INSOMNIA stalked my bed, so I turned on the radio to break up the monotony of sheep-counting. 3WV was playing my favorite Pink Floyd song: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control ... Teachers, leave those kids alone!" Of course, the members of Pink Floyd went to British schools in the 1950s, when emotional abuse of the students was considered acceptable, even character-building. We Americans, being a more enlightened people, hold such behavior from a teacher to warrant warnings and dismissal. After all, we have students who can provide all the emotional abuse their peers may need. Under current law, such students perform this service without so much as a reprimand.
Two state legislatures, however, are preparing to thrust themselves into the social jungles of primary and secondary education. Both Washington's and Colorado's proposed laws are called "Anti-Bully Bills," but the details of each reveal sharp differences. Colorado's legislation recognizes that schools are oriented toward educating, and directs anti-bullying efforts accordingly. Washington's legislation misses the purpose of schools by over-emphasizing the penal aspect of ending bullying.
No rational person favors having students harass one another. Besides the emotional impact on students, such behavior detracts from the learning environment. Teachers waste valuable time and energy attempting to arbitrate disputes, and even the students not involved become distracted from their work. Moreover, apparently harmless bullying can escalate into physical injury.
At the same time, parents ought to be teaching bullies that their actions are unacceptable. Surely part of rearing a child is instructing her in how to conduct herself with her peers. But for whatever reason, parents are either failing to do so, or are unsuccessful, because bullying happens. So, as usual, schools have to step in to correct behavior that threatens to derail their work to educate children and produce good citizens.
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Washington's response is a bill that requires each school district to adopt a policy "prohibiting harassment, intimidation or bullying on or immediately adjacent to school grounds, at any school-sponsored activity, on school-provided transportation or at any official school bus stop." It also demands that schools mandate "consequences and appropriate remedial action for a person who commits an act of harassment, intimidation, or bullying."
Presumably remedial action consists of some type of punishment along the lines of warnings, demerits or suspension. None of these do anything to address the cause of the behavior. Instead, the threat of "consequences" is supposed to prevent students from bullying. The possible misuse of such a policy is noted in another section, which calls for "consequences and appropriate remedial action for a person found to have falsely accused another as a means of retaliation or as a means of harassment, intimidation or bullying." Want to bully someone? Accuse him of being a bully, and you could make his life as hellish as you'd like.
Colorado's bill takes a different approach. It requires each school district to include a specific policy in the district conduct and discipline code concerning bullying prevention and education. To help ensure that districts comply, the legislation also compels districts to submit information about their policies on bullying prevention and education, including information related to the development and implementation of any bullying prevention programs.
While speaking to the legislature, two high school seniors described their school's bullying prevention program and said it has reduced the number of violent incidents there, including hazing. The emphasis is on building character, not punishing students. Seniors participate in a retreat, in which they are taught to put aside their differences, and then teach the younger students ("Bill targets school bullying," Denver Post, Jan. 26).
By integrating an anti-bullying policy into students' education, schools avoid singling out particular kids as "problems." Instead, everyone is expected to work cooperatively and to feel a sense of responsibility for both themselves and their peers.
Clearly this is a somewhat utopian vision, and additional measures may be necessary. The Colorado bill would be improved by including guidelines and creating a commission to help schools develop such programs. If the state truly is interested in decreasing bullying, it needs to be an active participant in making that happen.
Legislation directed toward education and prevention may take longer to show results, but the long-term rewards will be much greater. Students who have learned from these programs carry that knowledge with them to college and beyond. Laws intended to punish, on the other hand, are likely to make students begin chanting, "Teachers, leave those kids alone!"
(Pallavi Gunigant's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at pguniganti@cavalierdaily.com.)
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