Tag Archives: Topic: Bullying

Todd Starnes at Fox News (includes video): Late last year, a public school teacher in northern Idaho told students to write an essay titled, “I Believe.” But there was one caveat – the students were not allowed to write anything about God in their papers.

Daily Caller: Under strict bullying law, kid who called classmate ‘horse’ and ‘fat ass’ goes to court
It’s an unintended result of the law, which took effect in 2011. Designed to combat the kind of ritualistic and pervasive abuse that led to the suicide of bullied Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, the law raises questions about the line between offensive speech and harassment.

Huffington Post: The United Nations offers a crucial, albeit under-acknowledged, platform for raising awareness about anti-LGBT bullying in terms of human rights and exchanging best practices to counteract the problem. Similarly, sports, with their exceptional capacity to straddle varying belief systems, serve as a universal language for communicating this message. In June 2011, for example, the UN Human Rights Council passed the United Nations’ first-ever resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Chicago Phoenix: An Illinois House committee voted to approve a resolution Wednesday that would symbolically recognize the National Day of Silence, an event in which students across the country abstain from speaking to draw attention to the issue of anti-LGBT bullying.

Daily Caller: CWA President and CEO Penny Nance explained in the email, which was sent to supporters on Tuesday, how the conservative women’s organization has been “maligned by the radical Left” for opposing same-sex marriage, labeled a hate group and identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of “a dozen major groups [that] help drive the Religious Right’s anti-gay crusade.”

LifeSiteNews: Canada’s largest Evangelical network has slammed Manitoba’s proposed anti-bullying legislation (Bill 18), saying it would “violate the religious freedom of religious schools” by forcing them to promote sexual concepts contrary to the Bible.

NJ Star Ledger: However, because this boy was also written up as a bully, it kick-started an entire bureaucratic process: There was an investigation, and a legal dispute. A hearing before an administrative law judge. Tearful testimony from L.L. The appeal of the judge’s decision and, ultimately, the backing of it by the state’s education commissioner.

Religion Clause Blog: In Shively v. Green Local School District Board of Education, (ND OH, Feb. 28, 2013), parents filed suit claiming that school officials and employees failed to prevent or respond to physical, verbal and electronic religion-based and gender-based bullying of their daughter that went on for years.

KTLA.com (includes video): Some students at a school in Hesperia say they’re being bullied, and they say those bullies are their teachers and administrators.

Nathan Cherry at Engage Family Minute: The Alliance Defending Freedom records a small victory for free speech in light of this case as it appears at least one statute was struck down in Canada’s Human Rights Code. But it is indeed a small victory as the overall tenor of this case is foreboding at best. The takeaway from this is that events like this are happening right now in America. There is a concerted effort to not just limit free speech and religious freedoms, but to elevate the “rights” of minority groups like homosexuals and transgender people above all others. This is the ultimate end of “anti-bullying” laws that equate changeable aspects of a person, such as sexual orientation, with permanent aspects such as race or nationality.

LGBTQ Nation: The First Amendment should exempt Elaine Huguenin and her Albuquerque business, Elane Photography, from state laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the high court.

ABQ Journal: Attorney Jordan Lorence’s theme in his oral argument Monday was that earlier courts’ decisions in favor of the couple who challenged Elane Photography’s refusal to photograph the ceremony amounted to “compelled speech” in violation of their First Amendment rights, or the government putting words in someone’s mouth. “The law cannot compel someone to stand on a soapbox,” he said, “in the same way that a court cannot compel someone to use his photographic skills to say something contrary to his beliefs.” . . . Lorence’s Washington, D.C.-based Alliance Defending Freedom represents the studio and has vowed to go to the U.S. Supreme Court if there is an adverse ruling from New Mexico’s highest court . . . Lorence said after the hearing he sensed “some clear division on the court,” including “some skepticism and some openness to what we were saying.” He emphasized the “unique, artistic skills” that he said photographer Elaine Huguenin brings to her work. “This was not just recording like a security video camera, and the other side downplays that considerably,” he said.

