History

Forty-seven states in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 have passed school anti-bullying legislation, the first being Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

 in 1999. The two states without anti-bullying legislation are Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, and Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. A watchdog organization called Bully Police USA advocates for and reports on anti-bullying legislation.

South Dakota's legislature passed and Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed a bill into law April 22, 2011, which defines bullying in state law and outlines prevention policies for North Dakota public schools. North Dakota has been praised for their new law. Prior to its passage, North Dakota did not have anti-bullying legislation.

Georgia's anti-bullying legislation was strengthened in 2010 with the passage of Senate Bill 250. Senate Bill 250 included a provision allowing for those accused of bullying another student could be reassigned to another school in order to separate the offender and the victim of bullying;

The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act is part of the No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...

 of 2001. It provides federal support to promote school safety but does not specifically address bullying and harassment

Harassment

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...

 in schools. There are no federal law

Federal law

Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join together in a federation, surrendering their individual sovereignty and many powers to the central government while...

s dealing directly with school bullying

School bullying

School bullying is a type of bullying that occurs in connection with education, either inside or outside of school. Bullying can be physical, verbal, or emotional and is usually repeated over a period of time.In schools, bullying occurs in all areas...

; however, bullying may trigger responsibilities under one or more of the federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the United States Department of Education

United States Department of Education

The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government...

’s Office for Civil Rights

Office for Civil Rights

The Office for Civil Rights is a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Education that is primarily focused on protecting civil rights in Federally assisted education programs and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, handicap, age, or membership in patriotic...

.

Starting in September 2011, the State of New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 will enforce the toughest bullying law

New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act

The New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, also known as P.L. 2010, Chapter 122, is a policy recently created by New Jersey legislature to combat bullying in public schools throughout the state. This act is an extension of the state’s original anti-bullying law, N.J.S.A. 18A:37-13, which was...

 in the country. Each school will have to report each case of bullying to the State, and the State will grade each school based on bullying standards, policies, and incidents. Each school must have an effective plan to deal with bullying. All school administrators and teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s are required to deal with any incidents of bullying reported to them or witnessed by them. Teachers must report any bullying incidents they witness to the administrators. Bullies risk suspensions

Suspension (punishment)

Suspension is a form of punishment that people receive for violating rules and regulations.- Workplace :Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy...

 to expulsions

Expulsion (academia)

Expulsion or exclusion refers to the permanent removal of a student from a school system or university for violating that institution's rules. Laws and procedures regarding expulsion vary between countries and states.-State sector:...

 if convicted of any type of bullying; from minor teasing

Teasing

Teasing is a word with many meanings. In human interactions, teasing comes in two major forms, playful and hurtful. When teasing is playful and friendly, and especially when it is reciprocal, teasing can be regarded as flirting. People may be teased on such matters as their appearance, weight,...

 for severe cases.

Controversy

The National School Safety and Security Services questions the motive behind some anti-bullying legislation

Legislation

Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

. The line between “feel-good legislation” and “meaningful legislation” is not clear at the moment and The National School Safety and Security Services suggests “unfunded state mandate

Mandate

Mandate can refer to:*Mandate , an obligation handed down by an inter-governmental body*Mandate , an official or authoritative command; an order or injunction*Mandate , the power granted by an electorate...

s and an overemphasis on any one component of school safety will likely have minimal impact on school safety and could potentially upset the comprehensive approach to school safe recommended by most school safety professionals”

According to National Safety and Securities Services “Anti-bullying legislation, typically an unfunded mandate requiring schools to have anti-bullying policies but providing no financial resources to improve school climate and security, offer more political hype than substance for helping school administrators address the problem.

GLBTQ bullying

Anti-bullying legislation received national attention after the suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 of Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 student Tyler Clementi. In the wake of the incident, New Jersey strengthened its anti-bullying legislation by passing a bill called “The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights.” Garden State Equality Chairman Steve Goldstein called New Jersey's bill the "toughest" anti-bullying law in the country. The bill states administrators who do not investigate reports of bullying can be disciplined.

Various organizations provide resources and support to gay, lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, bisexual, transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

, and questioning youth. These organizations include The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 and the leading national organization focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth. Through a toll-free telephone number, it operates The Trevor Lifeline, a...

, It Gets Better Project, and The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Cyberbullying

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, about 20 percent of children age 11-18 have been victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s, cell phones, and other electronic devices.”

In August 2008, the California State Legislature

California State Legislature

The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...

 passed a law directly related with cyber-bullying. The legislation gives school administrators the authority to discipline students for bullying others offline or online.

Many states already have existing criminal and civil remedies to deal with cyberbullying. Extreme cases would fall under criminal harassment or stalking

Stalking

Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...

 laws or a target could pursue civil action for intentional infliction of emotional distress

Intentional infliction of emotional distress

Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a tort claim of recent origin for intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress. Some courts and commentators have substituted mental for emotional, but the tort is the same...

 or defamation, to name a few. Bullying that occurs at school is no doubt already subject to an existing bullying policy. To be sure, schools should bring their bullying and harassment policies into the 21st Century by explicitly identifying cyberbullying as a proscribed behavior, but they need to move beyond the behaviors that occur on school grounds or those that utilize school-owned resources. But in order to do this they need guidance from their state legislators and Departments of Education so that they draft a policy and procedure that will be held up in court.