Anti-bullying bill passes House

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By Nancy Badertscher

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia House passed controversial legislation Tuesday that would require school officials to notify parents when their child is involved as either the victim or instigator of bullying.

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Vino Wong, AJC After Jaheem Herrera's death, supporters of his family wore T-shirts in his memory.

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The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Atlanta), sets a January 2011 deadline for the state Department of Education to develop an anti-bullying policy that can be a model for local school systems.

That policy will include age-appropriate consequences for bullying from kindergarten through 12th grade, and the same will be true for the local school system policy updates that will follow, Jacobs said. Current policies only deal with bullying in sixth through 12th grades, he said.

Jacobs said the bill was sparked by the death last year of Jaheem Herrera, an 11-year-old DeKalb County boy. Jaheem’s parents have said the boy committed suicide after facing anti-gay taunts from classmates. An investigation said his death could not be attributed solely to "a simplistic case of bullying."

Jacobs' bill, which passed as an amendment to a Senate bill dealing with disruptive behavior on school buses, cleared the House on the same day that an alleged bullying incident in Massachusetts was drawing headlines and lawmakers’ attention.

Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus) told colleagues she’d watched a news show account Tuesday morning of the apparent suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince after the teen was repeatedly bullied by a group of female classmates because Prince was dating a football player.

“We can finally do something to protect our children against harassment at the very place where they should be safe,” Hugley said.

The state school superintendent’s office had some reservations about Jacobs' bill when it was first proposed, in part, because of language that included property damage as a form of bullying, spokesman Matt Cardoza said. That, he said, “would have been difficult for school systems.”

The measure now goes to the state Senate for consideration, and the superintendent’s office will “follow it closely to see how it gets finalized,” Cardoza said.

Some House members voiced opposition to Jacobs’ bill when it was brought to the floor March 11.

Jacobs ended up requesting that the bill be tabled then, and a revised version brought up Tuesday no longer included a reference to property damage as evidence of bullying. In the earlier debate, one House member suggested that Jacobs’ bill could lead to a kindergartner being accused of bullying for breaking a classmate’s pencil.

Jacobs' amendment passed 99-55, and the bill it was attached to cleared by a vote of 119-45.

The bill says bullying can be threats of injury, displays of force used to intimidate a victim, or written, verbal and physical acts “which a reasonable person would perceive as being intended to threaten, harass or intimidate.”