Bullying Listening Sessions

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) is one of the organizations appointed to the Task Force on the Prevention of School Bullying. We are encouraging our colleagues and community partners to become engaged in the work of the task force.

The Task Force on the Prevention of School Bullying was created by executive order in February 2012. The task force will examine current trends in bullying, intimidation and harassment in Minnesota schools and will review existing related laws and regulations.  From this review and input from experts on the topic, the task force will define bullying, harassment and intimidation and then provide policy recommendations to the Governor and Legislature.  The task force is scheduled to meet through July 2012.

Here’s how you can engage with the work of the task force:

·         Provide public comments to the task force on the issue of school bullying.

·         Encourage others to provide their comments to the task force.

·         Attend task force meetings. Meetings are open to the public and tentatively scheduled to be held at the MN Department of Education (MDE).

·         Help turn out community members to listening sessions. The MDE is tentatively planning to host a few listening sessions in different communities across the state. These sessions will be open to the public.

We want to make sure that at minimum you know how you or your colleagues can provide comments, suggestions or ideas to the task force. You can provide your comments by:

1.       Speaking at a task force meeting: The last 15 minutes of the task force’s meetings on April 16^th, May 21^st, and June 18^th, will be set aside for public comments.  You can provide your comments during this time.

2.       Speaking at listening sessions: Listening sessions are tentatively planned for Bemidji, Rochester, and St. Cloud. Additional communities are being considered. There will be a time set aside during these sessions when participants can provide their comments. (Note: The location of the listening sessions is one of the agenda items for the task force’s April 16^th meeting.)

3.       Submit comments in writing: Written comments can be submitted to the task force co-chairs or the lead MDE staff person, Rose Hermodson, at rose.hermodson@state.mn.us.

We hope to provide a couple more updates to you on the work of this task force. You are highly encouraged to bookmark the Task Force on Prevention of School Bullying web page on MDE’s web site and use that web page as your source for updates on meeting agendas, handouts, task force meeting times, and other relevant information.

The next meeting of the task force is scheduled for April 16, 2012, at the MDE, Conference Center A, Room 13, 1500 Highway 36 West, Roseville, MN.  If you are interested in attending any of the meetings or providing public comments at the meetings, please contact Rose Hermodson at rose.hermodson@state.mn.us.   

When the Punishment Does Not Fit the Crime

Justice was not served, and no lessons have been learned.  Dharun Ravi was declared guilty of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation in the Tyler Clementi case, and was made to surrender his passport, even though he is a legal resident of the United States.

It is assumed that Tyler Clementi commit suicide because Ravi, his room-mate at the time at Rutgers University, had secretly videotaped him engaged in intimate relations with another young man, posted that video on the Internet, and obsessively Twittered about Clementi's sexual activity to friends.

There are a lot of missing pieces to this story, because Tyler could not speak for himself during the trial.  Other people spoke for him.  Things would have been easier, perhaps, if Tyler had not faced such sharp rejection from his mother when he came out to her.  Things would have been easier, perhaps, if Dharun Ravi--and other incoming students at Rutgers University--received some kind of harassment training during their orientation.

While Dharun Ravi did not do right, he had no reason to know that he did wrong.  American culture, to this day, glorifies the humiliation of awkward, weaker males who could be perceived as gay.  Dharun Ravi was behaving like an all-American guy, and may be sent back to India for it.  This is because, in American culture, people of color receive harsher sentences for their actions than whites do.  If a white frat boy on the college football team spied on Clementi and outed him to the world, the university administration might suspend or expel him, but jail time?  How many true human rights abuses have been committed with impunity by white upper middle class athletes, and even celebrated?  They have yet to serve their sentences.  A poor Indian immigrant, instead, is made a scapegoat, and people call this a victory in the war against bullying.

The State of Bullying in Minnesota

Students have the right to receive an education in a safe environment.  This is a human right.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Minnesota receives the lowest marks for the lack of scope and definition in its state anti-bullying legislation.

Minnesota sets the record for the SHORTEST anti-bullying law in the nation--at 37 words.  Here is the text:

121A.0695 SCHOOL BOARD POLICY; PROHIBITING INTIMIDATION AND BULLYING.

Each school board shall adopt a written policy prohibiting intimidation and bullying of any student. The policy shall address intimidation and bullying in all forms, including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms involving Internet use.

History: 1Sp2005 c 5 art 2 s 28; 2007 c 53 s 1

This policy does not define bullying, nor does it state that the bullying policy must address protected classes defined by the Minnesota Human Rights Act.  

To help address the issue, Governor Dayton has created the Task Force on the Prevention of School Bullying. Members of the task force and their affiliations include:

• Brenda Cassellius, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Education
  
• Kevin Lindsey, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Human Rights
  
• Willie Bridges, Senior Planning Manager, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office
  
• Vangie Castro, Youth Education Program Manager, Rochester Public Schools
  
• Phil Duran, Legal Director, OutFront Minnesota
  
• Alana Friedman, Teacher
  
• Julie Hertzog, Director, PACER National Bullying Prevention Center
  
• Lyn Mitchell, Co-Founder, AMAZE
  
• Jacob Reitan, Founder, Equality Ride
  
• Walter Roberts, Councilor, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  
• Dr. Thomas Scott, Pediatrician
  
• Senator Scott Dibble
  
• Representative Jim Davnie
  
• Two Republican legislators have been invited and are yet to be announced by leadership