In September 2010, Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi committed suicide after his roommate secretly recorded a video of him having a sexual encounter with another male student and uploaded it onto the Internet. In September 2011, a year after the incident, New Jersey passed the strictest anti-bullying law in the country. This law requires that schools train their staff to recognize bullying and form “safety teams” to respond to complaints.

by Maria Claudia Garcia-Rada ‘13

Mostly everyone would agree that bullying should not be tolerated. However, the way New Jersey’s new law is responding to bullying is an overreach. Desperate to stop bullying, the New Jersey legislature did not carefully consider the flaws of such a strict anti-bullying law.

One of the consequences of the law is that students can easily take advantage of the system. It allows students to alert their school that they are being bullied, mandating that all bullying complaints be taken seriously. This is unreasonable because kids can claim that they are being bullied, and the “bully” immediately faces suspension and possibly expulsion. Likewise, some students can misinterpret other students’ behavior as bullying them, but what if they were just playfully messing around with them with no intention of offending the other student? For instance, when a student calls a friend by a nickname it potentially could be viewed as offensive bullying by a teacher who then must report the incident.

In this age of social networking, cyber bullying is more likely an issue than face-to-face bullying. Students are able to send anonymous, hurtful messages through the web. The New Jersey law attempted to address cyber bullying but only in a very vague manner. School staff is expected to report cyber bullying, but that expectation is unrealistic because students easily can block staff members from seeing their online activity.

Another concern is that New Jersey’s anti-bullying law requires school counselors to file a report if a student comes to them and says that they are being bullied. The purpose of a school counselor is for students to be able to confidentially talk to a student and give them advice. Some students do not want their bullying issues to be reported because they do not necessarily feel conformable doing so. Therefore, many students would lose trust in counselors because they would feel as if everything they said would have to be reported.

Not only does the New Jersey law not make sense for school staff and students, but it also doesn’t figure for a state struggling with an economic recession. More than 200 schools across the state of New Jersey have spent a total of $25,000 for a DVD and a 100-page manual to train employees. Each district also has to spend $3,000 to train substitute teachers, coaches, custodians and cafeteria aides on how to handle bullying situations. Schools already have to lay off teachers and cut classes due to the budget crisis, and this well-intentioned but impractical anti-bullying law will put even more stress upon them.

To read more on this topic, check out Pro: Stricter Bulling Laws Necessary