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Signs of Life for Anti-Bullying Initiatives in D.C.

City Council prepares to pass long-stalled legislation as Gray proposes action plan to prevent bullying

By John Riley
April 19, 2012

A City Council bill aimed at preventing physical and electronic forms of harassment, intimidation and bullying in District schools, libraries, parks and recreation centers – introduced more than a year ago ­– is finally seeing some movement.

The bill, the ”Bullying and Intimidation Prevention Act of 2011,” would require D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), D.C. Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), the Department of Parks and Recreation, the D.C. Public Library (DCPL) and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) to adopt policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation or bullying on those agencies’ property, at agency-sponsored functions and on school buses.

Under the bill, those agencies are allowed to design and exercise local control over the specifics of their individual policies, but each policy must have a minimum requirement of 10 elements that the District deems essential to anti-bullying efforts.

The bill also requires the agencies to adopt bullying prevention programs, and provides protections for victims, witnesses and people with important information about acts of harassment, intimidation or bullying from reprisal or retaliation by employees, students or volunteers representing those agencies. The bill additionally protects individual employees who promptly report incidents in accordance with the agency’s adopted policy from legal actions that might result from any failure to remedy the reported incident.

According to Charles Allen, chief of staff for Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who chairs the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, the bill will be marked up Friday, April 20, before going before the Committee of the Whole. As a procedural move, the bill has also been referred to the Committee of the Whole separately. Allen says that after mark-up, the bill will be referred to the Committee of the Whole, before heading to the full council for a final vote.

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