The Michigan leg­is­la­ture recently passed an anti-bullying bill that will pro­tect school bul­lies instead of the vic­tims – what?

Yes, that’s right. A col­umn writ­ten by Amy Sullivan titled, “Why does Michigan’s Anti-Bullying Bill pro­tect reli­gious tor­menters?” was pub­lished on TIME​.com on Nov. 4. Sullivan stated in arti­cle that the state sen­ate, which is dom­i­nantly Republican, passed a bill on which they agreed to only con­sider an anti-bullying mea­sure that did not require school dis­tricts to report any bul­ly­ing inci­dents. This mea­sure also does not include pro­vi­sions for enforce­ment or teacher training.

Sullivan’s col­umn men­tioned how Gary Glenn, pres­i­dent of the American Family Association of Michigan referred to anti-bullying mea­sures as “a Trojan horse for the homo­sex­ual agenda.” Meanwhile, Democrats in the state leg­is­la­ture have been fight­ing for more than a decade to enact a form of anti-bullying leg­is­la­tion. Glenn’s state­ment has to be one of the most asi­nine state­ments I’ve ever heard.

Within those ten years, at least ten Michigan stu­dents who were vic­tims of bul­ly­ing have com­mit­ted sui­cide. My heart breaks for them and their fam­i­lies; it is a tragedy that these lives were cut short by the cru­elty of bullying.

Many of us have been bul­lied at some point in our lives, and it sucks. I was bul­lied in ele­men­tary school and mid­dle school. When I was in sev­enth grade, I faked sick most of the year in order to stay home — just so I wouldn’t be forced to hand over my lunch money or endure ver­bal harass­ment in the hallways.

From what I’ve gath­ered, this is just another way for bul­lies to keep mak­ing excuses to degrade oth­ers, hurt oth­ers and break oth­ers down. I am appalled and sad­dened that the Michigan leg­is­la­ture would allow this bill to pass as long as it gave bul­lies a “sin­cerely held reli­gious belief or moral con­vic­tion” to jus­tify their harass­ment. This just makes me sick and it’s pure, utter bull crap.

The bill, “Matt’s Safe School Law,” was given this title after Matt Epling; a Michigan stu­dent who com­mit­ted sui­cide in 2002 after endur­ing pro­longed bul­ly­ing. Epling is one of the ten stu­dents who per­ma­nently suf­fered from being bul­lied in Michigan, and surely there are many oth­ers. You’ve seen the news.

This bill should pro­tect every­one, regard­less of race, age, sex, ori­en­ta­tion and reli­gion. It is wrong and for the lack of a bet­ter word – evil, to bully some­one period. This is what I have to say to the indi­vid­u­als who approved this restric­tion: You are one cold-hearted human being and do not act very “Christian-like.”

In a let­ter from Sen. Glen Anderson, 18^th District-Westland, which is pub­lished on bul​ly​po​lice​.org, bul­ly­ing has been linked to a higher level of dropout rates, crime, sui­cide and school shoot­ings. Additionally, sta­tis­tics show 30 per­cent of stu­dents in grades six through 10 are affected by mod­er­ate or fre­quent bul­ly­ing with 19 per­cent of stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ing in bullying.

Wow. I’m dis­gusted with our state leg­is­la­tion that they allowed this bill to pro­tect those who cause the pain.

I know many have said that even if we do all we can to pre­vent bul­ly­ing – it will still hap­pen. Yes, this may be the case, but we can pre­vent it from caus­ing another tragedy if we stand up for those who are suffering.

I hope to see this bill go through some changes so every­one is protected.

It is also up to us to stop it if we see it or hear it. Treat oth­ers as you would want to be treated as well.