HB 45-ELECTRONIC BULLYING IN SCHOOLS  HB 45-ELECTRONIC BULLYING IN SCHOOLS  8:04:49 AM CHAIR GATTIS announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 45, "An Act relating to harassment, intimidation, or bullying by students attending a public school in the state." 8:05:11 AM REPRESENTATIVE MIA COSTELLO, Alaska State Legislature, as sponsor, stated that HB 45 would provide a definition change to add "electronic" to bullying and harassment in schools. As a mother, former teacher, and elected official, she has noticed our society has a huge dependence on electronic devices. This bill would acknowledge that electronic communication occurs among students. 8:06:24 AM SARAH PAGE, Staff, Representative Mia Costello, Alaska State Legislature, on behalf of the prime sponsor, provided a section- by-section analysis of HB 45. She stated Section 1 will remove "whether verbal or physical" from AS 14.33.220(b) and not specifying those actions would mean "bullying" would apply to any type of bullying action, including cyberbullying. Section 2 would add "electronic communication" as a possible form of harassment. 8:07:25 AM REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX asked whether this bill will specifically cover Facebook. REPRESENTATIVE COSTELLO answered that HB 45 does not specifically identify Facebook and does not address student use of Facebook. REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX, with respect to electronic bullying, asked whether the bill attempts to make conduct by a student punishable that is not otherwise illegal, such as making disparaging remarks via electronic media. She clarified she was referring to non-threatening comments students might make, such as continued disparaging comments calling someone ugly and fat. She maintained concern about the school district regulating electronic off campus remarks by students. 8:10:20 AM REPRESENTATIVE COSTELLO directed attention to Section 1 that requires a school employee, student, or volunteer who has reliable information or who witnesses student harassment to report it. 8:11:13 AM REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked whether an expression of dislike constitutes bullying. REPRESENTATIVE COSTELLO referred to proposed Sec. 2, which read "(2) " harassment, intimidation, or bullying" means an intentional written, electronic, or oral communication, or physical act, when the communication or act is undertaken with the intent of threatening, intimidating, harassing, or frightening the student." REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked whether a statement that "I don't like Suzy," could constitute bullying. REPRESENTATIVE COSTELLO responded that if HB 45 passed, that a person would need to use his/her judgment and would need to report behavior to school authorities if he/she thought the behavior fit the definition and the administration would subsequently decide if the behavior warrants action. She noted some schools have bullying policies. 8:13:06 AM CHAIR GATTIS remarked that this bill raises a good conversation about bullying. She noted how bullying can have lasting effects and the importance for others to become involved. REPRESENTATIVE KITO III acknowledged the importance of the issue. He asked if her research identified other ways parents can get support to stem bullying that happens outside of the school. MS. PAGE suggested that if the bill passed parents could report electronic communication to the school as a means of providing evidence of bullying. 8:16:12 AM REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX acknowledged that serious consequences can occur when someone is bullied; however, the First Amendment [under the U.S. Constitution] rights related to freedom of speech allows people to be "pretty mean to people" so long as the person doesn't step over a certain line. The schools have the leeway to be more restrictive; however, attempting to curb behavior outside of the school realm may not be plausible. She said she has some problems with this type of restriction. REPRESENTATIVE COSTELLO appreciated her taking this seriously. She said she does, too. However, not recognizing electronic devices in statute ignores that society uses electronic communication. She pointed out that oral or written communication is addressed in existing statute. She maintained that it is important for adults in schools noticing bullying to have the responsibility to report it to the school. The intent of HB 45 is to encourage a positive culture in the school system. Legal remedies exist if behavior rises to that level and the bill acknowledges that if oral and written behavior that harasses and intimidates people must be reported, then similar behavior using modern devices should also be reported. 8:19:00 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON related his understanding that the bill addresses a student being harassed, not the person harassing the student. Thus, the bill would require a person report that a student has been harassed. He asked whether this interpretation is accurate. MS. PAGE answered that the final aspect of Section 1 states "shall report the incident" so she offered her belief that actions on both sides would be considered. 8:21:09 AM AMELIA VAZQUEZ-DAVIS, Student, AJ Dimond High School, stated she is a sophomore at Dimond High School. She said a loophole related to social media exists and needs to be closed and until it is people will continue to be harassed. Other states have also recognized this problem and have taken action. She provided a number of statistics that demonstrated increased occurrence of on-line bullying and highlights cyberbullying as a problem. She has observed students being hurt and noted depression as one outcome. She suggested that students see the cyberbullying so it can enter the school and affect learning. 8:24:13 AM REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER asked about the policy at Dimond High School for smart phones and how that might affect cyberbullying at school. MS. VAZQUEZ-DAVIS answered that cell phone use is at the discretion of the class teacher and some allow cell phone use and others don't. She noted some students are text messaging throughout the day so cyberbullying could certainly escalate. In response to a question, she reiterated cell phone use is at the discretion of each teacher. CHAIR GATTIS pointed out modern cell phones are multi-use devices that offer internet access. 8:26:46 AM REPRESENTATIVE KITO III suggested that if someone has been adversely impacted by a communication that is evidence of bullying. He related his understanding that this bill would just add that students can be negatively impacted by "electronic media" and not just oral and written communication. 8:27:29 AM REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER said the statute clearly covers oral and written, or physical acts, when the acts are undertaken with intent. He inquired why the drafting doesn't just add "electronic" instead of adding communication since "oral" is also communication. MS. PAGE answered that an electronic act could be a post, not a direct communication. She suggested that an offensive blog post would be different than a directed comment. REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER suggested that a Facebook post would be general versus a direct comment and asked whether it would be covered under this provision. MS. PAGE deferred to the drafter. CHAIR GATTIS suggested that question could be answered later. REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER aligned with the previously comments regarding the First Amendment rights, which allows a certain amount of offensive comments. 