Education department, Iowa schools need to look at bullying policies, Branstad says

Gov. Terry Branstad said the state Department of Education and local school districts need to look at how they handle bullying complaints and change their policies if necessary.

Branstad's comments came after the suicide of Kenneth Weishuhn, a 14-year-old boy from South O'Brien High School in Paullina, who was bullied after he told some classmates that he was gay.

State law requires that school districts have a written policy to address bullying and report incidents to bullying to the state. But incidents of reported bullying are far below national reported averages, and some school districts have reported no incidents of bullying since the reporting requirement went into effect in the 2007-08 school year.

“I want to see us do more in the future,” Branstad said. “I want to make sure the department of ed is doing all it can to inform and prepare school districts to effectively deal with the challenges that occur with bullying.

“It's not an easy thing, and I know maybe this is a difficult area for school districts, but it is critically important that we do everything we can to make sure we have safety and security for all of our students in the state of Iowa.”

Currently, the state is piloting a more comprehensive anti-bullying program this school year and may expand it statewide depending on the results from the test sites. The program is paid for by a $13.9 million federal Safe and Supportive Schools grant.

An anti-bullying march is being planned for Wednesday at the Statehouse. The march is being promoted through a

Facebook group titled “No Bully Iowa” and already has been linked by several state lawmakers.