SIOUX CITY, IA -
The recent death of Kenneth Weishuhn from Primghar, Iowa, who took his own life because he was bullied has sparked many Iowa legislators to take action.
Sioux City lawmaker Chris Hall introduced a bill earlier this year that holds parents accountable. Hall says the bill focuses on mediation, holding parents accountable to ensure when bullying is reported, it is dealt with in a consistent and meaningful way.
"Bullying is a serious enough issue that I think sometimes, it needs to be more prominently known about by the parents of the children and especially the parents of the bully," said Hall, a Democrat who represents Iowa House District 2.
But what constitutes bullying? Hall says that line is still blurry but he's working to change that.
"Bullying I think can be identified, and there are already policies, schools in our state seek to identify bullying or you know, issues of harassment," he said.
Hall's bill proposes a three step process. In step one, the school notifies parents of bullying allegations and works with the family to find the cause of the behavior and stop it. If the parents don't want to participate in this process, the case goes to step two: the school will refer the matter to local courts and mediation. Now if all else fails, there's step number three. The parents could face prosecution, community service, fines or even jail time. That's based on the judge's discretion. Ultimately, this means the parents will be held responsible for their children's actions.
"If the judge and the county prosecutor are able to really understand that the parent is doing everything in their ability to try and in good faith, have their child follow the written agreement, I think that it allows for discretion to be used," said Hall.
We wanted to know what you think about this possible new legislation, and you weighed in on Facebook.
Liljohn said: I think that all states should have this law. Children follow their parents' ways as we all learn from our elders.
Emily Ann told us: I don't know what to think, as there are great parents out there, whom have kids that end up following the crowd and get in trouble. Kids need to be accountable too.
Rona believes: Aggressive behavior is a learned behavior and children's first teachers are their parents.
You can still weigh in on the discussion, just search KMEG 14 on Facebook and look for our post about this subject.
