New Jersey's new "anti-bullying" law...

TRENTON, New Jersey, November 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The New Jersey legislature has pushed through a new law targeting gay bullying and establishing a statewide “Week of Respect.” The law, a project of local homosexualist groups, passed just one week after hearings were held on what is being called the most far-reaching legislation of its kind in the United States.

Known as the “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights,” the bill not only forbids bullying of students based on their sexual orientation, but establishes a tight framework mandating the reporting and investigating of homosexual “bullying” incidents, creates a task force to protect homosexual students at each school, and provides for school personnel to be trained in anti-bullying technique.

The bill also establishes a statewide “Week of Respect” to be observed in early October of each year, during which the school will host programs on “harassment, intimidation, and bullying prevention.” The provisions of the bill extend to public universities.

The bipartisan-sponsored bill easily passed both the House and Senate Monday evening, 72 to 1 and 30 to 0 respectively. New Jersey Senate and House panels had catapulted the bill into the legislature a week before, Nov. 15, the same day hearings were held.

Garden State Equality, the Anti-Defamation League, and the New Jersey Coalition on Bullying Awareness and Prevention, among others, have been working on the bill for more than a year; Equality lauded the passage of the “dramatically bolder” approach it helped craft.

Under the new legislation, each school is mandated to report to the board of education twice per school year the precise number of reports of mistreatment of homosexual students, “the status of all investigations, the nature of the bullying ... the names of the investigators, the type and nature of any discipline imposed on any student engaged in harassment ... and any other [anti-bullying] measures imposed, training conducted, or programs implemented.” A “grade” gauging each school’s compliance with the law will be posted on the school’s and school district’s website.

In a provision added to the final bill, it states private schools are “encouraged to comply” with its provisions, and exempts from censure “legitimate” expression of religious beliefs in private faith-based schools.

The bill also provides that anyone convicted of “bias intimidation” against homosexual individuals will be forbidden from any form of employment at a public school.

Rabbi Noson Leiter of Torah Jews for Decency, who was present at the state capitol when the bill passed, condemned proponents for rushing the 23-page bill through “without even time for the legislators to read it, much less the public to see what it’s all about.”

“[Schools under the bill] wouldn’t just be teaching not to bully, they’d be teaching why not to bully. Knowing the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) crowd, they’re certainly going to be propagandizing respect,” Leiter told LifeSiteNews.com.

Leiter said that the press conference after the bill passed was suddenly shut down when the rabbi attempted to ask a proponent, the parent of a bullied child, whether she “can sympathize with religious parents with children in the public school system who would now be bullied under the current legislation.”

“They didn’t want me to have a platform to have that question,” he concluded.

It is unclear whether New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie will veto the bill. Christie, who is now famous for his staunch fiscal conservatism, has vowed to veto same-sex “marriage” legislation. Leiter said he has spoken with the governor’s office and felt that his message was heard; however, homosexualist groups have expressed optimism that Christie would condone the bill.

Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Policy Studies, called the bill “unfortunate” and urged Christie to veto the measure.

“It is unfortunate that a bill in the New Jersey legislature to tackle the very real problem of bullying in schools has been hijacked to serve a politically correct social agenda, by defining ‘harassment, bullying, and intimidation’ in terms of the characteristics of the victim, rather than in terms of the nature of the bullying behavior,” Sprigg commented.

To contact NJ governor Chris Christie:
Office of the Governor
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625
609-292-6000
http://www.state.nj.us/governor/contact/

(Story ends here. My comments follow.)

Okay, there are several levels where I just don't "get" this topic. Call me obtuse but it's there. Here's a short list:

1) The whole "anti-bullying" mindset that makes a routine childhood situation into a major crisis. No, bullies should never be encouraged or tolerated. Having been the target of jerks older & larger than myself during childhood, I know a bit about being a hapless victim, one who has the choice of getting creamed in a fight or earning the reputation of "coward". I survived, despite the lack of support from my parents (another story there). I learned from it, if my kids are bullied I'll cheerfully get involved to the point that everyone is gonna know who the old fat guy with the big mouth is. But we're talking about a normal childhood situation here. I don't get why it's so damned necessary for legislation to be passed.

2) The focus on a child's sexuality. Hey, kids are confused about sex. End of story. A fair number of adolescent boys are fearfully suspicious they'll turn out as gay as possible (again, been there and done that). IMO boys should be treated as boys, girls as girls and don't try figuring out if the boys will become interior decorators and the girls stevedores. Do the best you can with what you've got, don't pander to eccentricities that will resolve themselves over time. I don't understand why the focus is so strong on children's sexual identification. IMO it's nothing but harmful.

3) The need for ANY of this to be addressed via government action. Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) applies. Getting the government involved is not a way to simplify things.

In addition to my own bafflement, I've serious doubts as to how a child being raised to have traditional values (such as my own Catholic beliefs) will NOT be subject to scorn and derision (read "bullying") by school authorities trying to zealously toe the line on laws such as this. When one group in society is made into a protected class it'll always be at the expense of others.

Bottom line on things like this, let the adults minimize their involvement and have the kids sort it out by themselves. 99% of children DO survive childhood, it's the adults you have to worry about.

Just my opinion.