bullying – Missouri House of Representatives Newsroom

Sponsors Hope for Passage of Bullying Bills in Final Week

A Missouri teenager who took her own life after being bullied at school has inspired legislation in her name, bills that aim to prevent similar tragedies and to spare families of one aspect of the pain that followed her death.

Representative Mazzie Christensen (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The legislation has been supported by testimony from her family and carried by a representative who is a family friend.

Representative Mazzie Christensen’s (R-Bethany) friend was Sawyer’s guardian and raised her when her parents lost custody of her due to abuse and neglect, some of it related to drug use. Through her, Christensen learned what Sawyer went through the afternoon before she took her own life.

“The school had known that Sawyer had been bullied and was severely bullied that day. She was called a fat cow, she had trash thrown at her, which is all on video, and she went to the bathroom crying. The guardians and the family [were] never notified of what was going on at school. There was no text, there was no call, nothing.”

Legislation sponsored by Christensen and Representative John Black (R-Marshfield) would require schools to update their antibullying policies, and require that charter schools to adopt such policies.

Black has carried the legislation for several years, also motivated in large part by one incident, and the lack of response by the school in which it happened.

“A neighboring school district had a circumstance of bullying and that involved bullying of a mixed-race child and when the parents came to the school to address the problem, the response was ‘Yeah, we’ve had that problem around here for quite a while.'”

Legislation from Christensen and Black, combined into House Bill 2120, would require districts’ policies to lay out how districts will respond when investigations find that bullying has occurred.

House Bill 2120 would reinforce current statutory definitions of “bullying,” “school violence,” and related crimes, and their classification under Missouri’s child abuse laws. These statutes require reporting certain cases to child abuse investigators – reports which trigger investigation by child welfare officials and, in some cases, law enforcement.

Representative John Black (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Black told his colleagues, “The main emphasis of this bill is reporting. To make sure that the administration knows what is going on, to make sure the administration investigates in a reasonable fashion under the time rules, to make sure that the administration abides by the rest of the laws already on the books, that if it’s criminal activity, it’s supposed to be reported to the police. If it’s juvenile activity, it’s supposed to be reported to the juvenile authorities to make sure what they’re supposed to do.

“And ultimately – and this is to me the key part of the bill – to make sure that the board knows what’s going on, because I’m convinced that in a lot of circumstances, the school board doesn’t have a clue. So this makes sure that the school board knows what’s going on, gets the information, if the school board wants to take action to do something other than has been done, then they have to have the opportunity to do so.”

Response to bullying, as laid out in the bill, must include notification of the parents or guardians of the students who engaged in bullying, and a requirement that those students participate in prevention programs.

It would restrict the application of “zero-tolerance” policies – policies that any act of violence must result in discipline, regardless of circumstances – for any student who is a victim of bullying. Statements regarding victims of bullying acting in self-defense would have to be considered by administrators when determining disciplinary action. Charter schools would be banned from expelling or transferring students solely due to reports of bullying.

District employees and volunteers who interact with students would have to be trained annually on bullying intervention, and about liability for actions or failures to act. The bill would extend legal protection to school employees and volunteers who step in to stop incidents, as long as they follow proper procedures and act in good faith.

Acts of bullying and related discipline would have to be reported to the school board monthly, to be reviewed in a closed meeting and addressed by the board within 30 days.

Christensen’s other bill inspired by Sawyer aims to ensure that those making decisions for dealing with the remains of a loved one who is a minor were the people who loved and cared for them in life.

Christensen said after Sawyer’s death, current law ensured that decisions regarding her internment and funeral fell to her next of kin. This meant her father, who had lost custody of her because he had been abusing her.

“It was very tragic because her own sister didn’t get to be in the burial proceedings. When you’re dealing with a minor’s death, the court proceedings [are] different. It takes weeks to be able to figure that out. So, a very tragic death ended up being more tragic because they didn’t even have the ability to bury her with her family, and her sister didn’t even get to be involved,” Christensen said.

House Bill 1696 would specify that when a minor with a court-appointed guardian dies, that guardian will have final say in the care of the remains unless they are under investigation for the minor’s death. In cases of co-guardianship or joint custody, the guardian or parent with whom the minor resides will have the stronger claim to that authority. It also stresses that the religious, cultural, and individual beliefs of the deceased must be considered in making final arrangements.

“We want to make sure that if somebody else ever had to go through this certain scenario, that it would be clear, it would be clean, especially with a court-appointed guardianship,” Christensen said.

The House voted 118-8 to send the bullying policy legislation to the Senate, where it has been voted out of a committee. With one week left in the session, Rep. Black is hopeful it will be acted on before Friday, and if necessary, he believes others will continue to fight for this proposal next year.

Christensen’s right of sepulcher legislation passed out of the House 140-0. A Senate committee voted to advance the bill with changes, and it awaits action by the full Senate.

House Anti-Bullying ‘Childhood Hero Act’ gets Unanimous Passage to Senate

A House bill passed this week aims to keep students who stand up to bullies in Missouri from being punished along with those bullies.

