Illinois Steps Up Against Online Bullies

Finally someone is stepping up the fight to combat bullying in schools.
Under a new law in Illinois that went into effect this past Sunday, school students who use their blogs, their Twitter, or their Facebook accounts to harass, threaten or bully other students or teachers will face immediate suspension or expulsion.
They.Ain't.Playing.

Bill Sponsor
Rep. Sidney Mathias

With new information suggesting that incidents of bullying are on the rise in this country, and with reports that suggest that nearly 50% of all students have been the victims of bullying, Illinois legislators stepped it up; perhaps they were on by an incident at Oswego High School six years ago.
It seems an Oswego student posted an online rant against his teachers in 2005, vowing “I’m so angry I could kill.” Administrators and school officials weren't sure what they could do since the threat was made outside school hours, away from school grounds from a private computer.
They were concerned about interfering with the boy’s First Amendment rights and felt unable to suspend or expel the boy, who refused to take down the message until his parents intervened.
Look, I'm all for Free Speech--this blog is me exercising that right--but when your Free Speech starts including words like kill, murder or die, maybe someone needs to step up.
Illinois House minority leader Tom Cross, a Republican, said he’d tried repeatedly to change the law to strengthen school administrators’ hands in similar situations, but added that it’s taken a while for legislators to come to grips with Internet issues. “I don’t think kids are getting any meaner....30 years ago, a bully might have said something in class--now they’ll say it on the Internet.”
I might disagree with Cross here. Kids are meaner, because they don't see any repercussions for their actions; and without repercussions, then the bullying escalates. I was the victim of bullying in school. Names were called. I was pushed. I was called faggot. But one thing I wasn't, ever, was violently attacked in school, or on my way home.
Add to that the use of the internet and, for the bullied, there is no escape. It's a 24/7 taunt.
But this new law in Illinois will law allow school administrators to discipline students who make any online threat that “could be reasonably interpreted as threatening to the safety and security” of another student or staff member.
Bill sponsor, Illinois Representative Sidney Mathias, a Republican, said. “We’re making it clear to students that this is unacceptable behavior.”
It's about damn time.


via The Chicago Sun-Times