The Indiana school system is back in the news, this time because of House Bill 1169, the “Restoring School Discipline Act.” The bill would allow the disciplinary action of students conducting activities that “may reasonably be considered to be an interference with school purposes or an educational function.”
Bill 1169 was brought to the Indiana House last month by State Rep. Eric Koch with what he says is the expressed purpose of addressing cyber bullying: “In limiting grounds for suspension and expulsion to only ‘unlawful’ conduct, current law ties the hands of school officials to effectively deal with dangerous and disruptive behavior, including cyber bullying.”
Essentially, Koch is attempting to give schools the power to punish students, even when the student is off property and not on the school’s time.
As Bill 1169 has been promoted to the next tier of approval, the term “unlawful” referring to actions of the student were struck out from earlier drafts. This means that they behavior of the student does not meed to be illegal for it to come into the question of the school supervisors that will be monitoring this endeavor.
Parents have voiced support of a bill that addresses bullying in school, cyber or otherwise. However, nowhere in Bill 1169 does the term “bully” or “bullying” appear. In fact, the very broad terms and outlines within the Bill 1169 has raised concern with lawmakers and free speech advocates alike.
Ken Falk from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said, “if the student engages in lawful activity off of school grounds, there’s a very high standard that has to be applied before that can somehow lead to discipline. Clearly that cannot be deemed to be a disruption that interferes with school purposes, when everything that student has done is off school grounds.”
In Bill 1169’s current interpretation, any behavior at anytime away from school campus (including school and summer break) that a teacher or school official believes is disruptive, counter-productive, or damaging to the property or educational function of the school (and not limited to illegal); they have the ability to call for the suspension or expulsion of the student in question.
House Bill 1169 appears in the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development on Wednesday. If you have any opinion or concern, contact your local representatives and voice your opinion.