Minnesota: Weak on Bullying
Amid several well-publicized suicides that may have been linked to bullying, and a growing national debate on the topic, we wanted to know what Minnesota schools had in place to combat bullying. Turns out the answer in many cases was not much – the result of arguably one of the weakest state laws in the country. At 37 words, it declared that school districts must have an anti-bullying policy, but provided no guidance on what it should contain and no mechanisms for enforcing the meager mandate. That would change after our reports aired. In addition to several radio components, the project included several multimedia components. We requested the anti-bullying policies from all 492 districts and charter schools (all but 19 responded) and posted them for the audience to compare. I compiled information about bullying from a statewide student survey and presented district level information in a series of interactive maps. The project won several awards, including a regional Murrow and Best in Show in the annual Minnesota AP broadcast contest.
