Advocates for a law to prohibit bullying and provide school districts with the tools to address the problem were dealt a stinging rebuke Wednesday morning in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate.<\/p>\n
The GOP pushed through an amended bill, SB 137, which does nothing advocates have pushed for \u2014 including reporting requirements and enumeration, or listing, of protected classes. In addition, the legislation provides an exception which allows bullying based on \u201cmoral convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The full language of the insert is: \u201cThis section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a floor speech Minority Leader in the Senate Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) slammed the Republicans over the amended language.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere today you claim to be protecting kids and you\u2019re actually putting them in more danger,\u201d Whitmer said. \u201cBut bullying is not OK. We should be protecting public policy that protects kids \u2014 all kids, from bullies \u2014 all bullies. But instead you have set us back further by creating a blueprint for bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n