Protection+and+action

=The HB 116: The Jessica Logan Law= Jessica was a bright, beautiful and funny teen who lived in Ohio. When she turned 18 in her high school senior year, she was dating a 19-year-old. She sent a few nude photos of herself to him using her cell phone, as many teen girls now do. When they broke up, he sent it to at least one girl who sent it to others. The image made the rounds of Jessica’s school and the other community schools. What had been a private communication became public humiliation. Her story stirred up a lot of debate about bullying and teenage problems. A bill was created and passed in hopes to take a step in the direction to end bullying in schools.

[|Read more of Jessica's story here]

The Bill itself has been passed by the Gov. John Kasich on February 2nd, 2012. This bill is hoped to force schools to take more action when it //comes to bullying.//

//"House Bill 116 requires school districts to establish cyber-bullying policies and to annually teach teachers and inform parents about their overall bullying policies. It also requires them to teach students about the policies if state or federal funding is provided for that purpose. It was signed into law by Gov. John Kasich on February 2, 2012.// //The bill was named in memory of [|Jessica Logan], a Cincinnati teenager who committed suicide after being harassed over nude photos she sent to a former boyfriend.// //State law already required school districts to have anti-bullying policies. Existing law defined bullying as “any intentional written, verbal, or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once and the behavior both causes mental or physical harm to the other student and is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for the other student.” Violence within a dating relationship is also considered bullying.// //HB 116 requires school districts to include bullying committed using a cell phone, computer or or other electronic communication device in their anti-bullying policies.// //Nationally, 28 percent of students age 12 through 18 reported being bullied at school in the 2008-09 school year, according to the [|National Center for Education Statistics] under the definition of bullying described [|in this presentation]. About 6 percent reported being the victim of online bullying.// //The national statistics showed that students who reported being bullied at school were more often the victims of name calling or rumors rather than of threats of harm or actual physical attacks. And reports of bullying tended to decrease as students got older."//

 Now teachers, students, and parents can feel a little safer when it comes to online use. Cyberbullying is a big problem in the world today, but states are now taking action and hoping to eliminate this problem, one step at a time.