Published: September 29, 2006 11:18 pm            

All Iowa students deserve harassment-free schools

All children deserve to learn and grow in a safe school environment, regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, black, white, brown, gay, straight, girl, boy, fat, skinny, short, tall, rich or poor.

In Iowa, we have historically prided ourselves on the quality of our education system and the sense of security in our schools and communities. However, as parents and leaders in the Iowa Legislature, we are sad to report that many students heading off to school will face verbal harassment, school bullies, the constant torment of isolation and sometimes violence.

Bullying and harassment is a widespread problem facing young people today. According to the 2005 Iowa Youth Survey, 15 percent of Iowa students do not feel safe at school while 43 percent of students do not feel like students at their school treat each other with respect. For too many students, their days are filled with words like sissy, homo or geek. And the future doesn’t look much better with things like the release of a new video game, “Bully,” in which the character must defend himself from violence and harassment from school bullies.

One group of students that are being targeted specifically for mistreatment is gay and lesbian students and those perceived to be gay and lesbian. Reports indicated that 83.3 percent of gay and lesbian students in Iowa are verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation.

The abuse does not stop at words though — 33.6 percent of these students are the victims of physical harassment and nearly 18 percent of them reported some incident of physical assault because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.

We can no longer afford a “sticks and stones” attitude. Name calling and bullying have very serious consequences. Each day 160,000 children in the United States miss school each day as a result of being bullied. Additionally there is a 10 percent achievement gap between students who are bullied and harassed and students who are not bullied and harassed. Also, bullied students are twice as likely not to go on to higher education and have missed at least one day of school in the last month.

We believe our children deserve safe learning environments — and we are committed to getting the job done. For the past three years a comprehensive anti-bullying bill has been proposed in the Iowa Senate. We believe this bill deserveS an up-or-down vote. This legislation is a bipartisan issue and brings people from all political perspectives together on a common value — that all students deserve to be free from name calling, violence and harassment.

As we do our job in the Iowa Legislature to ensure Iowa schools and communities are safe places for all our children, your help is vital at the local level. Encourage local leaders to adopt comprehensive anti-harassment policies. Ask your local school to train their staff about student harassment. And most importantly, talk to your children about the effects of name-calling and bullying and the value of treating all people with dignity and respect.

Mike Gronstal is the Iowa Senate Democratic leader and Mary Lundby is the Senate Republican leader.

        

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