Recently, the StarTribune reported that state Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, announced that he will introduce legislation next year to require Minnesota school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies and offer them training in anti-bullying measures.

Chaudhary cited reports that somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths of the state's school districts already have anti-bullying policies in place. But advocates of a state anti-bullying law say that they want uniformity and for all districts to have such policies.

I'm quite sure that very few of us favor bullying. I suspect that a fairly high percentage of us have been on the receiving end of bullying ourselves. I remember my father teaching me the basics of self-defense not long after I started to school, but I also remember that I was a pretty fast runner. There is no doubt that kids can be cruel, and there are always going to be some kids who bully, and other kids who just look like they're expecting to be bullied.

I've known a lot of teachers, and most of them have been proud of their skill at handling bullies. Some of them could teach the rest of us a lot about it. The fact is, teachers have to become skilled at it. Some bullying is just annoying, and hardly worth the effort of sending a student to the front office or calling someone else into the classroom. The bullying may also just be an attempt to get attention, and any sort of over-reaction may delight the bully, while upsetting the whole classroom.

I'm not belittling the seriousness of bullying, but it does come in an enormous range of seriousness... from annoying to physically harmful. Some kids bully each other routinely, barely distinguishable from "roughhousing". It can be something of a rite of passage for boys, and I don't think that girls are immune from the same attitudes.

Those who work in schools KNOW bullying when they see it, and do their best to prevent, control, or punish it when they think that's called for. Certainly, there are going to be exceptions. School personnel are not prison guards, although they sometimes feel like it.  They're going to miss some instances of bullying, and they may misjudge how affected a student is by it. So... exceptions occur... the system is imperfect.

An imperfect system, unable to prevent all harm. Sounds something like life in general, doesn't it? Evidently Senator Chaudhary believes that legislation will reduce bullying, but his proposal is in fact a near-perfect example of wrongheaded legislation. Let's count some of the problems:

A. The legislation would force school districts to adopt a policy related to their own business. Educators are specialized professionals, yet we have the insulting spectacle of a couple of legislators and parents insisting on telling them how to do their jobs.

B. The legislation would cost every school district a lot of time and money. Rather than describing it for you, just take a skim through SOME of the requirements it would place on each district:

1. Intimidation or bullying includes an intentional
     2.23  gesture or a written, verbal, or physical act or threat that a
     2.24  reasonable person under the circumstances knows or should know
     2.25  has the effect of:
     2.26     (1) harming a student;
     2.27     (2) damaging a student's property;
     2.28     (3) placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to his or
     2.29  her person;
     2.30     (4) placing a student in reasonable fear of damage to his
     2.31  or her property; or
     2.32     (5) presenting a sufficiently severe, persistent, or
     2.33  pervasive threat or action and creating an intimidating,
     2.34  threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student.
2. A school board must develop, with input from
     3.1   parents or guardians, school employees, school volunteers,
     3.2   students, and community members, and adopt a policy prohibiting
     3.3   intimidation and bullying, consistent with the requirements of
     3.4   this section.  At a minimum, the policy must:
     3.5      (1) prohibit the intimidating or bullying of any student;
     3.6      (2) describe the behavior expected of each student;
     3.7      (3) define intimidation or bullying;
     3.8      (4) include a reporting procedure that permits a person to
     3.9   report anonymously, but precludes formal disciplinary action
     3.10  based solely on an anonymous report;
     3.11     (5) require school personnel to report prohibited incidents
     3.12  of which they are aware;
     3.13     (6) state the consequences for and the appropriate remedial
     3.14  action to be taken against a person acting to intimidate or
     3.15  bully;
     3.16     (7) require school officials to notify the parent or
     3.17  guardian of a student involved in a prohibited incident and the
     3.18  disciplinary action taken based on a confirmed report;
     3.19     (8) include a procedure for documenting any prohibited
     3.20  incident that is reported;
     3.21     (9) include a procedure for responding to and promptly
     3.22  investigating any reported incident, including designating
     3.23  employees responsible for taking and investigating reports;
     3.24     (10) indicate how the school district will respond after an
     3.25  incident is reported, investigated, and confirmed;
     3.26     (11) include a disciplinary procedure for any student found
     3.27  to have harassed, intimidated, or bullied;
     3.28     (12) prohibit retaliation for reporting in good faith
     3.29  intimidation or bullying and retaliation against a victim of
     3.30  intimidation or bullying when a report has been made;
     3.31     (13) provide appropriate remedial action for a person who
     3.32  falsely accuses another of intimidation or bullying as a
     3.33  reprisal or retaliation or to intimidate or bully;
     3.34     (14) make notice of the policy available throughout the
     3.35  district;
     3.36     (15) address intimidation or bullying that occurs on or
     4.1   near school grounds, at any school-sponsored activity, on
     4.2   school-provided transportation, at any official school bus stop,
     4.3   or on a student's walking route to or from school; and
     4.4      (16) keep confidential and exempt from disclosure the name
     4.5   of the person reporting an incident under this section.
     4.6      (b) A disciplinary action taken under this section must be
     4.7   consistent with collective bargaining agreements and the Pupil
     4.8   Fair Dismissal Act.
     4.9      Subd. 4.  [MODEL POLICY.] The department of children,
     4.10  families, and learning must develop and make available to school
     4.11  boards a model policy on intimidation and bullying, consistent
     4.12  with the requirements of this section.  The department of
     4.13  children, families, and learning, at the request of a local
     4.14  school board, must assist the school board in developing a
     4.15  policy.

 C. It would create an atmosphere that forces school personnel to treat each case seriously, no matter how minor... in effect creating another zero tolerance policy. Teachers will feel compelled to report cases they might have handled effectively without the formal policy. As is true with so many legislated requirements on schools, it will greatly increase the amount of time and money spent on NON-educational issues. For all the additional work, the policy is not going to PREVENT bullying. It WILL increase the number of reported cases, the paperwork on each case, require involving parents, and will virtually force disciplinary action in each case. Ironically, the legislation would later be praised for the increase in the number of cases "identified" and "settled".

D. It would produce another legislated complex, one-size-fits-all solution, as forceful legislation always does. Districts that are already effectively dealing with the problem will still have to revise their policies and procedures. Teachers who could have dealt with bullying quickly and effectively will now be afraid not to turn each instance into a formal "case".

I said earlier that this proposed legislation is a near-perfect example of wrongheaded legislation. Personally, I think it's much worse than that. I think it's nothing but grandstanding by several people, in a manner that happens often in politics... taking an issue with some emotion, exaggerating it, and using force to pretend to "solve" the problem, "for the kids"... with no thought or concern about the unintended consequences that are completely inevitable.

The Trib article includes this quote from Tracy Sigfrid, a Coon Rapids parent:

"Unless you force the issue to put something in place, it's not going to happen for a very long time," she said. "People at the district have a myriad of issues to deal with. I wanted to make sure it got dealt with in the same manner as up here [in Anoka-Hennepin]. Full force. Make it happen."

It's not easy to get more elitist than that. Do such people honestly believe that schools know nothing about bullying or dealing with it? Do such people honestly believe that they know more about it than the schools? At least Tracy Sigfrid identified this as the application of force. Yes, people at the district have a myriad of issues to deal with. If this ignorant legislation becomes law, they will have one more big one to deal with.