Parents, youth urge passage of anti-bullying legislation

LANSING – From conservatively dressed senior citizens to Mohawk sporting youth, over 100 people joined the largest ever lobbying day for the Triangle Foundation at the State Capitol March 28.
The day before the lobby day, the bills received a big push of support from Governor Jennifer Granholm.
"Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that one out of every three students – one out of every three – in grades six through 10 is the victim of bullying," Granholm said during her March 17 weekly radio address. "While some school districts in Michigan have worked to address this issue, it's important to require that every district have policies in place to discourage bullying."
The event was designed to lobby state legislators to support anti-bullying legislation that has been introduced in both the state house and senate. The bills, HB 5616 and SB 1156, would create rules for all Michigan school districts dictating how reports of bullying should be dealt with.
HB 5616 is called Matt's Law, in reference to Matthew Epling of East Lansing. Epling was the victim of a violent hazing incident by upper classmen when he was 14, according to his parents Tammy and Kevin. While the Eplings filed a criminal complaint with the East Lansing police, Kevin said the department failed to investigate for nearly two months, and only after he called and demanded action did they even begin to arrange to investigate the event.
Kevin said that on the day before his son was scheduled to meet with police officials, he was at work at his part time job at Meijer when the alleged bullies allegedly entered the building. Kevin said Matthew told his mother about the incident.
That night, at age 14, Matthew, who had put a down payment a special BMX racing bike and was planning several other activities, went into his room and took his life. Kevin is convinced that the hazing incident lead directly to this suicide, and has been working since the suicide to organize the East Lansing community to address bullying.
"Matt's gone but he never had a chance to reach his full potential," said Kevin, his wife standing at his side quietly. "This is now about all these other kids. Years of ignorance and blinders fell on our doorstep and we are not going to let this happen to anyone else."
Youth from Lansing, Gull Lake, and several Detroit area suburbs were in attendance at the event as well.
One was 11-year-old Rachel (not her real name) and her mother Sue (not her real name.) Both mother and daughter wished to remain anonymous for fear that the bullying the 11-year-old Novi public schools student has experienced since kindergarten might escalate with publicity.
Rachel said she has been verbally harassed and physically attacked. Some bullies have attempted to shove the young girl into her locker. She is composed while telling her story, but there is a constriction in her throat that is indicative of her holding back the emotions and pain of such abuse.
"I used to love school," she said. "Now I don't wanna go because I know I'm gonna be made fun of."
Sue said the two journeyed to the capitol in hopes of personalizing the issue. "The school district is lacking in tools on how to deal with bullying," she said. "My hope is that we can personalize this issue. They (legislators) will be able to see a face and that makes it real."
Sue and Rachel lobbied both their senator and their representative. They met with their state senator, Nancy Cassis (R-Novi) but were able to meet only with a staffer for State House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi). The meeting with the Speaker's staff took over an hour to arrange, with the pair standing outside the house gallery waiting for a staffer to come meet with them based on a note they sent inside. In exasperation, they finally went to the Speaker's office.
Repeated messages from BTL left with the Speaker's office went unanswered at press time.