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Bullying bill expected to pass Ohio Senate
Thursday, March 2, 2006
By MICHAEL J. MAURER
ThisWeek Staff Writer
An anti-bullying law has been approved by the Ohio House of Representatives and now will be considered by the Ohio Senate.
During House testimony, David Brewer, father of Benjamin Brewer, a 15-year-old Delaware Hayes sophomore who was a victim of school bullying and who committed suicide in 2004, spoke in support of the law.
"We are a society of laws," Brewer said. "I am grateful that the sponsors and this committee are dedicated to passing into law these anti-bullying codes."
Brewer described a conversation with his son shortly before his death.
"Ben cried once when I was taking him to school that year," Brewer said. "He said, 'I don't want to go to school. Don't make me go.'"
It was only later that he understood the extent of bullying, Brewer said, even witnessing incidents of it himself when he saw students taunting other students who were rehearsing a school performance.
One of the bill's primary sponsors, Rep. Jimmy Stewart (R-Athens) said it is important for all districts in the state to affirmatively face up to bullying.
"To effectively address this problem, we must do our part by requiring districts to develop and implement a policy based on their community's need," Stewart said.
The bill would require each board of education in Ohio to consult with parents, employees, students and community members to adopt a policy to prohibit student harassment, intimidation or bullying.
The bill defines harassment, intimidation or bullying as "intentional written, verbal, or physical acts" exhibited by one student toward another, more than one time, if it both causes mental or physical harm and is "sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment."
The bill would require school personnel to report incidents of harassment and would require the policy adopted by the board to establish a reporting procedure, notification requirements and procedures for documenting, investigating and responding to reported incidents.
The bill also would require the policy to include procedures for disciplining students who are guilty of violating the policy, although the bill also explicitly acknowledges the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and religion.
Employees and others who report bullying would be granted immunity from civil damages, so long as the reporting person complied with the policy. In addition, the State Board of Education would be required to adopt a model policy on bullying, and the state auditor would be required to include bullying policies in its audit requirements.
If state or federal funds are available, the bill also would require school districts to provide training and workshops for personnel who have contact with students and to establish a process for educating students about the anti-bullying policy.
Tina Johnson, spokesperson for the Delaware City School District, said the district had begun working with a national anti-bullying model, the Positive Behavior Support system, before Benjamin Brewer's death, but that it also accelerated its use of the program. The district received its initial grant to support the program at one pilot school in the amount of $15,000 in 2003. Since then, the district has received a total of $145,000 in state grants.
The advantage to having a state model program, as H.B. 276 would establish, is that the state has much greater research and development resources than any individual district.
"For some (Ohio school) districts, this bill would become their first effort (to adopt a bullying policy)," she said.
State Rep. Jon Peterson (R-Delaware), a sponsor of the bill, said he expects it to move quickly in the Senate. He said it would likely reach the governor in the next several weeks.
"We'll be looking at hearings in the next week or two, then, hopefully, they'll move the bill," Peterson said. "There might be some adjustments, but the hearings have been so extensive in the House that I think we've dealt with most of it. There was some concern about being more specific in the bill (to address specific protected classes against bullying), but I don't know if the Senate will be more responsive to that or not.
"I'm looking forward to its coming back to the House for concurrence and then getting it to the governor," he said.
In addition to Peterson, other central Ohio sponsors include Minority Leader Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus), Larry Flowers (R-Canal Winchester) and Dan Stewart (D-Columbus.)
Finances dominate the discussion at SWCS meeting
Thursday, January 12, 2006
By LINDSEY NOCK
ThisWeek Staff Writer
The South-Western City School District's financial situation was the dominant theme of the Board of Education meeting Monday.
The district presented its annual tax budget, which showed that the district expected to spend more than $1.4-million more than it will receive in property tax revenue.
This shortfall is because of the phasing out of Tangible Personal Property Tax revenue for the district pursuant to House Bill 66, the state's biennial budget.
Another hit to the district could lie in more tax breaks for area corporations which will cost the district an estimated $1.5-million.
"I've just been informed that for calender year 2005 there have been approvals, many approvals, made that will impact our budget to the tune of $1.5-million lost this year in tangible funds that we had anticipated receiving," said district Treasurer Catherine Bulgrin.
According to Ohio Revised Code section 5715.17, a company can petition the county to re-evaluate its land. The petitions are not public record, so the district was not able to anticipate any loss in revenue from a possible corporate tax reduction.
"They are not open to the public, and therefore we had no way to know, or the school district can't even find out that there's anything like this in progress to be able to anticipate it to be able to plan for the future," Bulgrin said.
"In addition to that for the forecast period, I received valuations from the Franklin County Auditor's office that at the time of the forecast you may recall that I disclaimed those as not being certified yet," Bulgrin said. "As of the third week in December I did receive certified values for our district, but they were considerably less than what I was offered in October and that will impact our budget this year by several million dollars."
Bulgrin said the forecast presented in October was an estimate based on information available at the time the forecast is created.
"In terms of the values, we try really hard to target what those values are going to be and make our projections based on that," Bulgrin said. "They were subject to change, we were told that, and they did change."
Cathy Johnson was able to shine a ray of hope into the board's meeting, however, as she mentioned that Rep. Larry Wolpert, R-Hilliard, is working on an amendment to H. B. 66 that would allow the district to recoup some of the revenue lost by the TPP tax cut. No more information about the proposed amendment was available at press time.
In other board action, James Lester was unanimously voted president of the board, replacing William McCarty and Gary Leasure was unanimously voted vice president of the board, replacing Cathy Johnson.
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