NJ Bullying Law Gives Students Anonymous Hot Line to Report Classmates to Police

Chris | InformationLiberation
Aug. 31, 2011

Recently, eighth grader Derek Lopez was executed by a police officer for "scaring" the cop. The cop felt it was his place to stop the boy from bullying a fellow student, the student said the scuffle between the two boys was "nothing," yet the cop interjected to "help" and it resulted in 14-yr-old Derek Lopez being executed. Now, New Jersey is setting up an anoymnous hot line to police, so students can anonymously rat on their fellow students for bullying... or just falsely accuse them of bullying and have the biggest bullies of all show up to possibly kill someone.

From The New York Times:

Under a new state law in New Jersey, lunch-line bullies in the East Hanover schools can be reported to the police by their classmates this fall through anonymous tips to the Crimestoppers hot line.

[...]The law, known as the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, is considered the toughest legislation against bullying in the nation. Propelled by public outcry over the suicide of a Rutgers University freshman, Tyler Clementi, nearly a year ago, it demands that all public schools adopt comprehensive antibullying policies (there are 18 pages of “required components”), increase staff training and adhere to tight deadlines for reporting episodes.

Each school must designate an antibullying specialist to investigate complaints; each district must, in turn, have an antibullying coordinator; and the State Education Department will evaluate every effort, posting grades on its Web site. Superintendents said that educators who failed to comply could lose their licenses.

You'd think it'd be obvious to anyone with a brain calling an armed taxfeeder with a gun to solve a dispute between children is not a recipe for conflict resolution.