A few days ago, I wrote about the absolutely ridiculous piece of legislation that the oh so lovely Republican’s in Michigan’s senate passed…the “License to Bully” legislation. Basically this legislation allowed students, their parents, teachers, and school officials to say whatever they wanted to another person SO LONG AS they had a religious or moral conviction behind that statement. Let’s take a look at a high school health class, for example. As the health teacher is talking about sex, a student could stand up and say “it’s my religious belief that fags will burn in hell and sex should only be between a man and a woman”…that’s bad enough, but let’s take it a step further. Let’s say that student stands up and points to another student, as he says the previous statement…because he has a “religious and moral conviction” behind that statement, it’s OK for him to do that.
Where I come from, that’s bullying. But according to the Michigan Senate Republican’s, specifically Republican state senator Rick Jones, that student is simply “exercising his First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech”. According to Mr. Jones, he feels particularly strongly about this piece of legislation because his son (who is now 31) was bullied and a friends granddaughter fatally shot herself after being bullied. Mr. Jones is quoted as saying:
Nothing in the bill is intended that the child could confront another child and abuse them in any way,” Jones told ABC News today. “I wouldn’t have a problem with some of the language being removed as long as it was very clear that a student’s First Amendment rights were protected. … There is no intent on my part to justify bullying, in any form.
If his intent was not to justify bullying, then why were the words “…religious or moral conviction” added to the legislation. When you say that someone can do something “so long as”, that is justifying when or how you can do something. Sorry Mr. Jones, but you’re majorly backpedaling now.
Dan Savage, a sex columnist who launched the It Gets Better Project to encourage gay youth, said it best:
You have a right to your own religious beliefs. You don’t have a right to inflict your private moral judgments on those people in a place where you are a public servant and an employee of the state. … Michigan should be ashamed of itself.
I’m all for the First Amendment. Lord knows I have an opinion about everything and I love the fact that I can state that opinion, but what I don’t have the right to do is push my judgments or opinions onto others, especially when it demoralizes another human being.
Michigan is one of three states that does NOT have an anti-bully legislation in place. I find that awfully strange. Especially when we have senator Rick Jones, who has a very personal experience with bullying, in a position where an anti-bullying legislation could be put in place. Maybe our state Republican senators need to spend more time protecting the innocent victims of bullying and less time worrying about shoving their religious and moral convictions onto others.
The Michigan House removed the controversial wording from the bill, however it still does nothing to protect those that are victims of bullying. Maybe Michigan needs to take a look at the Massachusetts Anti-bullying legislation and take a few notes.
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