Campaign Limits. Research shows bullying is often more complex that efforts like this sign at a school in Woodstock, Ga., would suggest
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What's more, the zeal to stop bullies has resulted in vague statutes that have collided with the law of unintended consequences. In one notorious incident in New Jersey--whose stringent law requires any school employee, even a bus driver, to report any possible bullying incident within hours to a designated official who informs the school board--the parents of a kid at Benjamin Franklin Middle School who called a fellow student a "retard" had to meet with school officials. Because of the antibullying law, the boy's insult had to be filed with the state's education department. If in a few years he applies to a state university, admissions officers will see the charge that he was a bully. "I think the new law crosses the line because it is trying to legislate good manners," the superintendent of New Jersey's Central Regional School District, Triantafillos Parlapanides, told his local paper, Bridgewater's Courier News. "That is what parents are supposed to be teaching."
The laws are costing schools even as recession-strapped states cut education budgets. Both for-profit and nonprofit companies offer antibullying packages that schools can adopt to meet the new legal expectations--for a fee. The largest antibullying company, the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, charges thousands of dollars to large school districts that need to train educators to recognize and report warning signs of bullying, like repeated introverted behavior among possible victims. A common technique is to pair two kids who may have argued in the past and ask them to name something they like and something they dislike about the other person. Local firms have also entered the game. A New Jersey education consultancy, Strauss Esmay Associates, offers schools a $1,295-minimum deal that provides a two-hour video, three hours of training for two staff members and a manual on preventing bullying.
Other programs, like the San Francisco--based nonprofit No Bully, offer cheaper services, but the financial toll on schools is neither trivial nor clear. The U.S. Department of Education collects no statistics on how much schools are spending to prevent bullying, and the many antibullying companies that have emerged in recent years haven't formed a trade group. Many officials have begun to fight the new rules. In January, New Jersey's independent budget authority ruled 7 to 2 that the new antibullying legislation violates the state's constitution because it provides no funding for local districts to meet its requirements, which include assigning an administrator who can initiate proceedings against alleged bullies within the required 24 hours. One township in rural Warren County, New Jersey, has claimed that the new law will cost $6,000 even though the township has only 427 students.
How to Fix the Problem