Washington Post: Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday that it should overturn a discrimination judgment against Elaine Huguenin and Elaine Photography.

LifeSiteNews: Homosexual activists in Minnesota are pushing for a broad “Safe and Supportive Schools Act” that would outlaw speech that could interfere with a student’s ability “to participate in a safe and supportive learning environment.” The bill is being promoted as the strongest “anti-bullying” law in the nation, but critics say it could have a chilling effect on free speech, especially in religious schools that teach Christian beliefs on sexuality.

Jeri Clausing at AP: Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defending Freedom told the New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday that it should overturn a discrimination judgment against Elaine Huguenin and Elane Photography.

KFOXTV.com (AP): A conservative group called Alliance Defending Freedom is helping Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography, arguing artistic freedom enables her to choose what to photograph.

Volokh Conspiracy: That’s H.F. No. 826, which requires schools — including private schools that get any “public funds or other public resources” — to ban, among other things, “bullying” at school, defined as . . . .

LifeSiteNews: Controversy is escalating over the Manitoba NDP government’s proposed anti-bullying law, which would force schools – including independent religious schools – to accommodate homosexual student clubs under the name gay-straight alliance (GSA).

Yahoo News: A debate about how religious schools should handle homosexual students is at the forefront again, as a Manitoba Christian academy fights back against new anti-bullying legislation that would force them to allow the creation of a gay-straight alliance.

Tony Perkins at Townhall: Bullying knows no boundaries. It’s not just boys on the playground or people at work; it can even be organizations on the national stage as was revealed in a federal court room on February 6th.

FlaglerLive.com: The ACLU of Florida intervened today on behalf of a Lake County middle-school student leader seeking to establish a gay-straight alliance (GSA) at Carver Middle School in Leesburg. The eighth grader spearheading the effort, Bayli Silberstein, says the club is needed to combat bullying at her school, but has faced administrative resistance in trying to establish it.

Ilan H. Meyer at Balkinization: At the USCCR hearing I was taken by surprise when invitees of the Republican members of the Commission opposed such recommended interventions on behalf of LGBTQ youth. In particular, I was intrigued by concerns that efforts to improve the school environment for LGBTQ students, aimed at reducing stigma and prejudice, raised First Amendment concerns. I was particularly struck by Professor Eugene Volokh’s testimony, which singled out one of my statement to the committee, saying “[O]ne of the things that [Meyer noted] is that one of the dangers to the mental health of gay students is anti-gay stigma and prejudice. I think that’s probably right, but the consequence of that is that if you take that logic seriously, then again speech, whether on campus or off campus, that expresses and contributes to the stigma of prejudice would be punishable.” As a public health researcher I have never seen such concerns voiced.

Short, Donn, Queering Schools, GSAs and the Law: Taking on God (November 6, 2012). Donn Short, ‘Queering Schools and GSAs: Taking On God’ in Gerald Walton, ed, The Gay Agenda: Claiming Space, Identity & Justice (New York: Peter Lang, 2013). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2198683

Matt Sharp appeared on NC Family Policy Matters with Bill Brooks to discuss anti-bullying policies. | MP3 audio 14:17 mins

Jeremy Dys at Engage Family Minute: This morning, I was invited to provide testimony before Subcommittee C of the Joint Committee on Education. The members wished to discuss the potential First Amendment ramifications concerning the state’s new rules related to harassment and bullying at school.

MinnPost: In recent weeks yet another chapter has been opened in the controversy over the Anoka-Hennepin School District’s handling of bullying. A group of parents and students is petitioning school board Chair Tom Heidemann to remove a vocal anti-gay activist from a district anti-bullying task force.

Jeremy Tedesco at Alliance Defending Freedom Blog: Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) recently published a blistering blog post attacking Alliance Defending Freedom’s and Focus on the Family’s new Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick. The misleading post warrants a response . . .

Patch.com: Missouri State Representative Sue Allen, (R) Town and Country, plans to reintroduce bullying legislation later this year that will require school districts to establish their own bullying policies and put them in writing so school staff, parents and students have clear steps to follow when filing complaints.

