Wisconsin city to fine parents $681 if their kids bully. Is that fair?
Can parents prevent their children from bullying their peers at school? The Shawano City Council in Wisconsin seems to think so.
In the latest effort to curb bullying in schools, the county has passed an ordinance that willl, Fox11 News in Green Bay, Wisc., reports.聽The city plans to coordinate efforts聽with local school districts and the police to identify bullies.
The ordinance follows an idea that some experts have long held; that children turning into bullies is in part, a result of lack of proper discipline at home. That if parents mold their children's behavior when they are young, 聽and to treat others fairly then the children are less likely to become bullies at schools.
Two other cities in the state; Plova and Monoma have聽.
The new law is mirrored after similar state laws that seek to hold parents accountable for their children鈥檚 crimes if it is established that the parents are "." It targets聽school-age children聽who are聽18 and under.
But some experts contend that the laws may be getting ahead of behavioral research.聽
There haven鈥檛 been enough studies that show how this approach has been applied and whether it is effective, Justin Patchin, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, tells the 海角大神 Science Monitor in a telephone interview.
In his blog addressing for their children鈥檚 behavior, Dr. Patchin says there needs to be more research before these laws are passed.
鈥渋t鈥檚 impossible to speak about whether they are a good tool or not,鈥� Eve Brank, a professor of law and psychology at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln who has studied parental responsibility laws in depth, told Patchin for his blog. "We know that parents certainly play an important role in raising their children, but we do not know the effect of imposing legal sanctions on them when their children are involved in illegal behavior.鈥� 聽
Patchin, who has worked with children involved in cyberbullying, says that parents often don鈥檛 know that their children bully, and when they do, they are usually quick to respond. He says that some of these children are often suffering from psychological disorders that parents can鈥檛 handle.
And others agree. 鈥淗olding parents legally responsible for their children's behavior, however, is聽," Jessica Henry, a former public defender and chairperson of the Department of Justice Studies at Montclair State University, writes in the Ashbury Park Press. 鈥淎s research on juvenile delinquency has established, children are developmentally immature, lacking in impulse control and an understanding of the long-term consequences of their actions. To hold most parents liable for the ill-conceived, albeit sometimes vicious, actions of their children seems, to put it mildly, unfair.鈥�
In the Shawano City Council case, parents will be alerted when it is established that their child were involved in bullying incidents, and they will have 90 days to rectify the situation. If the child鈥檚 behavior doesn鈥檛 change, the parents will be fined up to $366. If the child is implicated in a second incident the parent will face a $681 fine.
Cases of bullying have recently declined in recent times, according to a 2015 report by the the US Department of Education. As the 海角大神 Science Monitor reported, the number of students who reported to have experienced cases of bullying聽dropped to 22 percent in 2012-1213, the highest decline since 2005.聽
One key reason for the apparent drop in harmful behaviors among students is that 鈥測oung people are leading the way in gaining a greater acceptance of diversity,鈥� says Nancy Willard,聽director of Embrace Civility in the Digital Age in Eugene, Ore. 鈥淲hat I have seen in schools is that among teens it is no longer cool to denigrate somebody because of their sexual orientation or identity.鈥�
A study by the National Bullying Prevention Center found that more than聽half of the bullying incidents are likely to be stopped聽聽on behalf of the victim.
Rather than holding parents responsible, studies suggest several other approaches ranging from engaging students in more conversation about bullying, to school-based prevention programs, to self-defense classes.
The school climate matters a great deal, and so do collaborative efforts between educators and parents, says Patchin.聽
