The Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) is a bipartisan bill that was recently introduced to help prevent bullying schools.
Though the bill seeks to protect children from bullying due to their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion, one huge category of children have been excluded– fat kids. Also, there’s no protection with respect to short or tall kids either.
So please go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and search the listing by State to find the names of your U.S. Senators. Then complete the form and ask them to amend the Safe Schools Improvement Act to include weight and height as a protected class.
Here’s a form letter to help you out!
Dear Senator ____________:
As you know, The Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) is a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate by Senators Bob Casey and Mark Kirk to help prevent bullying in schools. The Safe Schools Improvement Act would require schools and districts receiving designated federal funds to adopt codes of conduct specifically prohibiting bullying and harassment, including conduct based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
While I support the intent of this legislation, there is an entire segment of children that would not be covered in this legislation as currently written, children who are fat or perceived to be fat.
There are numerous studies that outline the effects of bullying on children because of their size and/or body image. Here are just a few links to articles on these studies (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/03/health/main615159.shtml and http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/03/us-obese-s-idUSTRE6421XQ20100503).
Along with fat children, short children are often bullying victims due to their size.
Therefore, I ask that you to submit an amendment to the Safe Schools Improvement Act to include weight and height as a prohibited basis for bullying.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
______________________
Fat Activist
I was just about to send this and I realized it says nothing about socioeconomic status. This the poor are bullied constantly. Wont you think about them as well.
@Ashley, that’s an excellent point and I agree with you. You should add that to your letter for sure.
I think it is great to stand up for fat kids, and they do need standing up for, but I think a better way to approach this when addressing a Senator or House Representative would be to include body variation. When you pick out protection for just fat kids, you leave out protection for kids with large noses, or ears that stick out, who are short, or tall, or anyone who’s bodies could be seen as deviant from the very narrow acceptable range of variation. None of these kids would be protected as ‘disabled,’ and it would be just as much a disservice to label them as such as it would be to label a fat kid as such. These variations often can occur outside of the confines of race, but if we can open up acceptance of all human variation, it in turn could bolster efforts to turn our beauty ideals away from the ‘tall thin blond northern European’ stereo type, and make room for the Polynesian girl with her silky black hair and round moon face outside of the exoticism frame. In the end, I feel you are with me in spirit, that no one group should be left out, but I implore you to widen your scope even further.
@Squeegeelicious, I think you make a good point. I had put “height and weight” but I think it should be “height, weight, and appearance.” Of course, you can feel free to write whatever you want to your senators and reps!
To whom do we write if we believe that federal “Codes of Conduct” all too often turn into bizarre zero tolerance policies that hurt children? I’m really not sure why this is a federal rather than local issue, and while I hate bullying, I also hate one-size-fits-all policies that end up demonizing troubled kids and ruining their lives over behavior they can and should be taught to outgrow.
@Amy, Can you give some examples of “federal “Codes of Conduct” all too often turn into bizarre zero tolerance policies that hurt children”?
Also, lots of things are federal issues when federal money is involved.
I’m not sure if I get your point. Are you saying that this could demonize bully-ers, who may be troubled children who should be dealt with kindly as well? I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad point.
Done!
thanks Golda for putting together this form letter! I know that fat kids are bullied all the time (I teach high school). I try to stop it when I see it, but it’s not possible to catch everyone. On the positive side, teens of all sizes are friends at my school, and I’ve seen the thin kids come to the defense of the fat kids more than once too!
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RT @bodylovewellnes: [New Post] Tell Your Senator To Protect Fat Kids From Bullying Too (Form Letter Included) – via #twitoaster http:// …
RT @bodylovewellnes: [New Post] Tell Your Senator To Protect Fat Kids From Bullying Too (Form Letter Included) – via #twitoaster http:// …
RT @bodylovewellnes: [New Post] Tell Your Senator To Protect Fat Kids From Bullying Too (Form Letter Included) – via #twitoaster http:// …