A bill strengthening anti-bullying laws in Illinois passed the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee March 20 and will soon be read in the full House.
HB 5707—which state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, sponsored—defines “policies on bullying” and “restorative measures,” and requires that schools and school districts compile data about bullying incidents.
“It’s ready to be heard on the floor, but we need to have conversations with some of the stakeholders,” said Cassidy.
The provision for data collection is one of the most important facets of the bill, Cassidy said. “What I hear from people so often, when they speak with schools or police, is that they are often told, ‘You are the first ones this has happened to’—that opens the door to blaming the victim. With this, you can go back and verify that something else happened on a particular date.”
A previous bill that addressed bullying passed the House, but missed in the Senate by just one vote, in 2012, when conservative politicians complained that the bill would lead to schools directly addressing homosexuality in the curriculum.
“This is a much stronger bill that includes some things that we had to leave out before,” Cassidy said.