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November 4, 2011 at 2:15pm
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Reblogged from thedailywhat

License To Bully of the Day: A controversial bill aimed at providing schools with additional tools to fight bullying passed this week in the Michigan Senate, despite being opposed by all 11 Democrats and the father of the boy who inspired the legislation.

A last-minute addition to “Matt’s Safe School Law” protects “sincerely held” religious beliefs or moral convictions from being considered bullying. Critics feel the language will give anti-gay bullies a “license to bully” by providing an exception. ”This is just unconscionable,” said Matt’s father, Kevin Epling of East Lansing. “This is government-sanctioned bigotry.”

Matt Epling committed suicide in 2002 as a result of unbearable torment he received at the hands of bullies.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer chastised her colleague for approving the legislation. “There are at least 10 Michigan children in the past decade whose deaths are directly attributable to bullying,” she told Senate Republicans. “But had this bill that you’re gonna pass today been law in effect while they were alive, how many of their deaths would have been prevented? Zero.”

“This bill may not be perfect, but it certainly gets us on the road to making sure that local communities pay attention to this problem and put a policy in place,” said Republican state Sen. Rick Jones, the bill’s sponsor. Jones told the Lansing State Journal “he could have done without that language,” but said it was necessary ” to make sure First Amendment rights weren’t being violated.”

Equality Michigan has launched a petition aimed at convincing the Michigan House of Representatives to reject the Senate’s version of the bill.

[freep / lsj / messenger.]