2011 Legislature reconsiders bullying law

Proposed legislation would alter New Hampshire's tough new bullying law enacted last year.

HB 370 changes the law's wording in terms of what defines bullying and where it can occur before school officials can intervene.

The new language proposed by Republican representatives Ralph Boehm of Hillsborough, Paul Ingbretson of Grafton, Rick Ladd of Grafton and Laura Gandia of Hillsborough would:

Delete a description of those targeted by bullying currently listed under law. The historic motivations for bullying -- ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, disabilities, gender and obesity -- would be erased from the law;

Eliminate a superintendent's ability to gauge whether notifying a child's family of a bullying incident within 48 hours is in the child's best interest;

Remove a provision that extends to cover bullying and cyber bullying actions that happen off school property.

Proponents of the law say it is still still new to be deciding whether it needs adjustment or not.

"In two years we'll have a lot of data and a lot of information from schools," Democratic state Rep. Donna Schlachman of Exeter said to the Portsmouth Herald. She sponsored the Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention Act last year.

"We worked really hard on this, so we think we got it right, but if there are some things that we want to tweak in it, let's look at it in two years. Let's not do it now. I think that's just not good policy."

HB 370 is currently before the House Education Committee.