Minnesota Public Radio has done a great job of reporting on the Minnesota state laws on bullying and the actual situation in their state's schools, and the reports have really got people talking. I touched on the MPR report yesterday in a blog entry, but what I read today is worth mentioning. The MPR reports on bullying are a week-long series, so there is likely lots more good information to come from this series.
From the Learning Curve by Beth Hawkins, Beth Hawkins writes "Turns out Minnesota's anti-bullying law is just 37 words long. Nationwide, a whopping four states have weaker laws."
Beth went on to say that "Never mind that half of all Minnesota students have bullied or been a victim, and up to 100,000 are believed to experience bullying on at least a weekly basis."
I know many of you hear me talk about bullying a lot, and you may be getting used to me tossing out statistics to try and drive home the point of how important this issue is to every family in America. If you've been around me long, you know I say that bullying is a problem in every single classroom in America. And here it is again - half of all students in Minnesota.
What does that mean? Half of all students means that if you go into any classroom in Minnesota, odds are if you grab two kids and talk to them, one of them will tell you a story about bullying. This is 1 out of every 2 kids you talk to about bullying. Half. Still, as Beth Hawkins wrote, even with the likelihood of 100,000 kids in Minnesota experiencing bullying each week, they still might have one of the weakest anti-bullying laws in the country.
There is no magic bullet for solving this problem. Bullying is a complicated problem, and while bullying may never completely go away, we can use laws and school policies to limit the serious negative effects, and put an end to the needless deaths of teenagers because of bullying.
Take a stand today! No matter where you might live, get in touch with your legislature and ask them about your state's anti-bullying laws. Ask your legislature to sponsor a proposal that increases protection for children being bullied at school. Call your school principal and school board members and ask them to tell you about the school's policy on bullying, and them ask them what you can do to make it better.
I will keep following the news from Minnesota, and I look forward to seeing you all at the 2011 Miss Indiana Scholarship Pageant in June. Don't forget to contribute to my CMN fundraising at www.missamerica4kids.org
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