Schoolyard bullies may soon need defense attorneys in Carson City CA
The Carson City Council is currently considering an ordinance that would make it a crime for anyone to bully a child from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they turn 25. If approved, the ordinance could have bullies and their parents facing misdemeanor or infraction charges and hiring defense attorneys as early as this June.
Currently, bullying is treated as a school discipline issue rather than a criminal issue in California. Our Education Code does contain some of the best bullying rules in the nation, but the punishments are limited to measures such as suspension or expulsion from school. Yet bullying is by no means confined to school property and school hours. Cyberbullying is growing ever more prevalent, and with this new electronic means of communication bullies can now torment kids anytime, anywhere.
Yet there are currently no state or federal statutes to deal with bullying outside of school, though many components of bullying are covered in statutes regarding assault, stalking, identity theft, child cruelty, disturbing the peace, criminal threats, and annoying/threatening communications. Unfortunately, case law suggests that courts are often unwilling to convict minors of these adult crimes based on acts of bullying.
The new ordinance will criminalize “harassment that is engaged in willfully and intentionally and in a course of conduct that demonstrates an intent to harass or abuse or create an environment of terror for a particular minor.”
The ordinance defines harassment as “any conduct, whether verbal, physical, written or by means of any mode of communication” that causes a person to feel “terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested and which serves no legitimate purpose.”
It is undeniable that bullying is a having a negative effect on our society. The Council cited numerous studies and figures supporting this point:
- 28 percent of kids get bullied at some point between 6th and 12th grade
- 160,000 kids miss school due to fear of bullies
- Both bullying and being bullied increases the likelihood of suicide among teens
- 60 percent of boys who engaged in bullying behavior in middle school have at least one criminal conviction as adults
- Witnesses of bullying can also suffer and often experience depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems and/or have an increased use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs
But is criminalizing bullying the answer? We have seen in other areas of law that introducing stricter punishment does not reliably reduce crime. Will kindergarteners have sufficient understanding of the meaning of a “misdemeanor” or “infraction” to deter them from engaging in bullying? Do kindergartners even have sufficient discernment to know when behavior crosses the line to become bullying?
Some detractors of the proposed ordinance worry that it could be used to infringe free speech, though the ordinance specifies that it not be used in that manner.
It will certainly be interesting to keep an eye on this matter and see how well the ordinance stands up to the rigors of real life and the efforts of defense attorneys if passed.
