Executive Director says Stam’s alternative anti-bullying bill is really about bullying and should receive support
By L.A. Williams, CAL correspondent
Christian Action League
RALEIGH – Bullying is bullying, no matter whom it targets. That’s the message of House Bill 776, No Bullying Anyone at Public Schools, filed March 24 by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake) and sponsored by all 52 House Republicans plus 9 Democrats.
“This law would be an added tool to help schools prevent violence, unlike the so-called School Violence Prevention Act which tried to make the schools a tool for the homosexual agenda,” said the Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League.
As for the chances of H 776 making it out of committee, Stam sees it as a clear cut choice.
“If they want a bill on bullying, they’ll pass this. If not, they won’t,” he said.
That bill, H 548, includes a list of potential bullying motivations including characteristics ranging from race, national origin and academic status to “gender identity or expression” and “sexual orientation,” an attempt to get special legal recognition for these groups by having the terms introduced into N.C. law for the first time. When the bill was filed last year and the list removed in committee, sponsors withdrew their support, a clear sign that the bill was not about bullying but about advancing the homosexual agenda. In fact, Equality NC, a promoter of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, gave bill sponsor Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland) an award last year for his work on the group’s behalf.
In contrast, Rep. Stam’s bill would reinforce the State Board of Education policy adopted in 2004 requiring local boards to develop policies and procedures to “prevent, intervene, investigate, document and report all acts of harassment, bullying or discrimination” no matter who is targeted.
“We must not allow the implication that harassment and intimidation of students who may claim membership in a special class is somehow more significant than that directed at other victims. To do so is an irrelevant distraction to the real harm,” the House Minority Leader wrote in a newsletter to constituents last week. “There is no logic to the claim that some types of specified bullying are more detrimental to students’ welfare than any other.”
A less significant difference in the two bills lies in the description of procedures for reporting bullying. Stam’s bill says reports may be made confidentially, while the pro-homosexual bill would allow for a person to report an act “anonymously,” making it virtually impossible for school officials to investigate.
“An anonymous report of something can be completely unreliable,” Rep. Stam explained. “If a report is confidential, the name of the person reporting it is not revealed, but authorities know whom to go back to in order to follow up on the report.”
Both H 776 and H 548 have been referred to the Committee on Education, co-chaired by Rep. Larry Bell (D-Sampson) and Rep. Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland), both of whom are among the 56 sponsors of Glazier’s bill.
As for the chances of H 776 making it out of committee, Stam sees it as a clear cut choice.
“If they want a bill on bullying, they’ll pass this. If not, they won’t,” he said.
The Rev. Creech suggests that CAL supporters remind their lawmakers to support H 776, the “real” anti-bullying bill.