{"id":42349,"date":"2014-03-11T15:42:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T20:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=42349"},"modified":"2014-03-12T07:40:04","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T12:40:04","slug":"the-stasi-bill-versus-the-anti-bullying-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=42349","title":{"rendered":"The &#8220;Stasi Bill&#8221; Versus The &#8220;Anti-Bullying Bill&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The DFL&#8217;s &#8220;bullying bill&#8221; is a special interest sop; it creates protected classes against whom bullying is\u00a0<em>double dog\u00a0<\/em>bad. \u00a0 It&#8217;s a type of bill that seems, elsewhere in the country, to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=10&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0CHoQFjAJ&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usnews.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2013%2F09%2F13%2Fstudy-anti-bullying-programs-may-have-opposite-effect&amp;ei=pU4gU-D7H8_82gXvjID4Bw&amp;usg=AFQjCNERE-J5YMMswGrgyqMb_bBwN9QzOg&amp;sig2=WWGBLy2yvh8hBiny23P1TQ&amp;bvm=bv.62788935,d.b2I\">have the effect of increasing bullying<\/a> of the kids they&#8217;re intended to protect &#8211; not to mention\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cnsnews.com\/commentary\/hans-bader\/anti-bullying-programs-backfire-used-excuse-censor-conservative-speech\">increasing\u00a0the official &#8220;bullying&#8221; and censorship of dissent<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0It might be better called the &#8220;Stasi Bill&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the real reason the DFL supports it is that it creates yet another well-paid, unionized bureaucracy to staff with members of the political class.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP, thankfully, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twincities.com\/education\/ci_25315199\/senate-gop-offers-up-bullying-bill-alternative\">offering an alternative<\/a> &#8211; a bill that offers to-the-point protection of actual victims, rather than a generalized snitching system that can be used as a cudgel against pretty much anyone doing anything:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic;\">Republican senators Monday afternoon announced the &#8220;Stamp Out Bullying&#8221; bill, which is modeled after legislation that&#8217;s been successful in other states and receives a top rating from a national anti-bullying group&#8230;<\/span>State Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, a leading critic of Dibble&#8217;s bill, said in a news release that he expects the alternative anti-bullying bill to receive bipartisan support. He said his legislation will protect students while allowing school districts to maintain local control.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This proposal keeps school resources in the classroom where they belong, and doesn&#8217;t place an added burden on school districts already struggling with tight budgets. It protects all students, keeps parents informed, and gives school districts a solid framework to develop solutions that work for their communities,&#8221; Chamberlain said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Being realistic? \u00a0I&#8217;d say the GOP&#8217;s best hope is to get Republicans and not-insane DFLers to push either for Chamberlain&#8217;s bill, or to amend Dibble&#8217;s &#8216;bill to strip out the objectionable stuff like the Stasi provisions and the protected classes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;which is the stuff that the Metro DFL wants, which makes them poison pills.<\/p>\n<p>Such is politics in the minority.<\/p>\n<p>Elections have consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DFL&#8217;s &#8220;bullying bill&#8221; is a special interest sop; it creates protected classes against whom bullying is\u00a0double dog\u00a0bad. \u00a0 It&#8217;s a type of bill that seems, elsewhere in the country, to have the effect of increasing bullying of the kids they&#8217;re intended to protect &#8211; not to mention\u00a0increasing\u00a0the official &#8220;bullying&#8221; and censorship of dissent. \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42349"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42354,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42349\/revisions\/42354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}