Senate panel approves cyber-bullying proposal

02/22/2007

By Dane Smith,
Star Tribune
Last update: February 21, 2007


After hearing a county prosecutor describe "a level of brutality [that is] shocking and alarming" in adolescent "cyber bullying," a Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would require all Minnesota school districts to include "Internet use" and "electronic forms" of intimidation in existing anti-bullying rules.

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who has become one of the state's leading crusaders against bullying, said the "sense of anonymity" on Internet websites and instant messaging had led to abusive and obscene attacks "so derogatory it's hard to describe."

His testimony was reinforced by other experts and educators appearing before the Education Committee. Walter Roberts, a professor at Minnesota State University-Mankato, said that computer-generated attacks and slanders are a "gaping hole" in efforts to contain youthful bullying.

Committee debate

Some committee members expressed reservations about whether the bill, sponsored by Sen. Mee Moua, DFL-St. Paul, would work, or is necessary.

Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, said he wondered whether schools should get involved if students away from school happened to say something that was "politically incorrect" or if students only perceived that they were being picked on.

Hann said he thought the bill, which adds one sentence to existing law, was a "severe overreach." He noted that the change does not specify penalties or enforcement.

But Moua and other legislators said bullying has become a real and potentially lethal problem as the youth culture immerses itself ever more deeply into the Internet.

A Vermont boy who was labeled as gay in cyber-attacks committed suicide in 2003, and that state now has one of the nation's toughest anti-bullying laws, advocates said. In about 75 percent of school shootings over the last decade, the perpetrators were victims of bullying.

"This discussion, perhaps more than the statute itself, will show that parents and schools need to be more aware," said Moua, the Legislature's first Hmong member. In her opening statement she said she herself as a youth was "not a stranger to the kind of bullying that's gone on."

The Minnesota School Boards Association has promulgated a model bullying policy for school districts that specifies "the misuse of technology," including e-mail messages, instant messages, digital images, and blogs.

That model policy already has been adopted by some districts, said association attorney Tom Deans. Penalties include warnings or suspension or expulsion from school.

The Minnesota attorney general's office, which supports the legislation, released a fact sheet estimating that 45 million children go online every day and noting that visits to the social networking website MySpace.com jumped 183 percent from 2005 to 2006.