Anti-bullying bill remains on House Republicans’ shelf

DES MOINES - Whether to allow exceptions for notifying parents of bullying incidents is the biggest hang-up preventing a new anti-bullying proposal from becoming law in Iowa, key legislative leaders said Thursday.

Iowa House Republican leadership continues to keep a pin in the anti-bullying bill, a third attempt in as many years to give schools additional tools to address bullying on and off school grounds.

This year's proposal has the approval of Republican Gov. Terry Branstad and was passed, 43-7, a month ago by the Democratic-controlled Iowa Senate.

House Republican leaders Thursday again declined to promise the proposal will get a vote this year, saying their members are working to address their concerns with the bill.

Chief among those concerns, House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer said, is a provision that allows school officials to decide against notifying a parent of a bullying incident if the official or victim thinks notification would place the victim in danger of further harm.

'We believe parents and families are absolutely critical to addressing any kind of issues,” Upmeyer said, adding she does not want the provision to become a 'loophole.”

Upmeyer said she is concerned the exception also may run afoul of the state's mandatory reporter law, which includes educators among those who must report child abuse.

But according to the state Department of Human Services, the mandatory reporting law applies only to child abuse, which must involve a caretaker; it does not apply to incidents between children.

And the mandatory reporter law applies only to evidence of abuse that already has happened. It does not, for example, require educators to report abuse they fear may happen in the future.

So the bill remains on hold despite widespread support outside the House Republican caucus, and perhaps even within.

Upmeyer and House Speaker Kraig Paulsen declined to say what percentage of House Republicans have concerns about the bill.

Four Republicans on April 22 voted in support of House Democrats' failed procedural attempt to bring the bill to the floor for debate.

Among them was Rep. Ron Jorgensen, R-Sioux City, chairman of the House Education Committee.

'I hope whatever the issues are, we can get them resolved so we have an opportunity to vote on it,” Jorgensen said Thursday.

When asked why Republicans have not brought the bill to the floor and addressed their concerns through amendments, Jorgensen said, 'Good question.”

When asked the same question, Upmeyer said Republicans 'are working on that.”

Sen. Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, urged House Republicans to call up the anti-bullying bill. He said the recent suicide of a 12-year-old girl from central Iowa, whose mother said her daughter had been bullied at school, is an example of why the state must enact the new proposal.

'Oh, there's a little hitch in it so they're not going to deal with it. A hitch?” Bisignano said. 'Well, there are people that are going to die between our adjournment and next January because we didn't bother to push the House to send that bill back over and try to get a compromise and try to do the right thing, and I think that that is the worse act, or non-act, that this Legislature has taken this year.”

Iowa law permits schools to address bullying incidents. The new proposal gives schools more tools and clarifies their ability to address incidents that occur off-grounds, including online.