Senate panel endorses one anti-bullying bill, rejects another
by Bill Barrow - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE -- A Senate panel Thursday approved one anti-bullying measure for Louisiana public schools and struck down another, siding with Gov. Bobby Jindal and social conservatives who don't want the law to list characteristics, including sexual orientation, that warrant protection against mistreatment. Sen. Rick Ward III, D-Maringouin, won a unanimous vote for a proposal that would require all public school governing boards to develop anti-bullying policies and redefine the state's existing description of bullying. The bill, a substitute for Ward's original Senate Bill 709, defines bullying as "any pattern" of several behaviors. Among them: obscene gestures or making faces; written, electronic or verbal name-calling, threatening harm, taunting, malicious teasing or spreading untrue rumors; certain physical acts; "repeatedly and purposefully shunning or excluding from activities."