lawsuits. And with the recent letter to schools from the Department of Education, having a policy noting items outlined in the letter will even further protect schools from future lawsuits," Epling said. "From my point of view, by stopping the vote on 'Matt's Law' in 2008 even after a unanimous decision of passage from the Republican controlled Senate Education Committee and against the wishes of numerous members of his own party advocating passage, Sen. Cropsey has now placed Michigan schools under the magnifying glass. States without anti-bullying laws, and states that have no standard policy may be at risk of being looked at closer than other states by the Department of Education for possible violations."

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