WHEREAS, a safe and conducive learning environment is essential in order for our schools to be successful; and

WHEREAS, students, teachers, and school administrators must work together to prevent, raise awareness of, and create intervention strategies to deal with bullying, which often goes underreported; and

WHEREAS, a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that fourteen per cent of students ages twelve to eighteen report being bullied at schools; and

WHEREAS, according to the Department of Education's Safe Schools Community Advisory Committee, bullying and harassment are pervasive in Hawaii's public schools; and

WHEREAS, the Safe Schools Community Advisory Committee has been, for the past year, reviewing its policies on harassment and re-examining Chapter 8-19 of the Department of Education's administrative rules; and

WHEREAS, the current definition of harassment in the administrative rules does not include cyber bullying, which is a form of harassment using electronic forms of communication, including email and the Internet; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, that the Board of Education and the Department of Education are urged to amend their policies and administrative rules to include cyber bullying as a form of harassment subject to investigation and disciplinary action in the same manner as other forms of harassment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education, the Superintendent of Education, and the Chairperson of the Safe Schools Community Advisory Committee.

Report Title:

Department of Education; Harassment; Bullying; Cyberbullying