Taking Care of Their Own

Here is a study in how Republicons protect their own. Ed Brayton informs us that a panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Michigan has overturned a trial court ruling and allowed a student's lawsuit against his school for failing to prevent egregious, systemic bullying to come to trial. At the end, we get this gem:

Stutzky noted that this ruling comes close on the heels of the failure of a bill in the Michigan legislature, Matt's Safe School Law, that would have required schools to have programs to deal with bullying:

Bullying that is not dealt with comprehensively and systemically will always increase rather than staying at the level it's at. The state legislature had an opportunity to deal with this on a statewide basis and failed. The reality is that a lot of schools do not have any kind of specific policy dealing with bullying. And like with any other type of serious situation, we need good legislation to provide greater safety and a means for dealing with it when it does happen. We need this legislation passed so that the state stands up and recognizes that this is a serious problem and we need to address this.

That bill was named for Matt Epling, a young man from East Lansing who took his own life in 2002 after serious hazing from classmates. As the Lansing State Journal reported on Sunday, the bill had broad bipartisan support but was prevented from getting a vote in the state Senate by Majority Leader Alan Cropsey (R-Dewitt).

Apparently, State Sen. Cropsey was afraid some future Cons may be sissyfied by being forced to treat their classmates like human beings. Heaven forfend these promising young Cons be turned into mushy moderates or - even worse - liberals, by an enlightened school policy.

Seriously, though, I wonder if anyone's ever done a study on the proportion of school bullies who become Republicons. I imagine the number's disproportionately high.