Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan

Response to 11/02 Action on Senate Bill 137

In response to the passage Wednesday of anti-bullying legislation Senate Bill 137, as substituted on the Senate Floor, which now allows an exemption that permits bullying a student if it is “a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian.”  The following is a statement by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan:

“There should never be an excuse or reason or justification for anyone to bully, intimidate, or harass a student. I cannot imagine any real moral conviction or religious teaching that says it acceptable to inflict pain, humiliation, and suffering on another person, especially a child. The legislation, as passed by the Michigan Senate, is a disappointing development in a process that we have worked on so diligently together for the protection of all schoolchildren in Michigan. After my long relationship with families of children who have committed suicide after being bullied, I find this bill now to be a joke, especially as it is named in memory of one of those children.”