Bill to reduce bullying in Idaho introduced, under scrutiny
Boise — Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, introduced a bill to a House committee Tuesday in an effort to decrease bullying in Idaho schools.
Ilana Rubel
Rubel said she promised an eastern Idaho mother she would create anti-bullying legislation after her son committed suicide due to bullying, an act Rubel referred to as “bullycide.” She said since creating the legislation, hundreds of Idaho parents announced their support for the bill.
“We want kids to stay in school and stay engaged in school, and bullying is a serious obstacle to all of that,” Rubel said. “This bill will of course not stop all bullying … but studies show that good school based intervention programs can very meaningfully decrease the incidents of bullying.”
Rubel said bullying can lead to children dropping out of school, changing schools, depression, anxiety and in the worst cases, bullycide.
According to Rubel, Idaho is sixth in the country for student suicide rate and in the last months, three students committed suicide due to bullying.
HB 191, introduced to the House Education Committee, provides an amendment clarifying a student caught bullying “shall be guilty of an infraction.”
Additionally, the legislation would add a new statute requiring school districts and charter schools provide training materials for the intervention mitigation of bullying to faculty and staff.
All K-12 schools and charter schools would also be mandated, if the bill passes, to file all cases of bullying and send annual bullying reports to the Idaho State Board of Education (SBOE).
“The main focus of this bill is to take reasonable steps to address the bullying, including intervention training school personnel and informing them of the best practices for identifying and responding to bullying,” Rubel said.
While the committee introduced the bill without objection, the bill received scrutiny from various legislators.
Rep. Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, said he is concerned an infraction was a strong punitive measure for bullying, and Rubel said an infraction was the lowest form of punishment that could be enacted.
Clow said he was also against reporting and logging reports of bullying, as a record attached to a student who once bullied could “haunt them forever.”
“I’m a little concerned that this report of a third grader is going to follow them for the rest of their lives, so that when they run for president of the United States, someone is going to dig back and say, he was a third-grade bully,” Clow said.
Rubel said schools already log incident reports of bullying, but new legislation would send the records to SBOE to calculate which schools report the most incidents.
Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, said his concerns about the bill lie in the new section charging school districts to take “all reasonable efforts” to disseminate bully intervention training tools. He said the effort may present a liability to schools, should someone file a lawsuit asserting the school did not take all reasonable efforts.
“If a student is harmed on school premises, the school is potentially exposed to liability already and the law of negligence.” Rubel said. “The goal here is to actually protect them from liability by reducing the likelihood that it would actually happen.”
The House Education Committee will vote on the bill in the near future.
George Wood Jr. can be reached at [email protected]