Under N.J.S.A. 18A:37-15, each school district is granted local control over the contents of the policy and ancillary procedures, but, at a minimum, the ten components listed in the authorizing statute must be included in a school district’s policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying.
Some of the provisions of the authorizing statute call for the school district to stipulate the consequences and appropriate remedial actions for the following instances:
1) persons violating the policy;
2) persons who engage in reprisal or retaliation against someone who reports a violation of the policy; and
3) persons who falsely report allegations of harassment, intimidation or bullying as a means of retaliation or as a means of harassment, intimidation or bullying.
Another provision of the statute requires the school district’s policy to articulate the range of different measures a school will take to respond to violations of the policy. This is according to New Jersey’s “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act.”
When the School fails at its mandated task, parents and guardians may want to find an alternative to a bullying problem that the school district can’t seem to handle. New Jersey’s stalking law (N.J.S.A. 2C:12-10) is a law that can be used to deter bullying in severe cases.