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Students and administrators might as well be living on different planets when it comes to school bullying.
Students across the state say it is common for bullies to taunt and hit them or their classmates, and for teachers to do little to stop it. Superintendents and principals say bullying is a small problem and policies to discourage it work well.
Into the divide comes a bill that awaits Gov. Bev Perdue's signature to make it law. The bill is meant to protect students who are harassed for a variety of specific reasons such as race, religion or disabilities. It also would protect students from being tormented because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.
The bill requires that teachers, students and volunteers report any incidents of bullying, but it leaves the details of reporting procedures and punishments up to the school districts.
Opponents, particularly Republicans, have said the bill should not name special categories of victims and have said the bill should simply ban all bullying. Supporters, mostly Democrats, have said the bill focuses attention on children who are the most likely targets.
On Tuesday as the House prepared for a final vote, Republicans tried to amend the bill to include punishments for bullies and for teachers and principals who allow it to happen.
Rep. Tom Tillis, a Cornelius Republican, said the horror stories about bullied students who committed suicide that the bill's supporters told should convince them the bill should include punishments.
“Yesterday we talked about the need for this bill because these kids, these youths in school are doing vicious things,” Tillis said. “Vicious enough to convince somebody to take their life. Today we're saying that's not enough to mandate consequences.”
House Democrats said the Republican amendments were intended to derail the bill. One included a provision for corporal punishment, which some Democrats oppose.
Republicans said it was a way to make a bad bill better, by focusing on the perpetrators rather than the victims.
At the very least, any last-minute changes would have stalled the bill, sending it back to the Senate for another vote.
Instead, House Democrats passed the bill without changes in a 58-57 vote Tuesday, including a rare vote from House Speaker Joe Hackney to break a tie. Six Democrats joined 51 Republicans in voting no.
All districts already are required by the state Department of Public Instruction to have anti-bullying policies, but the bill's supporters say they are frequently ignored.
Mark Jones, 18, will be doing junior and senior-year work at Hopewell High School in Charlotte in the fall to make up for work he missed trying to escape bullying.
It started when he came out as gay in seventh grade. He once found a magazine photo depicting gay sex taped to his locker. He reported that incident and others, he said.
Jones recently served on a panel discussing the bill in Charlotte. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools have a policy that mirrors the bill, but Jones said it needs to be a law.
North Carolina is one of 11 states that do not have an anti-bullying law. Only seven other states have identified gay students among potential targets for harassment.
State schools CEO William Harrison welcomed the legislation as an additional deterrent to bullying.
