Family group says compromise anti-bullying legislation not enough

Comprehensive anti-bullying legislation has been fighting tooth and nail through the state Legislature since 2001. At every turn, Gary Glenn from the American Family Association of Michigan was there to oppose the legislation for one reason or another.

And he is back at it again, opposing a compromise bill that would remove a controversial enumeration section that defines protected categories. That bill, as we reported last week, has caused a rift in the current Safe Schools Coalition, with some members supporting the bill and others opposing it.

But Glenn, who has opposed enumeration for years, said the compromise bill doesn’t go far enough. Under the compromise language, bullying would be defined as animus towards a person based on real or perceived characteristics.

“That ‘characteristics’ language does not define bullying. It defines one of innumerable motivations for bullying. Of all possible motivations for bullying, why makes that one so special that it’s the only one cited by the legislation?” Glenn wrote in an e-mail to me late last week.

Glenn would prefer language similar to a late-night, last-second piece of legislation introduced by Sen. Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt) that merely referenced bullying as “bad” and proscribed local school districts to pass anti-bullying policies.