“Our goal is to make sure that a victim of violence, an immediate act of violence, isn’t automatically suspended from school for being involved. It also allows a teacher to act in good faith to help a victim of immediate violence,” said Representative Tricia Byrnes (R-St. Charles), the sponsor of House Bill 1715, the “Missouri Childhood Hero Act.”

*Representative Tricia Byrnes (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

Byrnes said the language is meant to, “address some of the bullying and violence that we have seen in our schools across the state, and quite honestly in schools across the country, and I’m very proud that [we], in a bipartisan fashion, have come together to stand up for kids.”

“This bill is very timely and it is appropriate,” said Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson). “I believe this bill prevents victims of bullying and physical violence from being victimized twice, both by the altercation and by being suspended pending investigation.”

The Act would require that public and charter schools have anti-bullying policies and that those policies meet certain requirements. It would restrict the use of “zero-tolerance” provisions that would punish a victim acting in self-defense, and require that administrators considering punishments consider a statement from any student who engaged in self-defense.

The bill specifies that a school employee or volunteer who intervenes in an incident of bullying or other violence is immune from liability when following certain procedures, and that a district or charter school is immune to civil liability for disciplinary actions if following specified procedures.

The bill would also extend school districts’ efforts to counsel and educate victims of bullying to those students who engage in bullying. That provision was added by Marshfield Representative John Black (R), the sponsor of House Bill 2630, which has been paired with HB 1715.

“As was mentioned in committee by one of the committee members, ‘hurt people hurt people.’ This tries to address the situation by addressing both the student being bullied and to try to get help to the student doing the bullying,” Black told his colleagues.

“As a teacher and school counselor myself, we are professionals, we are practitioners, and in as much, should have to answer for making sure that we are keeping eyes on children, and making and cultivating a safe learning environment for children,” said Proudie, who is a certified teacher and school counselor.

*Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communication)*

“[The legislation] really does put the onus on schools and school districts to do the appropriate amount of investigation to get to the bottom of what happened, and it also holds individual teachers or adults who are responsible for supervising children to account and to answer for where they are and some of the actions taken. Anyone who’s been a parent and who has had to go to a school or a school district to continuously ring the alarm about their student being bullied and getting into these physical and even verbal altercations, and the school or school district kind of throwing their hands up and saying, ‘Well, both of them were participating,’ it’s just not fair.”

Regarding investigations, the legislation would shorten the time in which a district employee who witnesses a bullying incident must report it from two days to one, and require that the report be in writing.

Results of investigations would have to be presented to all involved students and include a description of any interventions, initiatives, techniques, or disciplines. In cases in which an investigation finds that bullying occurred the parents of the instigator must be notified. If the finding is that the incident rose to the level of 2^nd degree harassment, law enforcement would be notified, or in cases involving a student younger than 11, the state Children’s Division would be notified.

“I think we’re all familiar with the scenario where two kids get into a fight and they’re both kicked out of school, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent, and I think that’s what this bill prevents,” said Representative Ian Mackey (D-St. Louis).

“It’s going to require a little more work on the part of administrators and on the part of adults in the school setting to actually investigate what happened, to actually make sure that perpetrators are suspended if they need to be, but that victims are not kicked out of school simply as a result of being bullied.”

The House voted 150-0 to send that bill to the Senate.

House votes to bar hair-based discrimination with passage of ‘CROWN Act’

The House has voted to bar discrimination based on how people style their hair, specifically natural hair textures and cultural styles.

*Representatives Raychel Proudie, LaKeySha Bosley, and Ashley Bland Manlove (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

For several years now, legislators have been asked to pass the “Missouri Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” or “Missouri CROWN Act.” House Bills 1900, 1591, & 2515 would specify that no person may be discriminated against based on hair texture or protective hairstyle if that style or texture is commonly associated with a particular race or origin. The measure applies to any educational institution that receives state funding.

It was carried on the House Floor by Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson), whose bill was combined with those from Representatives LaKeySha Bosley (D-St. Louis City) and Ashley Bland Manlove (D-Kansas City).

“Every freedom- and liberty-loving patriot in Missouri should be in favor of this bill, especially those of us who believe that children should be able to exist the way in which God created them,” Proudie said. “Simply put, that’s what this does. Any constitutional, tax-paying citizen of Missouri should agree to this bill because all students and their parents should have access to the things which their tax dollars go to sustain.”

Proudie is a teacher as well as a school counselor certified in three states. “Students can’t learn when they’re not in class learning. As a teacher, I can say, and have said, we must be much more interested in what we are putting in a student’s head than what’s going out of it. If we’re distracted by someone’s hair, then maybe that’s something we need to take up with a physician, but it’s not the child’s problem,” Proudie told her colleagues.

Each year that the legislation has been considered, legislators have heard testimony, especially from people of color, who said they have faced discrimination based on their hairstyles. Again this year, Missourians told the House Committee on Urban Issues that their hairstyles have been politicized; they have been discriminated against in job interviews and classrooms; and they have been made to feel like they cannot style their hair how they choose.