George F. Will at the Washington Post: Elaine Huguenin, who with her husband operates Elane Photography in New Mexico, asks only to be let alone. But instead of being allowed a reasonable zone of sovereignty in which to live her life in accordance with her beliefs, she is being bullied by people wielding government power . . . The Huguenin case demonstrates how advocates of tolerance become tyrannical . . . So, in the name of tolerance, government declares intolerable individuals such as the Huguenins, who disapprove of a certain behavior but ask only to be let alone in their quiet disapproval. Perhaps advocates of gay rights should begin to restrain the bullies in their ranks.

Huffington Post: Six out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens say they feel unsafe at school. Eighty-two percent of that same group say they’ve been verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, while 71 percent say they’ve heard homophobic remarks like “dyke” or “faggot” used with some frequency at school. These are just three of the more disturbing statistics revealed by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) 2011 National School Climate Survey.

Matt Sharp appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show to discuss this: ADF: New ‘yardstick’ sizes up anti-bullying policies. | MP3 audio 13:19 mins

LifeSiteNews: Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in a joint effort with Focus on the Family, has announced the “Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick,” which allows public schools and the general public to evaluate thelegal aspects of a school’s anti-bullying rules. “All students deserve to be protected from bullying, not just ones favored by certain political activist groups,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “And all schools need help to ensure that their policies comport with their students’ First Amendment freedoms and other legal protections. This tool is designed to provide that help.”

LifeSiteNews: In its Aug. 31 decision in Gschwind v. Heiden, the 7th Circuit court panel reversed. First, said the opinion by Judge Richard A. Posner, “a jury could easily find that the real reason” for the teacher’s discharge “was the threat of litigation by the student’s belligerent father.”

LifeSiteNews: Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in a joint effort with Focus on the Family, has announced the “Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick,” which allows public schools and the general public to evaluate thelegal aspects of a school’s anti-bullying rules. “All students deserve to be protected from bullying, not just ones favored by certain political activist groups,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “And all schools need help to ensure that their policies comport with their students’ First Amendment freedoms and other legal protections. This tool is designed to provide that help.”

Christian Post: “All students deserve to be protected from bullying, not just ones favored by certain political activist groups. And all schools need help to ensure that their policies comport with their students’ First Amendment freedoms and other legal protections. This tool is designed to provide that help,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “Unfortunately, activist groups that promote homosexual behavior often dupe schools into adopting policies that protect students based on their ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity,’ which can unconstitutionally silence students who want to express their biblically-based views on sexuality,” Tedesco explained. “This new Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick helps schools identify which policies are driven by a narrow political agenda and which ones protect First Amendment freedoms.”

WorldNetDaily: Noting that sometimes school proposals or policies “protect … only a select few favored by activist groups advancing a homosexual agenda,” the Alliance Defending Freedom announced today it has worked with Focus on the Family in order to come up with an “Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick . . . “All students deserve to be protected from bullying, not just ones favored by certain political activist groups,” said Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the ADF. “And all schools need help to ensure that their policies comport with their students’ First Amendment freedoms and other legal protections. This tool is designed to provide that help.” In short, a good anti-bullying policy, if a district wants one, “provides a precise definition of ‘bullying’ that regulates bullying conduct” and “focuses on the acts or words said by the alleged bully rather than the intent or motives behind the actions,” the ADF said.

Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus on the Family tool helps schools measure strengths, weaknesses of their polices

AP: Parents are urged to teach their kids to speak up if they witness school bullying, an issue that top Obama administration officials are vowing to make a national priority . . .

Ruth Institute: If every offensive remark is called bullying, we begin to surrender the right to express even legitimate opinions.

Columbus Dispatch: Ross County school district has agreed to pay up to $35,000 and improve its anti-bullying policies in a settlement with a gay high school student whose videotaped beating went viral on the Internet.

The Hill: The House is expected to approve legislation as early as Monday that would provide grant money to states to fight bullying at schools.

LifeSiteNews: In a 94-word statement, they wrote that despite their “serious concerns,” “the Accepting Schools Act is now the law” and the Catholic schools will work within it to “foster safe and welcoming school communities.”

