Supporters: anti-bullying law won't pass this year
RALEIGH (AP) - An effort to require North Carolina school districts to adopt detailed anti-bullying policies won't pass the General Assembly this year, key supporters of the legislation said Thursday.
"The fight's over," said Sen. Doug Berger, D-Franklin, after Senate leaders sent a negotiated compromise with the House from the floor late Thursday afternoon back to committee. "The vote would have been very, very close."
The measure would have required districts to approve bullying and harassment prevention policies at least as restrictive as those laid out in the bill. But conservative Christian groups lobbied hard against the measure in part because they argued it would advance special protections for gay citizens in North Carolina.
A handful of Democratic senators were worried that their votes would have been used against them by Republicans in the November election.
"I think the Senate was bullied on the bullying bill," said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, the chief sponsor of the legislation.
The compromise bill lists the kinds of characteristics of a person who could be susceptible to bullying. The bill defines the activity reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived characteristic including race, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and masculinity and femininity.
Opponents of the measure weren't declaring victory until this year's session adjourns, which probably will happen Friday afternoon.
The Senate agreed last year to support a bill without a list, which social conservatives said they could support. But the compromise finally reached earlier this week sided with the House and left the list largely intact.
"We do not oppose the Legislature to pass a broad-based anti-bullying policy that covers all children," said John Rustin, lobbyist for the North Carolina Family Policy Council, but "they don't seem interested in doing that."
Listing characteristics is needed to make clear who the most likely victims are, and that school personnel cannot ignore abuse against them, supporters said.
Glazier and Berger both said they believed there were ultimately enough votes in the 50-member Senate to pass the negotiated bill but that there were too many supporters were absent late in the week.
"We'll certainly be coming back on this issue"
