What can be done about bullying?

By Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis

The age-old problem of young people treating each other badly has taken on fresh resonance in recent weeks, focused particularly on a spate of suicides by gay teens ― including 18-year-old Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi ― who had been victims of bullying behavior.

President Obama made a video for the "It Gets Better" YouTube series assuring young gays of a brighter future, and the Department of Education sent a memo to schools around the nation reminding them of their legal obligation to protect their students.

Is there a role for the federal government in ending bullying? Can the problem be ended? Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.

Ben Boychuk

Sparing children from the casual cruelties of tormenting peers is a quandary state lawmakers ― and especially the federal government ― are badly equipped to address.

Not that they haven't tried, and won't try harder. Most states require schools to adopt anti-bullying programs. Legislators in New Jersey are debating an "Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights" after a gay Rutgers student committed suicide in September.

But that's not enough for some activists. A coalition of more than 70 civil rights, religious, and civic groups wants sweeping action from Congress and the Obama administration ― including legislation that could make bullying a federal crime.

New laws, however well intended, are not the answer. Recall the inept and overreaching government response to what the media portrayed as an "epidemic" of school shootings in the 1990s. Numerous states passed "zero tolerance" laws. Not to be outdone, Congress in 1994 passed the Gun-Free Schools Act, which required all states to impose sweeping zero-tolerance rules or risk losing federal funds.

The results? Idiocy and injustice. To pick just a few examples: A first-grader sent to reform school for bringing a cub scout camping tool to school; a middle-school girl suspended for packing a butter knife in her lunch; an honor student nearly expelled for keeping a keychain knife in his car.

Yet zero-tolerance and "gun-free" school rules could not save a single life at Columbine High School or Virginia Tech.

Despite these bitter experiences, lawmakers and elected leaders ― including President Obama ― have embraced the language of zero tolerance to combat bullying.

Does anyone seriously believe a "Bully-Free Schools Act" would be any more successful than the Gun-Free Schools Act? For good and for ill, bullying is a problem only families, churches, schools and communities can hope to resolve.

Joel Mathis

Let me tell you about the most important teacher I ever had: Terry Hill.

Hill was a social studies and P.E. teacher at the middle school in the mid-Kansas town where my family moved in the 1980s. Adolescence is never easy, and transitioning to a new school complicates the level of difficulty: I didn't immediately fit in ― and found myself on the wrong end of confrontations with my fellow students. I was miserable. And then Hill stepped in.

I'm told he had a few words with my classmates; I wasn't there for that. What I do remember is that he called me out of class one day and sat with me in a school stairwell, asking me questions and listening to my pained answers for the better part of an hour.

And for the next few years, he gave me encouragement, even handing me books he thought would entertain and enrich me. Middle school didn't become perfect, but it did become bearable.

Can the feds end bullying in our schools? No. They probably can't even make a dent in it. The attitudes and actions of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., will have precious little influence during the precarious school hallway moments that can shape a young person's life. Ben is right: the problem is in our homes and schools and communities, and that's where it must be addressed.

That means cracking down on bullies, yes, but it also means shining a light on adults who enable bullying behavior ― like the Arkansas school official under fire last week for a homophobic Facebook post. And it means following the examples of teachers like Terry Hill who listen to, encourage and empower students in need of a lifeline. Thanks, Mr. Hill, wherever you are.

Listen to Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis at bboychuk@heartland.org and joelmathis@gmail.com, respectively. The article was published by RedBlueAmerica.com.