House unanimous: Time to get tough on bullies

BOISE – The Idaho House of Representatives voted unanimously Monday for a bill that cracks down on bullies in the school yard and on the Internet.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, makes bullying a legal infraction that could result in a ticket from police. It also directs school district trustees to prescribe rules for disciplining students who harass or intimidate others verbally, by phone or by computer.

Bullying by Internet “is almost driving people to a state of suicide,” co-sponsor Pete Nielson, R-Mountain Home, told his colleagues on the House floor Monday as he described the case of a student who had someone using her name to spread false information on the Internet.

“She was ostracized by her fellow students; she was driven to despair,” Nielson said.

House members passed the bill without debate. The measure does not call for spending taxpayer money; it just defines harassment, intimidation and bullying, and it calls for school officials to suspend or expel bullies.

Trail originally hoped to pass legislation that required school officials to act when they saw bullying and made bullying a misdemeanor. But after conversations with colleagues who didn’t approve of the mandate, he removed the requirement. He said current Idaho code already requires school officials to act when a student is being harmed.

As for the misdemeanor penalty, “we had several members of law enforcement who felt that would probably kill the bill,” Trail said.

He’s going to wait a year and then check with the Idaho School Boards Association, which supported his original bill, to see if he should try to make bullying a misdemeanor during next year’s legislative session.

Trail’s bill calls for school district trustees to include rules of student harassment, bullying and intimidation in a district discipline code that will be provided to every teacher and student at the beginning of the school year.