Michigan Senator Backs Bill to Require School Districts to Adopt Anti-Bullying Policies

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By Kyle Feldscher

A federal bill co-sponsored by Sen. Gary Peters could require all schools and districts that receive funding from the federal government to pass policies prohibiting bullying and harassment.

Peters, D-Michigan, announced Wednesday that his name is attached to legislation he believes would help end bullying and harassment in schools. The Safe Schools Improvement Act would require districts come up with local anti-bullying policies and report data on bullying and harassment incidents to the U.S. Department of Education.

"No student should ever wake up afraid of going to school in the morning because of fear of being bullied, but unfortunately that is the case for too many students in Michigan and across the country," Peters said in a statement.

According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, one in three students between the ages of 12 and 18 experience bullying.

The Safe Schools Improvement Act would require the anti-bullying policies set out by local districts to ban bullying based on "a student's actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion."

It would also ensure districts and individual schools have more effective bullying prevention programs that would help stop bullying from happening and result in more effective response to reports of bullying.

A previous version of the bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 and never made it out committee. Peters, then a representative, supported that version of the bill as well.

Michigan has its own anti-bullying law requiring school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies. The Michigan law does not set out any specific groups of students that cannot be bullied the way that the federal bill does.

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