Bill would require stronger campus hate-crime reporting

Source: Associated Press


Brian Witte, Associated Press
Updated 1:17 pm, Friday, January 26, 2018



ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland's public colleges and universities would be required to develop stronger policies for reporting and documenting hate crimes and bias incidents on campuses, under a measure introduced in the General Assembly on Friday in response to a fatal stabbing of a black Bowie State University student at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Democratic Delegate Angela Angel partly modeled her bill on some actions already taken at the College Park campus in the aftermath of U.S Army 2nd Lt. Richard Collins' death in May, with a goal of seeing those replicated statewide. For example, it calls for a coordinator to take reports and make sure they are posted online for students, faculty and the public to see. The University of Maryland is in the process of hiring such a coordinator.

"I hope the steps the University of Maryland is taking to make the campus a safe place for all students is expanded to all other universities and colleges in the state, and hopefully other states are able to model this bill to protect their students as well," said Yanet Amanuel, Angel's chief of staff and a former University of Maryland student who was a member of a coalition representing minority groups on campus that urged the university to take stronger measures to prevent hate crimes.

Under bill, the outcome of investigations would be made public. The measure also would require an annual report to the General Assembly on hate crimes and bias incidents at Maryland's public universities.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Bill-would-require-stronger-campus-hate-crime-12528289.php