Haefner: House bill is designed to stop bullying

Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-St. Louis, addresses two bills, including one she sponsored, that affect schools and teachers. While I have absolutely no problem with a bill that requires school districts to implement policies on bullying (there are few, if any, school districts in the state do not have such policies), it is naive to think that this bill is going to have any impact on stopping bullying. It smacks more of one of those feel good bills that make it sound as if legislators are actually addressing serious problems.

Another bill that was approved on the House floor this week has the goal of making it clear to students, parents and school staff what is considered bullying and how it should be handled by schools. We know that bullying goes on in our schools, and that it can have an extremely negative impact on the young lives. The bill does not tell districts what the policies must say, but that districts must have policies in place. This leaves the bullying policies up to schools.

 The goal is to empower schools to create their own procedures and policies and give them the authority to do that with the backing of state law behind them. It also makes it a priority that everyone – from bus drivers to janitors to teachers to students – is aware of the policy and how instances of bullying will be handled. The way the bill is written right now, it would require that all schools: post the district's bullying policy in a public space; provide teacher, student and parental education on bullying; have reporting procedures in place for instances of bullying; and have a procedure in place to investigate reports of bullying. The bill also addresses cyber bullying – something we know has become a more prevalent problem in today’s age of Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging.

I am also pleased that my bill HB 505 is scheduled to be heard next week in the House.  This bill which I have mentioned many times in my report this year changes the mandate reporter language.  As it now stands, the Missouri law is very similar to the law that was present and is referred to often in the Penn State case which created a way for a person who suspected or knew that abuse was taking place to report it up the chain to a supervisor.  The supervisor should make a formal report, but it has been proven that many times the supervisor, for whatever reason, chooses not to.  The changes in this bill would make the first person responsible to make that report. If approved it will go to the Senate and hopefully be voted out without too much change or amendments that could change it dramatically.  It would be a very gratifying experience to see this legislation make it through so that more children can be protected from harm.