LifeSiteNews: The McGuinty government’s controversial homosexual ‘rights’ bill that forces homosexual activist clubs on the province’s schools, including those operated by the Catholic Church, passed its final vote in the legislature Tuesday.

Michael Coren at Toronto Sun (includes video): In a sordid attempt to deflect from scandals and mismanagement, the Liberal government of Ontario has told the Catholic school system it has to do what it’s told, not be Catholic and embrace the lie that gay kids are perennial victims of bullying.

Dave Cortman appeared on the Bob Dutko Show. | MP3 audio 7:20 mins

National Post: The Ontario provincial government has ignored months of behind-the-scenes negotiations by announcing Friday that all schools, religious or otherwise, will be required to host gay-straight alliances, Church sources say.
As part of the original Bill 13 . . .

Christian Legal Society: Today Christian Legal Society joins a diverse group of religious and education groups, as well as two highly respected academic centers, to release a new publication Harassment, Bullying and Free Expression: Guidelines for Free and Safe Public Schools. After months of deliberation, seventeen organizations reached a commendable consensus for protecting freedom of expression while also punishing bullying and harassment . . .

Christian Science Monitor: A new bill in Illinois would require schools to adopt anti-bullying policies, but the Illinois Family Institute and Concerned Christians of America say that the law would challenge certain students’ religious and moral beliefs.

SaultStar.com: An anti-bullying bill that would require Ontario school boards to allow gay straight alliances in their schools has religious leaders at odds with those who believe GSAs save lives.

KSLA.com: A sign outside St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church has stirred some controversy. The sign read, “Two men are friends not spouses.”

LifeSiteNews: After Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government moved to fast track its controversial homosexual “rights” bill this week, it easily passed a vote at second reading Thursday. It now heads to committee.

LifeSiteNews: Protests against the Ontario Liberal government’s controversial anti-bullying legislation erupted across the province over the weekend as more and more people become aware of the threat it poses to parental rights and religious freedom

Kevin Theriot at Townhall: In addition to pushing to redefine marriage in different states around the country, homosexual activists have spent the last year or two pushing for censorship of free speech under the guise of “anti-bullying” campaigns. There is a serious problem with the very idea of “anti-bullying” campaigns which often culminate in legislation or policies geared specifically toward protecting those who say they are homosexual from criticism or offense. These laws routinely violate the First Amendment because they not only restrict some free speech but create a double standard which allows offensive and demeaning criticism of groups that aren’t protected by the “anti-bullying” statutes or policies

One News Now: “Students of all shapes, sizes and types all face bullying,” Cortman notes. “The glaring question is why does this bill only protect students regarding bullying as it pertains to their sexual orientation?” . . . “The problem is that the president shouldn’t be politicizing the issue of bullying solely to benefit those wishing to indoctrinate children regarding homosexual behavior,” the ADF attorney contends. “These [types] of policies should broadly prohibit bullying against all students, regardless of the reason for the bullying.” [more]

Kelly Boggs at Baptist Press: While the bill was touted as seeking to deal with bullying in broad general terms, there are reasons that indicate the legislation was really about focusing only on gay students.

ACLU: Earlier this afternoon, following a screening of the documentary Bully at the White House, the Obama administration officially endorsed the Student Non-Discrimination Act. The Student Non-Discrimination Act would provide LGBT students.

ChilliCothe Gazette: Five months after the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio threatened legal action against Union-Scioto Local Schools for allegedly not doing enough to address anti-gay bullying, the two sides are said to be close to an agreement that would stave off a lawsuit.

Michael Brown at One News Now: One News Now: But there’s more that takes place on the Day of Silence: A pro-homosexuality message is often sent to the students, with teachers and administrators frequently promoting homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism over the course of the day.

Findlaw: Anti-bullying measures meant to protect gay teenagers are “indoctrinating” kids with a pro-gay message, a national Christian group believes. There are new efforts to counter that message, in schools and in state legislatures.

