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Metro WeeklyOn March 10, the White House held a conference dedicated to discussing bullying prevention and sharing ideas and strategies for combating the crisis. Despite the setting, the two pieces of federal legislation specifically crafted with that aim were not mentioned by the multiple senior administration officials, including President Barack Obama, who spoke at the event.
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What was completely absent from the president's remarks was any mention – however fleeting – of either legislative effort aimed at combating bullying or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The two main pieces of legislation that advocates such as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) have been pushing are the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) and the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA). The SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying- and harassment-prevention programs, including ones based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The SNDA, modeled after Title IX, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal education nondiscrimination law.
The SSIA was reintroduced by Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) earlier in the week of the conference and has 19 co-sponsors. At the end of the 111th Congress, the bill had 132 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 18 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Senate.
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