Megan Meier was 13 years old when she met Josh on MySpace. He was attractive and interested in her, but the encounter would lead to her suicide in a quiet St. Louis suburb in 2006, according to the Megan Meier Foundation.
As it came to light following her suicide, Josh was never real. He was a fabrication and the product of a cruel joke or “cyber-bullying” by the parent of a school classmate, according to the foundation.
Her story goes on to say after Josh became mean, harassing and started bullying Megan, she felt so humiliated that she hung herself in her closet, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
This tragedy is what prompted the creation of the Megan Meier Foundation, which focuses on helping craft legislation regarding bullying, cyber-bullying and raising awareness in public schools.
Megan’s mom Tina Meier founded the organization and has since been an advocate for raising awareness around bullying so this incident never happens to another family, the foundation’s program manager Nicole Collins said.
Meier recently collaborated with representative Sue Allen, R-District 92, in crafting legislation to further define the requirements school districts must abide by to ensure bullying is reduced, Collins said.
The legislation also defines “cyber-bullying” so as to encompass the ever-growing realm of social media and technology such as Facebook, Twitter, email and even texting, according to the bill.
“You can’t legislate healthy behaviors,” Allen said. “People have freedom to do bad things, but the legislation is to address some specific issues we want schools to address.”
The specifics of the bill include the addition of “discrimination” into the definition of bullying, mandating all students and staff to report instances of bullying, and requiring school districts to define how they respond to bullying as well as some procedural changes.
The National Forum of Teacher Education said that society as a whole needs to do more and legislation alone is not enough. According to that foundation, conflict resolution offers a promising alternative to supplement bullying policies.
When students are taught skills to resolve disputes and are able to own the solution process, much progress can be made, according to the NFTE.
Columbia public schools are already in compliance with most of what the new legislation requires, and currently, all students must undergo 450 minutes of instruction annually regarding bullying in grades six, seven and eight.
The Meier foundation has worked with the Columbia Public School District and states that already have clearly defined bullying standards and is ahead of most other districts regarding the issue, Collins said.
Any form of bullying is strictly prohibited and any student participating in bullying is subject to suspension or expulsion from the school they attend, according to the school district’s policies.
At Russell Elementary in Columbia, anti-bullying instruction starts as early as kindergarten. “Bully Free Zone” posters are visible throughout the hallways, and students learn how to solve differences in positive ways, first-grade teacher Maggie Drennan said.
“I think there is a need to be proactive and continue to teach about what a bully is and what behaviors a bully exhibits so that students will recognize them and be empowered to handle a bullying situation,” Drennan said.
There is still work to be done to ensure tragedies like Megan’s do not happen again. Meier offers free appearances at schools, but oftentimes school administrators are still not proactive and show little interest, Collins said.
“You’d be surprised at the amount of school administrators who still don’t want to admit this is a problem,” Collins said.
If passed, the new legislation will also include a provision that a targeted student can even initiate legal civil action against an ongoing bully, as long as all required procedures have been followed.
