Anti-bullying bill clears House committee
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A bill that would expand Louisiana’s anti-bullying law to include race, color and sexual orientation protection for public school students won approval Wednesday in a House committee.
The legislation may also cover text messaging that is perceived as bullying, said state Rep. Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans and sponsor of the bill.
“I don’t think this is a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination,” Leger told the House Education Committee of school harassment.
“But we have come to the point where we need to clarify for local school boards what we mean by bullying,” he added.
The proposal, House Bill 674, won committee approval 11-4. It next faces action in the full House, where controversy is expected.
Rep. Hollis Downs, R-Ruston, a member of the committee, said the panel’s chairman and vice chairman, both of whom missed the hearing, favor a study of the issue after the session rather than legislation now.
“We already have a law and it says exactly what your bill does,” Downs told Leger.
Current state law requires local school boards to enact policies that ban the harassment, intimidation and bullying of one student by another.
Leger’s bill would spell out what those terms mean for local school boards.
It bans verbal abuse or bullying, including slurs, name calling or derogatory statements because of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, physical/personal appearance or sexual orientation.
Penalties for violations and how they are decided would be left to local boards, Leger said.
The 2007-08 East Baton Rouge Parish public school handbook spells out the district’s policy.
Ted Baldwin of Baton Rouge, director of a film company, endorsed Leger’s bill.
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