“Although the Supreme Court decades ago announced that public school students do not ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,’ the full extent of those rights has never been entirely clear.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU)“ is committed to fighting for real legislative solutions to ending bullying in our schools.” However, the ACLU has opposed and questioned certain legislation, such as H.B. 224 ((which directly defines cyber bullying)) , because the bill “grants district officials broad discretionary authority to discipline children for actions committed off-campus,
in addition to on-campus.” The ACLU believes the bill would “infringe[] on the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children free from government intervention.”
(( ............ I could not agree more, that bills created to infringe on the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of thier children are not needed........... but...... until then, the right's to self defense are also equally important (( a topic we can cover some other time)). Some parents are so oblivious to the needs their child who may be either a bully or a victim, that they both go unoticed. This is where we need to step in and make a difference by KNOWING, truly KNOWING our children because remember, that just because a child lives under the same roof with you DOES NOT mean that you know them well ))
In addition, “[e]xtending school authority over children’s off-campus speech violates their First Amendment rights.”The ACLU thinks that “[d]istrict officials already have the authority, and duty, to protect students from bullying and harassment” but are failing to enforce those laws. Therefore, “[d]istrict officials must be held accountable for their failure to enforce existing law, rather than be given additional powers that fail
to address the root problem.”
(( In my oppinion, we don't hear enough about law enforcment officials getting busted for not doing their job. Hearing more about this might make a difference to our impressionable youth who believe that MAGICALLY you will just make right and good decisions when you become an adult, meaning you don't really have to change your actions as a child"))
The ACLU opposed another bill in 2009 because of “the extreme latitude it gives [schools] to punish students.”In contrast, some instances involving school bullying may be a civil rights violation. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is a division of the United States Department of Education that enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination and has the authority to do so as long as the school receives federal funding
from the Department of Education.
((The lines of our children's education will always be blurred as long as the school's recieve federal funding. Who really has more control over a child, you or your child's school?))
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Age Discrimination Act of districts may be in violation of these civil rights statutes “when peer harassment based on [one of those protected classes] is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees.”
((This is a great concept to drive home to our children that we cannot ignore when bad things happen and we cannot idley stand by while bullying of any kind is taking place.))
“[W]hile current laws enforced by the [OCR] do not protect against harassment based on religion or sexual orientation, they do include protection against harassment of members of religious groups based on shared ethnic characteristics as well as gender[-based] and sexual harassment of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender individuals.”
((PERSONAL STORY - I can tell you that I have heard stories of adults, being fired ON THE SPOT for making ethnic or race based joking in the work place, so teaching our children NOW that this is not acceptable is neccessary for their future))
Therefore, when schools know or reasonably should have known about incidents of bullying, they are responsible for addressing these incidents and could be violating students’ civil rights if they do not intervene. However, even the OCR must abide by the Constitution, and “[n]o OCR regulation should be interpreted to impinge upon rights protected under the First Amendment . . . or to require recipients to enact
or enforce codes that punish the exercise of such rights.” A student can file a complaint online with the OCR “within 180 days of the last act of discrimination.” If the OCR investigates the complaint and determines there has been a civil rights violation, it will attempt to negotiate a voluntary resolution agreement. After all attempts of negotiation have failed, the “OCR will either initiate administrative enforcement proceedings to
suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue Federal financial assistance to the recipient, or will refer the case to the Department of Justice.” Even though federal civil rights only protect those mentioned groups of people, “many schools have adopted anti-bullying policies that go beyond prohibiting bullying on the basis of traits expressly protected by the federal civil rights laws. . . to include . . . sexual orientation and religion.”
SUMMARY -You can access the OCR website for complaints regarding discrimination at:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/howto.html?src=rt
Keep the education flowing. Remember to sit with your kids when you are watching movies and talk about what is right and what is wrong in the movie. Watch what you say and how you treat your kids because they are watching what you say about others to determine where boundries are and how you treat them tells them whether or not it is okay to be a bully or not. If you are bullying your kids under the guise of "parenting" you are just migh be the reason some child ends their life based on the behaivor's of future generations in your blood line.
As always. "Be the Change you want to See"
Peace everyone.
NEXT ARTICLE: The T.E.A Texas Eductioan Agency, it's Roles and Responsibilities.
