The Ohio Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is now representing an openly gay, 15-year-old Unioto High School student who was violently beaten by another student at that Chillicothe area school last month. The ACLU’s James Hardiman says he wants Unioto High School to make changes to prevent this type of thing from happening again, but he says the school doesn’t need to develop an anti-bullying policy.
"They have a policy in place because I've read the policy. Exactly when the policy went into effect, remains to be seen. The problem is not with the policy. The problem is enforcing the policy. Because if they have a policy in place, but don't bother to enforce it, or if they blow off allegations of bullying... if they take the position that this is not all that serious because kids will be kids, then it tends to escalate. If you have a policy but no teeth, then you've not accomplished a great deal. And from what we can gather, that's kind of the situation that we have."
Hardiman has sent a letter to the school asking it to take actions to make the school safer for his client and other students who are the subject of bullying.