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| Law directs schools to stop child bullies |
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| DALLAS -- New anti-bullying legislation effective July 1 requires school districts to cement their policies to help stop student intimidation.
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By Jillian Beaudry
DALLAS -- New anti-bullying legislation effective July 1 requires school districts to cement their policies to help stop student intimidation.
House Bill 2599 passed by the house in March aims to stop bullying on or near school grounds or property that could interfere with a student's education.
"Each school district shall adopt a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation or bullying and prohibiting cyberbullying," according to the bill.
The bill outlines a protected class of student who are often bullied because of the reasons listed.
Protected class is defined as "a group of persons distinguished, or perceived to be distinguished by race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, familial status, source of income or disability," in the bill. Administrators are encouraged to fight bullying based on the categories in the protected class.
While the legislation is effective July 1, Dennis Engle, assistant superintendent for the Dallas School District, said his and other districts likely won't go about adopting new policies until they receive confirmation through the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and a recommendation from the Oregon School Board Association.
"We won't make significant changes (to policy) until we see it online," Engle said. "We don't know if things will change."
Michael Beck, assistant principal at Dallas High School, said students most affected by the new legislation will be those in middle and high school, where bullying most often occurs. However, the legislation is districtwide.
Engle said some districts will have to make more changes than others to improve their policies.
Beck said Dallas will likely only have to emphasize the communication component. Districts are now to create a procedure in which a person can request a district to review the actions of a school after it responds to a report of bullying.
Each district needs to communicate this and the policy annually to parents, guardians, school employees and students through a student handbook as well as school and district Web sites.
It is too late to make additions to the 2009-10 student handbooks that have already gone to press, Engle said. The district will find other avenues to relay the message.
Engle said other than the notification component, nothing will change in Dallas.
Overall, the policy is moving in the right direction, Beck said, because getting children to come forward when they are bullied is a challenge.
"They don't want to rat anybody out or they think they'll make it worse if they say anything," Beck said.
Engle said he expects the associations will request the policy changes soon after the legislative session ends. The district's attorney will look it over and the wording will likely be pulled straight from the bill, he said.
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