<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/03/11/news/state/38-bullying-policy.txt">Bullying policies mandated by state</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>June Hermanson of Montana Youth Leadership Forum, which helps develop leadership skills among kids with disabilities, said disabled kids are often the target of bullying in schools.<br />n<br />nMontana has one of the highest rates of teen-age suicide in the nation, and it's time to add the anti-bullying policy to school standards, she said.<br />n<br />n"It's time that all of Montana's kids are protected," Hermanson said.</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo June, the reason Montana's suicide rate is so high is we don't have an anti-bullying policy? I would like to see the facts to support this position. It seems like quite a stretch to me.<br />n<br />nIf teachers and staff of schools are not doing anything now about bullying what makes a person think they will do anything about it if there is a written policy? It takes people who care to deal with this kind of thing and if they don't care now, a written policy isn't going to change things. Just because you codify it doesn't mean people listen.<br />n<br />nThen check this out.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>Rep. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, said anti-bullying policies should spell out the classifications of people it intends to protect.</blockquote><br />n<br />nSo, we are only going to protect certain "classes of people." Not everybody is good enough to rate an anti-bullying policy, just the specially protected ones.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>One of those features says the policy should "acknowledge that victims of (bullying) are often targeted because their perceived vulnerabilities," which can include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," as well as race, religion and disabilities.</blockquote><br />n<br />nIt looks like this is just another way of divide and conquer. Divide people into different "classes," convince them everybody else is out to get them and convince them the only way to protect them is an over-reaching government program that specifically targets them. Don't give them the backing to stand up for themselves, make them dependent on the State.<br />n<br />n<b>I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Anne Sullivan</b>