N.H. House bill would gut bullying law

"The House Education Committee heard testimony on proposed changes to the Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention Act on Tuesday.

Those who had something to say were primarily supporters of the current law, who said it hasn't been in effect long enough to change.

The committee held a public hearing on Tuesday that discussed House Bill 370, which seeks to revise the new anti-bullying law adopted last year. The current law defines bullying, including cyberbullying, and requires schools to establish a policy by April that follows a set of requirements, regarding bullying incidents, and also requires school districts to provide education on bullying for staff and parents.

HB 370, however, would change the law's wording by deleting a description of what it means to be targeted by bullying currently listed under the law. This would 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 and would also remove a provision that covers bullying and cyberbullying actions that happen off school property.

'Personally, I feel that (Tuesday) was just a testimony to the fact that this is really good, evidence-based legislation that seems to be working,' said nationally renowned researcher Malcolm Smith, who helped craft the bill. 'My question to the Legislature is: if it isn't broken, why would we fix it?'

Parents, educators, school board members and members of the gay and lesbian community spoke against HB 370, Smith said, while two of its sponsors spoke in support. HB 370 is sponsored by Republican representatives Ralph Boehm and Laura Gandia of Hillsborough and Paul Ingbretson and Rick Ladd of Grafton.

The current law was crafted by Rep. Donna Schlachman, D-Exeter, Smith, and others like parent Carol Croteau of Kingston, who are in disagreement with the proposed changes, particularly since the law was recently put into effect and schools aren't legally required to establish a bullying policy until next month."

Read more at Seacoast Online.