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For Immediate
Release
3/12/07
CONTACT:
PA
Senate Republican Communications
(717) 787-6725
Greenleaf Bullying Prevention Bill Approved by Senate
HARRISBURG -- The State Senate voted to approve legislation sponsored by
Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf to require school entities to adopt a policy relating
to bullying or to amend the student code of conduct to include provisions
related to bullying. Schools that already have such a policy in place would not
be required to establish a new policy.
Senate Bill 71 would require school
entities to distribute the bullying policy with the code of student
conduct and to make it accessible to the public on the school entity's
Internet website. The policy would be subject to review every three
years, and schools would provide the Office of Safe Schools with a copy
of the policy along with information relating to the development and
implementation of bullying prevention and intervention programs.
Also, bullying would be specifically
included among problem behaviors in the prevention programs for which
the Office of Safe Schools may authorize grants to schools.
The measure, which has the support of
the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania State
Education Association, has been offered by Greenleaf for a number of
years. "It is easier to sweep bullying behaviors under the rug and say
'kids will be kids,' if there is no official policy or if it is not
spelled out in the code of student conduct," said the senator. "When
there is a policy, bullying has to be addressed head-on and corrected."
Greenleaf said he is aware that a
number of schools in the state have undertaken bullying prevention
efforts on their own or with help from trainers who are certified under
the research-based Olweus bullying prevention program and listed with
the Center for Safe Schools and Communities, an agency funded by the
Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and
Delinquency.
"I hope that the establishment of
bullying policies will encourage many schools to become proactive in
combating the harassing, intimidating, and humiliating behaviors that
can negatively affect the school environment and cause great emotional
distress to individual students. Bullying often leads to escalating
violence and needs to be stopped ---or prevented as much as possible—in
our schools," Greenleaf said.
Colorado, New Jersey, New Hampshire,
and Georgia are among about 20 states that have instituted statewide
school policies on bullying.
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