Michigan Senate passes bill ALLOWING bullying for "religious reasons"

Michigan Senate Republicans passed a bill yesterday that not only does nothing to aid anti-bullying efforts, but actually gives a “license to bully” based on “moral convictions.” From the Michigan Messenger:

The full language of the insert is: “This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.”

In a floor speech Minority Leader in the Senate Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) slammed the Republicans over the amended language.

“Here today you claim to be protecting kids and you’re actually putting them in more danger,” Whitmer said. “But bullying is not OK. We should be protecting public policy that protects kids — all kids, from bullies — all bullies. But instead you have set us back further by creating a blueprint for bullying.”
The legislation passed 26-11 (not a single Democrat voted for it) and will now move to the Republican-controlled House.

I’m furious. How in the hell can these individuals justify telling kids it’s okay to bully as long as there’s a “moral reason” for it? This bill is outlining a way for kids to get away with being vicious and cruel. It’s disrespecting the students who committed suicide because they were bullied and it’s disrespecting those who are tormented every day. What if the people who drove our teenage LGBT friends to suicide last year claimed their homophobic bullying was just a religious statement? Would they be exempt from blame?

This is an outrage. We cannot let them get away with this. Call Michigan reps and tell them they must vote “no” on this bill, even if you’re not from Michigan. This bill legalizes and practically encourages bullying, and we cannot stand for it.

This is so disgusting. Think about this.

This means anyone could bully your Christian children for being Christian, or my Pagan children for being Pagan.
Your children could be bullied if someone sincerely thought having a single parent was morally wrong. Your children could be bullied if someone sincerely thought Christianity was morally wrong.

This is disgusting and no one should be for it.

I am for free speech therefore I don't see anything wrong with this.

Censoring people's opinions about each other is tyranny, and the only applicable methods of enforcement should make this apparent.

I think that this story is being skewed and twisted into an anti-free-speech manner and seeks to undermine our current protections of freedoms we have left.

If we allowed the government to censor people's religious beliefs, we would no longer be a free nation at all.

Violence is already illegal, and so is making death threats, etc.

There is no reason to pass legislation against "bullying" because it is essentially a sneaky way of banning free speech.

I know the truth about what happens in schools anyways.

The school administrations and the teachers typically turn a blind eye to actual violence all the time. It's so commonplace it's not even funny.

And often times the victim of the violence will get punished more than the perpetrators of it.

However, there is nothing wrong with people stating their opinions about each other, as kids need to grow up and learn how life works in the real world and gain thick-skin in order to survive in the adult world.

Perhaps instead of censoring free speech, the schools should be teaching kids how to ignore their detractors, and speak out against bullies and thus reverse the public opinion against them and embarrass them into stopping their cruel remarks. Also they should be teaching tolerance of each other's beliefs.

There is just no justification for censorship because there are so many ways to use free-speech to combat this type of ignorant disrespect between children.

this isn't new. i have to tell my children not to talk about my religious beliefs for fear of having them mocked about their dad being a 'witch'. i practice pagan magick,and my kids are well versed in it. i also study religions of the world, and usually am more informed about the faiths of the people who oppose my beliefs.my kids have the chance to follow their own faith,but ive tried to teach them tolerance.my beliefs aren't that different from the native american ways (very trendy no?)
i am of scottish decent,so my soul follows the celtic way.
every person should have the right to follow their own spiritual path,no matter if it be christian,hindu,buddism,islam,judaism,OR PAGANISM! blessed be
ONE GOD,MANY NAMES

reply to post by cetaphobic


You're allowed to believe in the flying Spaghetti Monster and I'm allowed to laugh about it... thats the deal.

Teach your kids the confidence to endure the bullying and to have respect for others... both is required to coexist in diversity.

Censorship is the wrong approach.

reply to post by muzzleflash


So you would not mind at all if your child were called a faggot, or made fun of constantly for being a Christian?

At this point in time, nothing the Michigan government does surprises me anymore.
You would think they would focus more of their time trying to turn the state around.
There are many third world countries that have better living conditions than Detroit!

reply to post by muzzleflash


A 5 year old should grow up and learn how the real world works, before they even get the chance to experience their childhood? Interesting view.

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

So you would not mind at all if your child were called a faggot, or made fun of constantly for being a Christian?

Hey, it is free speech! And the teachers and principals can get in on it too!
Just imagine a kid sitting in class, raises his hand to answer a question and the teacher's response
"Hey, sissy fag. No one likes you go kill yourself!"
They try to bring the case to court, the judge says.
"Maybe your kid shouldn't be such a sissy fag, then. Little sissy fag."
Yeah, that's okay with me, but probably not my kid.
I guess the kid could always call the principal a sissy fag and say it is his constitutional right as well and the judge for that matter.

