Brushfire over bullying

After years of urging Michigan’slegislature to pass a comprehensive law cracking down on bullying inthe state’s schools, Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmerreconciled herself to the idea that something would be better thannothing — until last week.

When the state’s Republican-controlledSenate passed an anti-bullying bill Wednesday with a caveat exempting a“statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction,” atsunami of Michigan mockery broke out in broadcast media and on theInternet.

“Your exceptions have swallowed therule,” Whitmer declared in an emotional speech on the Senate floorWednesday, calling the provision “a blueprint for bullying.”  

State Superintendent of Schools MikeFlanagan called the bill a “joke.” National media, including TheWashington Post and ABC News, picked up the story. Time Magazine’s AmySullivan sarcastically praised the Senate’s “impressive feat … ananti-bullying bill that manages to protect school bullies instead ofthose they victimize.”

“You may be able to pat yourselves onthe backs today and say you did something, but in actuality you’reexplicitly outlining how to get away with bullying,” Whitmer said. 

By Tuesday, half a million viewers hadseen Whitmer’s Senate speech via YouTube and Republican legislatorswere backing away from language they had unanimously passed days before.

Even without the religious exemption,the bill lacked provisions Whitmer and other supporters ofanti-bullying legislation wanted, including enumeration of groups oftentargeted for bullying, required reporting of incidents at the statelevel, and stronger cyber-bullying measures.

Still, Whitmer was prepared to hold her nose and vote for it.

“We knew that Sen. [Rick] Jones had awatered-down bill, but we were going to support it, because we figuredthat something on the books is better than nothing, especially in thepartisan climate here in Lansing,” Whitmer told City Pulse. “When theycame out of caucus and ran the bill in this form, we were surprised anddisgusted.”

Her office was swamped with thousands ofe-mails last week. “People are disgusted,” she said. Whitmer wasscheduled to appear on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” Tuesday night.

She is glad the issue has gotten suchwidespread attention, but has mixed feelings about it. “After all theseyears of pushing this issue, it’s sad that we’ve gotten attention forthis reason,” she said. “This is a greater statement about our stateand the stranglehold the religious right seems to have on theLegislature.”

Whitmer called it “the saddest andsickest irony of all” that the bill was named “Matt’s Safe School Law,”after Matt Epling, a 14-year-old East Lansing student who committedsuicide in 2002 after being repeatedly bullied in school.

Matt’s father, Kevin, has pushed legislators for an anti-bullying law since his son’s death.

Until last week, Epling also thoughtsomething would be better than nothing. But in a letter read on theSenate floor Wednesday, he savaged the bill bearing his son’s name,calling the religious exemption “the most absurd input I have seen inthe almost seven years dealing with this issue.”

Epling hopes last week’s firestorm willgive lawmakers a chance, not only to take out the religious exemption,but to take a more comprehensive look at the bill.

Tuesday, Epling met with House SpeakerJase Bolger and Democratic Leader Richard Hammel at the state Capitol.Epling said Bolger is ready to get rid of the religious exemption inthe House version of the bill, but he didn’t commit to making thatchange or any other.

Through spokesman Ari Adler, Bolger hastold several media outlets he is ready to drop the religious exemptionbut that he does not support legislation that would enumerate specificgroups for protection.

Whitmer said she will “keep pushing” for a more comprehensive bill as it moves to the House.

“I’m calling on Speaker Bolger to notonly fix their mistake, but bring Michigan up to date with what otherstates are already doing in passing comprehensive anti-bullyinglegislation,” Whitmer said in a news release. Michigan is one of threestates without an anti-bullying law.

But Whitmer told City Pulse she didn’t know what would happen in the House.

“I cannot predict it, but I know thatcaucus is as right-leaning as the Senate Republicans,” she said. “Maybethey’ll see their Senate colleagues went too far and they’ll actuallypass something that’s meaningful.”

At Tuesday’s meeting with Bolger, Eplingpushed for required reporting at the state level and “a close look atcyber-bullying,” but said that enumeration of frequently targetedgroups will be more elusive. 

That troubles Emily Dievendorf, policydirector at the statewide gay rights organization Equality Michigan,who thinks that taking out the religious exemption would only take theSenate bill from “destructive” to “ineffective.”

“Studies have shown that without listingprotected categories, administrators are unlikely to recognizebullying, be confident they’re seeing it when it happens, report it andfollow up,” Dievendorf said.

In April 2011, Arkansas became the 11thstate to pass an anti-bullying bill listing protected categories,including race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.

“So there are other states that are notafraid of the conservative extreme right,” Dievendorf said. Of the 47states with bullying laws, 14 have enumerated bills.

Ten years ago, Oregon passed a bill thatdid not list protected categories. Subsequent studies showed thatgroups most likely to be bullied before the bill passed, includingAfrican-American and Native American students, were still being bulliedthere. In July, the state passed a revised law enumerating protectedclasses.

“We have the data, the case studies,”Dievendorf said. “We know how to make a really great bill the firsttime. I don’t want taking out the offensive religious exemptionlanguage to take attention from the fact that we still need a qualitybill.”