Senator Lautenberg Wants Law Mandating All Colleges Add Anti-Bullying & Harassment Policy

The suicide of Tyler Clementi, a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, has already started to spark new legislation to ensure the safety of college students. Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge after discovering that his college roommate had live streamed on the Internet a view of Tyler's sexual interaction in his dorm room.

To Gain Federal Funding Anti-Harassment Policy is Needed

Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) has started a push for new legislation that would force all colleges and universities that receive federal funding to add information about prevention of bullying to create new public policies to ensure that students will not be harassed.

This new legislation would also provide money to start new programs to prevent harassment on college campuses. All colleges and universities would benefit from more training for students to learn how to interact in a positive way with all other students.

Senator Lautenberg is deeply impacted by the suicide of Rutgers' student Tyler Clementi. He stated "No one could have heard about this degradation he suffered without feeling pain themselves. This is a major problem and we are going to fix it," notes the Huffington Post.

The Invasion of Tyler Clementi's Privacy

It is tragic that Tyler Clementi did not have privacy in his dorm room. The alleged actions of Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei are shocking and inhumane. What could have motivated them to allegedly do something so evil as invading Tyler's privacy and broadcasting his private moments to the world via the Internet? Just because technology exists does not mean it should be used for evil purposes.

The incident at Rutgers was far more than a prank. It is a hate crime and possibly manslaughter too. It is unfortunate that Tyler had to experience such a horrible incident. The beginning of college is stressful enough without having someone mock you via invading privacy.

Rutgers Non-cooperative with Investigation

NJ.com reports that Rutgers has been subpoenaed regarding the e-mails sent from Tyler Clementi to administrators at Rutgers about the invasion of privacy he experienced on campus. It seems the investigators on this case felt Rutgers was not open about the incident of invasion of privacy.

However, E.J. Miranda of Rutgers told NJ.com "The University is cooperating with the investigation. In some instances, a subpoena is required before the university can release information protected by federal law."

Did Rutgers do enough to keep Tyler safe? It seems not. Once the college was notified of the invasion of privacy issue they should have immediately had Tyler in for a meeting. And then they should have kept him at the meeting until his roommate was removed to another room.

Administrators could have easily, during the meeting, gone online and seen the tweets made on Twitter by the roommate talking about Tyler. There was enough evidence online for it to be clear that Tyler's privacy was invaded.

Rutgers seems to have dropped the ball in this case. The university was not proactive enough to head off tragedy. And that is not all that surprising. Things move slowly on a university campus. Too often situations that are a crisis are not handled quickly enough.

And colleges sometimes take a hard line that learning to get along with a roommate is part of the learning process of college. They sometimes will not make a roommate switch until the end of a semester or they may deny the switch.

Tyler Took Action and Alerted Rutgers

Tyler was in crisis. Gawker reports that it is believed he posted on an online site about the invasion of privacy, noting that he had requested a new roommate and told an RA about the incident and also alerted several of the RA's higher-ups. Tyler took action to try to solve his problem before it overcame him. But did Rutgers take quick action? No, it seems not.

Also, Rutgers has not yet taken any action against the students involved in the invasion of privacy. Does that failure to act say that Rutgers University condones such a vile hate act?

Tyler Clementi is gone now. But his name will live on. America needs to work harder against intolerance to ensure that incidents of this sort do not occur again.

The Haters Need to Step Down

America is losing too many young people to suicide and violence. Live and let live. Be who you are and let others have that freedom too. The haters need to realize that their hating speaks to low self esteem. If you are happy in yourself you don't have the need to hurt others.

And college is often a time of exploration and forming identity. For that to happen freedom is required. College should be a time of learning and figuring out a place in the world. Cruel pranks destroy the camaraderie of college life and destroy lives. Even the best of SAT scores does not mean that you are college material. If someone cannot respect the privacy of others they are a detriment to the college community.

And the adults of America need to set a good example too. I will never forget the moment I arrived at the airport for a business trip in San Francisco and heard a mother tell her sons "Don't touch anything - AIDS!" Ugh, I felt like telling her to stop implanting a terror of gays in the minds of her young sons. Because HIV germs are not going to arrive in their life via the airport.

The diversity of America is the beauty of our nation. We have all kinds of people here. Everyone is allowed to make their own lifestyle choices. And but for the haters that is a wonderful thing.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/07/nj-senator-calls-for-anti_n_753800.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/10/middlesex_prosecutor_subpoenas.html

http://gawker.com/5651659/is-this-webcam-spying-victim-tyler-clementis-last-call-for-help