The Georgia House has passed legislation that is designed to help curb bullying, which include more stringent accountability measures for local school principals.
State Representative Mike Jacobs, a Republican, sponsored the legislation (HB-927) and it was approved by a vote of 99-55 as an amendment to another bill (SB-250) that addresses bullying behavior on school buses.
Bullying is an everyday occurrence in all schools, including Georgia’s schools. However, lawmakers are strengthening anti-bullying laws to make bullying less frequent and raise awareness among public school employees to be more pro-active in enforcement.
A study, funded by the Justice Department, found that the percentage of children who reported being physically bullied over the last year had declined from nearly 22% in 2003 to less than 15% in 2008. The percentage reporting they had been assaulted by other youths, including siblings, dropped from 45% to 38.4%.
The study says that anti-bullying programs have been effective.
An anti-bullying initiative had already been in place in Georgia and the Georgia Department of Education had been active in developing bullying prevention strategies and activities.
Despite efforts by the Georgia Department of Education, some incidents at public schools had created national news headlines and brought more attention to the issue of bullying. The story of Decatur, Georgia 11-year old Jaheem Herrerra and 11 year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover were two examples.
This new anti-bullying law would allow administrators to transfer a bully to another school and would also make it a crime for principals to knowingly not report bullying behavior to authorities.
The following is a summary of the language from Rep. Jacobs’ (HB-927) bill which was added as an amendment to Senate Bill 250: .. “A bill to be entitled an Act to amend Subpart 2 of Part 2 of Article 16 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to public school disciplinary tribunals, so as to expand the definition of "bullying"; to provide that a student can be reassigned to another school for the purpose of separating such student from his or her bullying victim; to direct the Department of Education to develop a model policy regarding bullying; to provide for immediate notification of law enforcement officials when a student commits an alleged physical assault or battery on another student or on a teacher or other school employee; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes…”
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