Font ResizeSANTA FE - The state Senate on Friday approved a bill to fight bullies.
Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mary Jane Garcia of Do-a Ana, the measure carried on a 30-9 vote.
Garcia's bill would require the state Department of Public Education to establish guidelines for bullying prevention, and for the state's 89 school districts to implement them.
The education department, since 2006, has had detailed anti-bullying rules, but Garcia said individual districts and schools still were not vigilant about stopping bullies before they hurt somebody.
"Some schools aren't doing anything," she said.
Garcia said she decided to push anti-bullying legislation because of a 2008 Las Vegas, N.M., case in which six football players from Robertson High School sodomized younger teammates with broomsticks during a hazing incident. All six were convicted in criminal court, and the last of them was sentenced in 2010.
Democratic Sen. Pete Campos, a college president who once was superintendent of the Las Vegas district, voted for the bill.
Nine Republicans opposed it.
"It's a feel-good bill, and we'll look like the bad guys for voting against it," said Sen. Vernon Asbill of Carlsbad.
Asbill, a retired school superintendent, said there is not a teacher in New Mexico who would abide bullying. When it happens, it is dealt with swiftly, he said.
"This is another unfunded mandate we're putting on schools, and we're taking a day of their time for training," Asbill said.
The measure, SB
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@-tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.
