The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, signed a new bill to address issues of cyberbullying. The law will prohibit actions that could cause either emotional or physical harm to students. By such definition, this would include harm from text messages or messages on the Internet.
Governor Patrick signs anti-bullying bill
Although this alone is great news, the new legislature will also mandate anti-bullying training for faculty and students. As we know from our comprehensive talks about security policy on this blog, education / training is a vital component to the success of any “policy” – and if we think of anti-bullying as a “policy”, we can see that training here is just as important.
Under the new law, school principals must investigate each case of suspected bullying. With the passing of this legislation, Massachussets has become the 42nd state to adopt anti-bullying legislation. Other states currently have laws pending.
more