Attleboro City Council to explore how to stop bullying.

Submitted by Jerry Halberstadt on Sun, 10/13/2013 - 01:13

The Attleboro (MA) Human Rights Council is to be congratulated for their efforts to remedy the injustice affecting targets of bullying. The Attleboro City Council, if it passes an ordinance on bullying, would make history in the fight against bullying.

The Human Rights Council is working on policies that can resolve problems in public and subsidized housing. On October 8, members of the Attleboro Human Rights Council urged the City Council to craft effective procedures "with teeth" to stop bullying. They pointed to the rise in bullying affecting children in school, the elderly, and the disabled, and the lack of tools for intervention. One case which frustrated their efforts involved a woman living with disability who was unable to get protection from bullying in a privately owned but federally subsidized housing complex.

Sara Lynn Reynolds, the Chairwoman of the city council committee, sees the need to change behavior, not just punish, and promised to engage police, state housing and local housing officials to seek solutions.

Based on a report by George W. Rhodes in the October 10, 2013 Attleboro Sun Chronicle, "Put teeth in bullying policy" http://tinyurl.com/llaxys7