New Tennessee law could punish students for bullying | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A new Tennessee law could punish students for bullying and cyberbullying.

HB2590/SB1887could punish students accused of bullying with offenses subject to the same penalties as harassment. The law goes into effect July 1, 2024.

Sponsor of the bill Representative Lowell Russell (R-Vonore) says students 18 years or older will face a Class A misdemeanor, and students under 18 years old will face a delinquent act.

“Bullying is a factor of, acts of violence and suicides, and I was sort of surprised under the harassment statute that wasn’t defined at all,” said Rep. Russell.

The legislation will also require an officer to make a report of bullying and notify a parent or guardian when the victim is a minor.

Rep. Russell tells FOX 17 News he drafted this bill after learning a parent wanted to file a police report when their child was bullied at school, but the parent claims the school did not want to report it.

We wanted to make sure there is documentation of these, bullying offenses and that the parents can if if the school resource officer does not want to charge, they can actually take the report down to the clerk’s office and swear out warrants themselves,” said Rep.Russell.

JC Bowman with Professional Educators of Tennessee says this law is headed in the right direction, but he says it needs some work.

“Causing emotional distress and or creating a hostile education environment. Both of those are subjective, and I’m not sure they’re real clear on how they’re defining those,” said Bowman.

Bowman says one of the problems with this law is the lack of consequences, only a record, but still no punishment.

See the bill in its entirely here or below:

Get reports like this and all the news of the day in Middle Tennessee delivered to your inbox each morning with the FOX 17 News Daily Newsletter.