8:30:10 AM CHAIR GATTIS offered her belief that cyberbullying exists and it is important to recognize the issue. 8:30:53 AM RON FUHRER, President, National Education Association of Alaska (NEA), testified in support of HB 45, paraphrasing from a prepared statement, which read, as follows: Cyberbullying occurs in the shadows, whether on-line, on Facebook, by text message, or some other means. It can be more difficult to detect and prevent than more conventional forms of bullying. Teachers and educational support professionals are the first lines of defense in stopping cyberbullying in schools. Cyberbullying carries over to the classroom. Only one in ten victims will inform a parent or trusted adult of their abuse. The consequences of cyberbullying are significant and cause significant emotional and psychological distress. Like other forms of bullying cyberbullied kids experience fear, low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Cyberbullying victims also experience some unique consequences such as feeling overwhelmed, vulnerable, powerless, exposed, humiliated, isolated, and even disinterested in life. Bullied victims are two to nine times likely to consider suicide. According to Pew Research, one-third of all teenagers who have used the Internet have been the target of some form of cyberbullying. Some research shows that nearly 43 percent of kids have been bullied on-line and one in four more than once. Seventy percent of students report seeing frequent bullying on-line. Cyberbullying is unacceptable. The only way to bring cyberbullying out of the shadows is a community effort by teachers, parents, administrators, and other students to send a clear message that cyberbullying will not be tolerated. This bill, HB 45, is a first step towards ensuring that Alaska's students can attend school in a safe-learning environment, free from the threats of cyberbullying. Please support HB 45. 8:33:25 AM MIKE COONS testified in opposition to HB 45, paraphrasing from a prepared statement, which read [original punctuation provided]: I oppose HB 45. Let me talk first on Sections 1 and 2. Section 1, do you mean to tell me that school staff don't intervene now? Why should a student have to report? What happens if a student doesn't and if any "discipline" and why? Then at what "level" is this talking about? What is the objective definition of harassment, intimidation or bullying? Very subjective depending on the viewer and when they see it. Heck it could be the intended "victim" intimidating back to stop the "[bully's]" behavior. It could be the "victim" fighting back and winning over the bully! Then of course, with this as a "guideline" the bully becomes the "victim" and the intended "victim" gets the punishment! Section 2 (2), again determination depends on the viewer as I just stated. In reading the proposed text, I am not impressed. If this is being proposed because of the cyber bullying in the Lower 48 that made national headlines, this does little to nothing to deter such actions that lead to death of the victim. This is why we have kids that are bullied who have no skills turn to [have] ramped up violence disproportionally over the problem. This is why we have kids with low esteem, who have nowhere to go that really matters to them! In reviewing the wording, it is subjective at best and with the history of the courts, I don't believe a person on trial in a juvenile court would be found guilty for "fear of physical injury, severe mental or emotional injury, or damage to the person's property". 8:35:02 AM MR. COONS continued to read from prepared remarks, [original punctuation provided]: How to prove the "victim" had that level of fear or if they suffered "mental or emotional injury"? I'm sure any number of psychiatrists could come up with differing views as the "victims" level of "fear, or mental or emotional injury", both for the defense and prosecutor. Based on the above, this is one more law that will be either misused or ignored; we have enough of those already and I'd love to see time spent to repeal such laws that don't work and done for "emotion". Let me end with this. Why don't we at the community level, not legislative level, do something that makes a real difference? Why don't we teach not to be a victim? The NRA has a course "Refuse to be a Victim", this is about 95% on mental attitude, verbal options or "verbal judo", situational awareness, simple methods of defense then upping defense with non-lethal to lethal. This is mostly taught to women and has a huge impact and high success rate. When I was a kid, I was 6 months younger and quite a bit smaller than my peers. My Dad always told me to never throw the first punch, if I could, walk away, but if I had to fight, fight to the finish and don't come home crying, then I would get his discipline, a boot on my rear end. I walked away many times, and called a coward for it. I also stood up to bully's and got the second swing in. I lost more than I won over the years, but no bully, bullied me more than once after we got into it. For [bullies] don't like to get hurt! They can dish it out, but can't take it. Plus they know that they may have won this time, they might not be so lucky the second time. My last fight was in the 11th grade, that one I won and won big and my PE teacher let it go on to the end. He told me years later he did that because he had never seen me win! What did this do for me as an adult? It taught me to stand for myself and not be a "victim" and to be in control of my life. Legislation like this and others is so much fluff and makes the progressives feel good that we are "doing something", when we are really doing what progressives really want, a public dependent on the government and others, vs a public that takes personal responsibility for themselves. Do not pass this bill. 8:37:41 AM CHAIR GATTIS closed public testimony on HB 45. 8:38:00 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON commented that the bill has brought an important clarification to be able to take effect if a student's education is being interrupted or threatening happens in the learning environment. He pointed out the statute is in AS 14.33, which is public schools and the bill does not mean the crime warrants police action, but it is important for district action in terms of school policy. CHAIR GATTIS recognized that some districts currently have specific policy in place. REPRESENTATIVE SADDLER referred to page 1, line 5 to the requirement that bullying policy currently addresses someone must report bullying happening or a victim being bullied. He pointed out current law requires reports of bullying so this just expands it to include electronic bullying. REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX asked to have a representative from the Department of Law available to clarify First Amendment issues. [HB 45 was held over.]