_Bianka Teeters is a junior elementary education major and writes ‘Chalk Talk’ for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. Write to Bianka at bmteeters@bsu.edu.
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It is a known fact that teachers have a lot on their plates already, but at the end of the day, the students are the driving force behind each teacher’s career decision.
One in three students is bullied, and 64 percent of students do not report it, according to Scholastic’s Instructor Magazine
. With so many students affected, the law that just passed is necessary to decrease these numbers.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Some of you may not know about the new law, but bullying is something Indiana now takes very seriously. Effective this year, Indiana passed new legislation, House Enrolled Act 1423
, that outlines what bullying is and what actions need to be taken by school personnel.
According to the new law, the definition of bullying is “overt, unwanted, repeated acts or gestures, including verbal or written communications or images transmitted in any manner [including digitally or electronically], physical acts committed, aggression, or any other behaviors that are committed by a student or group of students against another student with the intent to harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate, or harm the targeted student and create for the targeted student an objectively hostile school environment.” This means that bullying now has a strict definition. It is taken seriously as it should be.
School personnel are now in charge of handling bullying inside and outside of school hours and on and off school property. They must check out every single case that is turned into them whether or not it happened at school or online through cyberbullying.
By Oct. 15, every kindergarten through 12th-grade class should have received basic instruction that focuses on bullying prevention. Students should feel they are in a safe environment not only at school, but everywhere.
I think this is a great thing. Yes, it puts a lot more responsibility on teachers, counselors, administration and education support professionals, but it is for all the right reasons — the students. If a student does one of the things listed above more than once, he or she is considered a bully.
All incidents must be reported to proper authority in the school. From there, it will have consequences. Each school must set up consequences that will be given to bullying.
Students must tell an adult if they are being bullied. This is a serious thing and needs to be handled by the school.
Children need someone they can feel comfortable with to talk to about anything that may be happening. Too often, bullying is put on the backburner. I know when I become a teacher, I will be that person my students can talk to about anything, including if they are being bullied.
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