Posted: | March 12, 2013 09:25 AM |
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From: | Senator LeAnna M. Washington and Sen. Lawrence M. Farnese, Jr. |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Anti-bullying Bill of Rights |
In the near future, we plan on re-introducing an Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. We previously offered this bill in the 2011-2012 session as SB191 and senators Argall, Costa, Ferlo, Brewster, Hughes, Kitchen, Solobay, Stack, Williams, Wozniak, Yudichak, and Farnese co-sponsored it. Our legislation would do several things. First, it would require every school entity to adopt a policy of how to respond to bullying complaints. The bill would require the principal to appoint an anti-bullying specialist in each school, who would be responsible for: chairing the school safety team; leading the investigation of complaints; and acting as the primary school official for preventing, identifying, and addressing incidents of bullying. The legislation would also have school entities appoint an Anti-Bullying coordinator who would work with school administrators and PDE to prevent bullying, and would head a school safety commission tasked with addressing bullying concerns and issues. Finally, the legislation would set up a Bullying Prevention Fund in the PDE which would be used to help prevent bullying across the Commonwealth. Please join in us in sponsoring this worthy legislation. If you have any questions, please contact us at 7-1427. |