Another Student Suicide Highlights Bullying Bill

By Joe Schoenmann

Published March 9, 2015 at 1:18 PM PDT

Boy with backpack — The suicide of a young woman highlights the problem of bullying and the new bill to try to hold schools more accountable for stopping bullies.

Two weeks ago, another middle-school student committed suicide and the 14-year-old’s mother has blamed her daughter’s death on cyberbullying.

The suicide comes a little more than a year after the December 2013 suicide of 13-year-old Hailee Lamberth, whose parents are suing the Clark County School District, accusing the district of not doing enough to stop bullying they say caused their daughter’s death.

In court filings, the district has blamed Hailee Lamberth for her own death.

Meanwhile, State Senator David Parks, D –LV, has introduced a bill to toughen penalties on schools that fail to tell parents about bullying, while requiring psychological assessments for suspected bullies.

The bill would also shorten the time period that a school would have to take action to 24 hours.

“What we’re trying to do is not let an issue languish that needs to be addressed immediately,” Parks told KNPR’s State of Nevada.

Governor Brian Sandoval has introduced a similar bill that is close to what Parks has proposed and has proposed spending $36 million on anti-bullying efforts in Nevada.

But Parks believe legislators will come together to create and pass a compromise bill to address the problem.

State Sen. David Parks, D-LV