President and First Lady Michelle Obama met with scores of youth, parents and educators last week in the first-ever White House Conference on Bullying, one of a series of recent actions taken by federal officials and lawmakers to stem the tide of classroom harassment.
Obama, who admitted to the crowd last Thursday that he himself was picked on when he was a child, said that while the conference couldn’t put an automatic stop to bullying, he was eager to at least “dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up.”
“Bullying can have destructive consequences for our young people,” the president said. “And it’s not something we have to accept. As parents and students, as teachers and members of the community, we can take steps — all of us — to help prevent bullying and create a climate in our schools in which all of our children can feel safe, a climate in which they all can feel like they belong.”
After the Obamas’ remarks, the more-than 100 participants broke off into work groups to address the complex issues that fuel bullying and potential solutions to the epidemic.
Joey Kemmerling, an openly gay former Council Rock High School student who recently transferred to a New Jersey school after persistent antigay bullying, was one of the conference guests, representing the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in his capacity as one of the agency’s student ambassadors.
Kemmerling said his first visit to the White House, and especially its purpose, was overwhelming.
“It was breathtaking. I don’t think I can really describe the feeling,” he said. “I’ve been a GLSEN ambassador since July and I’m so appreciative for the opportunities that’s given me. I went in there to talk not as Joey Kemmerling, an activist, but to represent GLSEN, which was incredible.”
Kemmerling was assigned to a breakout session in which the participants discussed whether antibullying legislation is effective in stemming the tide of harassment, and he said the group unanimously agreed such laws are needed.
Kemmerling said he’s seen the impact of antibullying laws firsthand, as New Jersey recently passed one of the nation’s strongest antibullying laws, while Pennsylvania’s measure is largely considered to be lacking.
“Enumerated policies, ones that not only address the bully but also the victims, have been proven to work,” he said. “Since I transferred schools, I can tell immediately the difference between Pennsylvania and New Jersey legislation. When you walk into a school in New Jersey, there’s a definite difference in climate.”
During the conference, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and former executive director of GLSEN, participated in a conference call in which they announced the launch of the federal government’s new anti-bullying website, www.stopbullying.gov.
The site offers resources and advice for students, parents and educators who are contending with bullying, as well as an overview of antibullying legislation and a special tab on the front page dedicated to information related to antiLGBT bullying.
“If students are getting bullied there’s often a sense of shame, but this site encourages students to talk about what’s happening,” Duncan said. “Parents also have to be vigilant. Anyone who thinks the government can do this by itself doesn’t begin to understand the complexities of this problem. But hopefully this site can help well-intentioned parents, who may not know how to handle this issue, by providing information about how to have these conversations, how to talk to their children, how to talk to administrators, how to build that bridge that is so important.”
Jennings said the spate of suicides by gay youth in the fall, largely attributed to school bullying, sparked a firestorm of discussion on the epidemic, which he said could begin to change societal views of bullying.
“We know bullying is not a new phenomenon, it’s been pervasive for some time, but there comes a point in history where folks need to say this is something that’s been tolerated for a long time and it’s no longer tolerable and no longer acceptable,” he said. “We reached a tipping point over the last couple months, due to the suicides in the fall, to the point where the President and First Lady are standing together today to say bullying is unacceptable, both as leaders of the country and as parents.”
Last year, the Department of Education invested $38 million in the new Safe and Supportive Schools program, which, through data collection that includes surveys given directly to students, identifies the institutions hit hardest by bullying and directs funds to those schools for anti-bullying programs.
So far 11 states have benefited from the program, and Jennings said, depending on budgetary allowances, he hopes more states can be incorporated in the coming years.
Legislators also made moves Thursday to fight back against bullying, with the introduction of the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban LGBT discrimination in public schools.
Spearheaded by out U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), SNDA had 99 cosponsors in the House, including Pennsylvania Reps. Bob Brady (D-1st Dist.) and Michael Doyle (D-14th Dist.), and 22 in the Senate, including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey (D).
Also March 10, Rep. Rush Holt (D) and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), both from New Jersey, introduced the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act, named for the Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide last fall after his roommate allegedly posted online a video of his sexual encounter with another man.
The bill would require federally funded colleges and universities to develop antibullying policies that bar harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity and other characteristics, extended to cyberbullying.
The Tyler Clementi Act has six House cosponsors and eight Senate cosponsors.
Earlier in the week, Casey and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) introduced the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would mandate that federally funded schools incorporate antibullying policies that are inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity, among other protected classes.
Kemmerling said that while the conference was successful in that it opened a national conversation on bullying, the president’s response to antibullying legislation will be key.
“It’s a two-way street,” he said. “It was important for this conference to happen, but we’re now waiting on what will come out of this. We need to see if this is a one-time deal or if the Obama administration will take on these issues and work to pass legislation and put more mandates in place that work toward antibullying efforts.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].