“We have a lot of conversation about bullying, and we think of it as peer bullying. Sometimes the big bad bear is the adult that is charged with the protection. Sometimes the classroom bully is the teacher, the classroom bully is the institution itself, and we have to make sure that we’re paying attention to that, and often times we don’t hear that enough, that sometimes we, as the adults, as the practitioners, are the problem, and in this case, we absolutely are,” Proudie said.

*Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

The proposal has evolved over the years. The version passed on Wednesday by the House includes exceptions for the use of things like hairnets or coverings for safety purposes. This was a change pursued by Representative Scott Cupps (R-Shell Knob), whose background includes time as an agricultural education teacher.

He says in that curriculum, in particular, students need protection.

“You work with rotating equipment, you work with flammable equipment, and so there was a concern of mine that if this could be used to say, ‘No, you can’t ask me to do something with my hair to protect my own safety,’ and so that was not only addressed but addressed in the correct manner, in my opinion,” Cupps said.

He said changes like that could very well lead other states to mirror versions of this legislation off of this.

“I want everyone to know this is a bipartisan effort, has been a bipartisan effort, and so this is something that I think everybody should feel comfortable in voting for,” Cupps said.

More bipartisan support came from Imperial Republican Renee Reuter, who said, “I do have naturally curly hair, and I promised people in my district before I came back from the interim that I was going to represent the curly-haired girls when I was here, and I’m so proud that this bill is here and I support it.”

Echoing Proudie, Reuter added, “Women and men need to be able to just be who they are and express their hair the way that they are given it from God.”

“I’m really happy, I was very surprised, not surprised [that they liked it] but surprised that some of my colleagues from across the aisle were compelled to stand up and speak to the importance and what it meant to them. It was very endearing to hear, and I’m glad that it would cover and touch their children, too,” Proudie said.

“It’s not just something that impacts African American students or students of color. It impacts anybody who deserves to go to their public spaces, their public school, and learn and to not get bullied, picked on, singled out, or made to feel less than what God blessed them with.”

The House voted 144-0 to send the legislation to the Senate, where a similar bill was recently passed out of a committee.

Committee hears plan to teach social media literacy, evaluating news

A bill aimed at teaching children how to critically consider today’s constant stream of information and to be safe online has been presented to a House committee.

*Representative Jim Murphy (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)*

St. Louis Republican representative Jim Murphy has proposed House Bill 1585, the “Show-Me Digital Health Act.” It would instruct the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create a curriculum on the “responsible use of social media.”

Murphy said children are exposed to information from numerous sources and mediums, and often legislators discuss how to regulate that information.

“I don’t care how much you try to regulate it it’s not going away and it’s not going to get better, it’s going to get worse, and if we’re not teaching our children how to process the information that they see – how to question it, how to verify it, how to not internalize it, we’re just going to get worse and worse and worse,” said Murphy. “This is not about what the content of media is. It’s about how to process media.”

The Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education heard from Julie Smith, an instructor at Webster University in St. Louis who has authored books and offered numerous presentations on media literacy and news analysis. She said “digital citizenship” is the term that’s been used for teaching children how to behave online. She said Murphy’s bill would expand on the basics of “digital citizenship,” which tends to focus on being “nice” online.

“Kids have been lectured since day one how to behave online. They know. Now we need to help them process this digital world that they live in,” said Smith. “Digital citizenship already exists in Missouri schools but we need to help that go deeper. We have to go beyond the ‘be nice online’ and help students examine not only how they use the media but how the media uses them. This 21^st century survival skill, these additional digital citizenship skills will not only increase and enhance their digital health but could potentially help preserve our republic.”

She said a new curriculum would encourage children to read the terms of service for the websites and apps that they use and educate them about laws governing internet use; how websites and apps are designed to keep them online and make money off of them; how to spot and deal with fake accounts; and how to cope with anxieties and depression related to an online presence.

The committee’s top Democrat, Paula Brown of Hazelwood, is a retired teacher with 31 years of experience. She expressed concerns about adding to the already extensive curriculum from which teachers are expected to work.

Smith said the school districts with which she has worked have asked how to weave this education into existing curriculum, “So that if you’re a math teacher this is how you can do it, if you’re a science teacher this is how you can do it, so that it’s not an additional class and it doesn’t replace anything. It merely enhances what already exists.”

Brown said she would talk further with Smith about that, and would do further research into her concern about what additional cost the bill might create for individual school districts.

University of Missouri freshman William Wehmer said he believes as someone who just finished his K-12 education Murphy’s proposal is “much needed.”

“As I made my way through my education I was faced with the abrupt uprising of social media and was given no tools as to how to handle myself online, what a digital footprint was, and most importantly how to respect others with differing opinions,” said Wehmer.

The bill’s supporters include the Missouri School Boards Association and the Missouri Broadcasters Association. Mark Gordon with the Broadcasters Association said its member radio and television stations think the bill would support their work on social media.

“We’re licensed to serve and as a result of that we produce trusted information and the last thing we want is for people to be confused on a side-by-side issue, where they’re looking at something and they see postings from our members versus those from untrusted sources.”

The committee has not voted on HB 1585.

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