{"id":506002,"date":"2010-04-02T16:33:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T20:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/?p=15482"},"modified":"2010-04-02T16:33:57","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T20:33:57","slug":"georgia-lawmakers-crack-down-on-bullies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/506002","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Lawmakers Crack Down on Bullies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15629\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 169px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-15629\" title=\"Jaheem Herrera\" src=\"http:\/\/liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com\/files\/2010\/04\/Jaheem-Herreras-351x240.jpg\" alt=\"11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide \" width=\"159\" height=\"90\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Georgia State Representatives expanded the state\u2019s definition of bullying. By law, school administrators are required to report bullying incidents to police, also by the start of the 2010-11 academic year school districts will be required to have a system in place to send a bully to different a school.<\/p>\n<p>The state Department of Education will post a model anti-bullying policy on its Web site.<\/p>\n<p>The bill\u2019s sponsor, Rep. Mike Jacobs says it expands a Senate bill which makes it illegal\u00a0to cause a disruption\u00a0on\u00a0a school bus.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bullying bill was about one thing and one thing only, giving parents and local school systems more tools to address real life problems that exist in our schools,&#8221; Jacobs told a Georgia radio station. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The change in state law comes on the heels of an 11-year-old boy\u2019s suicide last year.\u00a0Jaheem Herrera\u2019s family says he hanged himself in his closet after merciless teasing at a Georgia elementary school. DeKalb County school district officials denied the claims and an independent review found bullying was not a factor. His family rejects the decision.<\/p>\n<p>Bullying in schools is a nationwide problem. In Massachusetts, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hanged herself. Nine students have been charged in connection to the suicide. The\u00a0charges include violation of civil rights, harassment, stalking and statutory rape. Also in Texas, 13-year old Jon Carmichael killed himself Sunday. Friends say he was picked-on for years, the bullies called him &#8216;short.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>More than 40 states have laws dealing with bullying; Georgia\u2019s law is among the toughest in the nation. Many states require schools develop prevention and intervention plans. Others include procedures for investigating bullying incidents, notifying parents and determining appropriate disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents argue that overzealous enforcement of the bill will unnecessarily punish some students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11-year-old Jaheem Herrera committed suicide Georgia State Representatives expanded the state\u2019s definition of bullying. By law, school administrators are required to report bullying incidents to police, also by the start of the 2010-11 academic year school districts will be required to have a system in place to send a bully to different a school. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-506002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}