LifeSiteNews: If Premier Dalton McGuinty pushes forward his controversial anti-bullying bill, known as Bill 13, without amendments to respect the “religious and conscience rights of many parents” Ontario will face years of expensive lawsuits, warn the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in a new open letter to McGuinty.

LifeSiteNews (includes video): Last Thursday’s high-charged rally against the Ontario government’s Bill 13, imposing the province’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (EIE) on all public and private schools, revealed many parents are dismayed over this attempt to remove parental rights.

LifeSiteNews: A crowd of an estimated 2000 or so concerned parents from a wide range of ethnic and faith communities demonstrated outside Ontario’s legislature Thursday demanding the defeat of the Liberal government’s “anti-bullying” Bill 13.

Eugene Volokh discusses the proposed legislation at the Volokh Conspiracy.

LifeSiteNews: A protest rally against Bill 13, the McGuinty government’s controversial gay-focused anti-bullying legislation, will be held Thursday March 29, 2012 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm at Queens Park, Toronto.

David Kraden at LifeSiteNews: In this progressive era, this mother of two was shocked to discover that, despite the dictates of the Royal Dalton government, St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School in Bowmanville, Ont. had gravely erred in not sufficiently accommodating the gay agenda. The dreaded offense? A Catholic school had actually dared to espouse Catholic doctrine and, in the midst of a languid tract on equity and inclusion in the classroom, actually cited the Catholic catechism and suggested that homosexuals are “objectively disordered.” Can you imagine the temerity of a Catholic school teaching Catholic dogma in the classroom?

TheStar.com: At issue is what some critics call weak language in the Liberal government’s Bill 13, which would allow Catholic school officials to deny queer students from naming their clubs ‘gay-straight alliance’ as their public school counterparts do.

AP: Prosecutors said Ravi set up a webcam in his dorm room in September 2010 and captured roommate Tyler Clementi kissing another man, then tweeted about it and excitedly tried to catch Clementi in the act again two days later.

ADF Attorney Bryan Beauman at Townhall: Kentucky has an anti-bullying law on the books. It’s been there since 2008, but the ACLU, Kentucky Fairness Campaign, and Democrat legislators decided it needed to be enhanced this year. Therefore, on March 13, Kentucky Rep. Mary Lou Marzian (D-Louisville) and her associates on the House Education Committee, pressed for new anti-bullying legislation to be passed out of committee for a vote on the House floor.

State-Journal: A bill to protect students from bullying by their classmates died Tuesday in the House Education Committee because some lawmakers worried it would give “special rights” to gay students. [report on the photo involving Hartman confrontation of Bryan Beauman and Andrew Walker]

Jeff Jacoby at Townhall: N A NEW JERSEY COURTROOM on Monday, the defense rested in the trial of Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers freshman accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate encounter with an older man. The roommate, Tyler Clementi, later committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge, and his death unleashed a national outcry about teen-age bullying and antigay persecution.

Politico: The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is launching a new effort today to target 36 commentators who speak out against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Lexington Herald Leader Photo: Chris Hartman, left, director of the Fairness Campaign, which supported the bill, confronted Bryan Beauman, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, following Tuesday’s House Education Committee meeting at the Capitol in Frankfort. (also at Courier-Journal)

Family Foundation of Kentucky: Bullying Bill supporter harasses opponent in Capitol Annex hallway

Family Foundation of KY: The leading supporter of the so-called “Bullying Bill” became verbally and physically abusive in a Capitol Annex hallway with an opponent of the bill after the bill went down to defeat in a House committee, attracting the attention of State Police and other observers. The Family Foundation called on the Fairness Campaign to issue a public apology for the behavior of its director, Chris Hartman.

Courier-Journal: A bill to expand anti-bullying laws by linking harassment to sexual orientation, race and other characteristics died in the House Education Committee Tuesday after meeting opposition from Republicans.

Center for AZ Policy: Take the recent bill proposed in the Arizona legislature – SB 1462. On the surface, the bill seems well-intentioned . . . You see, groups like Equality Arizona and GLSEN have used the bullying issue in order to gain access to our public schools.