In a stunning move that is gaining national attention, the Michigan Senate Republicans passed an anti-bullying bill (SB 137), in a 26-11 vote along party lines, that does not "prohibit a statement of sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction" of a school employee, student or parent or guardian.
Michigan is one of only three states that does not have an anti-bullying law currently. If this bill, titled "Matt's Safe School Law," passes the Republican-led Michigan House many, including Senate Democrats, say it will, in essence, provide a license to bully in Michigan.
Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitme, D-23rd District, called the bill a "blueprint for bullying" and gave an impassioned speech on the chamber floor regarding her "no" vote, saying, "Here today you claim to be protecting kids and you are actually putting them in more danger. There are at least 10 Michigan children in the past decade whose deaths are directly attributable to bullying ... but had this bill that you're going to pass today been law, in effect, while they were alive, how many of their deaths would have been prevented? Zero. You may be able to pat yourselves on the back today and say you did something, but in actuality, you are explicitly outlining how to get away with bullying."
The bill is named after Matt Epling, a young man who committed suicide after prolonged bullying. His father, Kevin Epling, who has been working for the past seven years on the passage of anti-bullying legislation, said in a statement read by Michigan Sen. Glenn Anderson, D-6th district, "I am utterly shocked to learn that our so called leaders have yet again tampered with Michigan's anti-bullying bill in the most bizarre ways, adding language that basically allows bullying based on religious beliefs. ... I am ashamed that this could be Michigan's bill on anti-bullying when it in fact is a 'bullying is okay in Michigan' law."
Senate Republicans added the "religious belief and moral conviction" language at the last minute. Equality Michigan's Executive Director Denise Brogan-Kator said that as far as she is aware no other state has enacted an anti-bullying bill with similar language and protections for a religiously held belief or conviction.
Borgan-Kator said that she was surprised that the language was added to the bill at the last minute, but her organization had already been lobbying against the bill, believing it too weak to really have an impact on bullying in schools.
"It doesn't have the basic requirements necessary to reduce bullying," said Brogan-Kator. "It doesn't have a list of categories that are most often targets of bullies. It doesn't have reporting requirements. It doesn't address cyberbullying. So it doesn't do some of the basic things that we know are necessary to actually reduce bullying. So we knew that it was ineffective even from the very beginning and we lobbied against it even at that point."
The bill does actually address cyberbullying, but only protects a victim if it is being done "using a device owned or under the control of a school district." The majority of cyberbullying, however, is done using personal devices, not school computers.
In the past year, since the new legislature took over, Michigan residents have seen an uptick in legislation targeting the LGBT community.
"This is a new legislature that was swept into office in a fit of discontent with the economy and swept into office with promises of 'we will bring you jobs and we don't care about social issues,'" said Borgan-Kator. "In fact, what has happened, right from the very beginning of the year, this legislature has indeed specifically gone out of their way to target the gay and transgender community in Michigan. There have been a number of bills, I can think of seven, that have been introduced in the legislature directly targeting the gay and transgender community."
Borgan-Kator said that there is still time to stop this bill from passing the Michigan House, and she remains optimistic that if Michigan voters voice their disgust for the bill and similar anti-LGBT bills, legislators will listen.
