Village Academic Curriculum: Bullying is Discrimination

May 28, 2010 by admin

"Uh," "um," "I guess." That's pretty much the gist of Sen. Al Franken's (D-Comedy Central/Minnesota) description of his proposed Student Non-Discrimination Act, which, according to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), "would prohibit discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity." Or at least Franken kind of sort of seems to think so.

When MPR's Cathy Wurzer asked Franken for specifics on what the bill qualifies as "harassment," he answered, "[U]h, it's one of these things that you know it when you see it." Well, that clears it up. And when Wurzer pressed the issue, Franken responded, "I don't, uh, believe we have the language in it to define bullying, but maybe I do. I'm not -- I'm not sure about that aspect of, of the bill. I know that it's, it's, it's defined the same way as it is for, um, race or for religion, or, um, the, uh, disability -- the other reasons that are outlawed in, in -- nationally.

In other words, all these other things, uh, are, are national, uh, but not, uh, gay and lesbian." It's bad enough not to read a bill before voting on it (think health care overhaul) or before criticizing it (think Arizona's immigration bill), but for a senator not to know what's in a bill he himself has proposed, well, the inmates really are running the asylum. At least schoolyard bullies will think twice before discriminating.
http://patriotpost.us/edition/2010/05/28/digest/