I wonder how well that would go over.

reply to post by the owlbear


Which makes me wonder- IS it also okay to bully teachers? I mean if a teacher is Christian and a student who hates Christians because they were allowed to bully them his whole life is in that Christian teacher's class, isn't it the child's right to call him cruel names?

Overblown, it is protecting freedom of speech. You can't have your cake and eat too. If you have freedom to blab about your believes, people have the right to blab about there non belief of your belief. I don't think the law allows you to beat someone up. It is an issue of free speech.

Also where is the link to the FULL article or legislation?

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

So you would not mind at all if your child were called a faggot, or made fun of constantly for being a Christian?

Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt you.

If words do hurt, you need to form a mental defense and stop allowing others to control your emotions.

If you saw what people called me all the time and saw how I reacted to it perhaps you could learn a few lessons?

Life is about facing adversities and overcoming them, not about using the government to protect you from other people's opinions by using legislation to censor them.

I will add though : that violent threats are never acceptable and should be acted upon, but that is already illegal in many cases so there is no need to pass additional legislation.

Originally posted by the owlbear

Just imagine a kid sitting in class, raises his hand to answer a question and the teacher's response
"Hey, sissy fag. No one likes you go kill yourself!"
They try to bring the case to court, the judge says.
"Maybe your kid shouldn't be such a sissy fag, then. Little sissy fag."

That is probably the most extreme case that has never happened.

# 1) A judge is elected by the people, and if a judge acted in this childish immature manner, they would never get elected again, obviously.

# 2) Do you propose that we fill our courtrooms to the brim with cases of people suing other people over mere name calling? I would have to say no thanks, we already have enough frivolous cases to deal with.

All of the mechanisms to prevent such lewd and irresponsible behavior are already in place, it's just a matter of people educating themselves and utilizing them.

Instead what I am witnessing is a bunch of uneducated and lazy sue-happy people looking for the easy way out, to merely get the government to oppress everyone else to "protect them from other's opinions".

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

A 5 year old should grow up and learn how the real world works, before they even get the chance to experience their childhood? Interesting view.

Perhaps this is the main problem.

People protect their children from reality for so long that their kids grow up incapable of taking a mere insult without flipping out and trying to take it to court and 'get revenge' and 'ruin that other person's life'. It's vindictive and unreasonable.

People lie to their kids all the time, like Santa Claus, Disney movies, etc These 'white-lies' end up making kids have unrealistic expectations about how Earth really works, and they are severely disappointed and confused when reality finally strikes.

I would never support legislation banning parents from lying to their kids if that is their prerogative however, because in the end this is inherently an issue of separation of church and state. No one has the right to use the government to force others to silence their opinions or change their beliefs.

There are a lot of vindictive and vengeful people out there who hold insane grudges over the smallest infractions or simply because they don't like someone. If we passed laws preventing people from making mere criticisms that would open the flood gates to all of these types being able to "punish" anyone they don't like over a mere remark simply because they found it "offensive".

I just don't think that it is in anyone's interest to ban critical speech.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by the owlbear

Just imagine a kid sitting in class, raises his hand to answer a question and the teacher's response
"Hey, sissy fag. No one likes you go kill yourself!"
They try to bring the case to court, the judge says.
"Maybe your kid shouldn't be such a sissy fag, then. Little sissy fag."

That is probably the most extreme case that has never happened.

# 1) A judge is elected by the people, and if a judge acted in this childish immature manner, they would never get elected again, obviously.

# 2) Do you propose that we fill our courtrooms to the brim with cases of people suing other people over mere name calling? I would have to say no thanks, we already have enough frivolous cases to deal with.

All of the mechanisms to prevent such lewd and irresponsible behavior are already in place, it's just a matter of people educating themselves and utilizing them.

Instead what I am witnessing is a bunch of uneducated and lazy sue-happy people looking for the easy way out, to merely get the government to oppress everyone else to "protect them from other's opinions".

Hey, I was being facetious. But sometimes it takes the most extreme example to see how a law can be abused.
I thought you made a good point about teachers and administration "not caring" earlier.
I wouldn't care too much about my workplace either if I had no right to protest clear contract violations by the management and having no recourse.
The quote from the op was whiny and we do need thicker skins as a whole.
I am still just sickened as to why legislatures are arguing this crap over trying to turn things around for everyone (not just the business owners and investors) in that state.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Well then I sure hope you're for children having sex, considering that's part of the real world and growing up. Or did you only mean 5 year olds should grow up when it comes to something infringing on your rights?