David's Law: Cyberbullying a target for Abilene and other schools this year

At the beginning of last month, David's Law went into effect across Texas.

Designed to start a crackdown on cyberbullying across the state, the law — named after David Molak, a San Antonio teen who killed himself in early 2016 after being bullied online — holds the collective feet of school districts and law enforcement agencies to the fire on matters of harassment.

The law, which was passed during the regular legislative session and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, makes several key changes to definitions, requirements of school districts in the reporting and investigation processes, and attempts to make sure incidents like those that led to Molak's suicide don't happen again.

"When the family was going through it, they realized that there wasn’t really any way for anyone to hold these kids accountable because it was off-campus so schools really didn’t get involved at that point," said Daniel Dukes, director of student services for the Abilene Independent School District. "There were no criminal laws against it, so the parents of David were fighting very hard (to create laws).

"So, somebody’s gotta be accountable and there’s gotta be a way to stop it. What the new law is saying, if something happens online and it’s brought to the school’s attention, the school will intervene, even if it happens off-campus, so that at least somebody is trying to do something and hopefully save a life."

Dukes, who began his job as student services director about the time the new law went into effect, spent much time reading the multiple accounts of what exactly happened in San Antonio that led to Molak's suicide.

He said he was disgusted by the social media assault of words and images on the 16-year-old Alamo Heights High School student. The students attacked his looks, his girlfriend and were relentless in their actions, Dukes said.

News reports at the time looked for answers. Some pointed fingers at the culture within the school and at social media itself, which critics said promotes groups isolating those who don't fit in.

A national issue

Cyberbullying didn't become an issue with Molak's death. The inciting action just pushed Texas officials to take action. Nationally, stories like Molak's are too common.

One of the most notable ones came in September 2010, when then-Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge outside New York City. He had been spied on by his roommate using a web camera and had gay trysts exposed on the internet.

In response to Clementi's actions, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage, a gay man, created the It Gets Better Project, which showcased gay men and women and their straight supporters sharing tales of their own lives, facing down harassment and reminding viewers that, while it might feel horrible as it happens, the pain and suffering lets up.

One person who made a video for the project was Jamey Rodemeyer, aBuffalo, N.Y.,  14-year-old who struggled with being gay himself. A year after Clementi took his own life, Rodemeyer did the same, hanged in his family home.

Rodemeyer's case received national attention due to his age and his sexual orientation. A fan of Lady Gaga, the youth's death inspired the singer to dedicate a song to him during a Las Vegas performance shortly after his death in 2011. Actor Zachary Quinto also used Rodemeyer's death as his motivation to come out as a gay man in Hollywood.

Activists took to pinpointing where things went wrong for the teen and found anonymous online messages addressed to him through a chat service called Formspring with messages like, "I don't care if you died. No one would. So just do it. :) It would make everyone WAY more happier."

Like with what happened years later in Molak's death, the investigation found several harassing communications but no charges were filed against anyone. Also like with Molak, Rodemeyer's name marks the law New York state passed to help police and schools combat cyber and regular bullying.

David's Law

Texas lawmakers hope their new law will help investigators get involved before harassment gets to the point where the victim is desperate enough to take drastic steps.

Under the new law, Texas school districts are required to create cyberbullying policies, if they don't already have them in place. Along with these policies, districts are mandated to provide students, parents and others with an anonymous reporting vehicle, where anyone can submit for administrator review any threat they overhear or bullying incident they experience.

It doesn't have to involve the reporting person, Dukes said about the process.

One of the most important changes is the law allows, and forces, school districts to investigate bullying reports involving students that happen off-campus or during off-school hours. The material claims must be determined to affect the environment inside the school, though, and a partnership with law enforcement must be established to thoroughly investigate all claims.

"It’s going to be very difficult and we’re going to have to investigate all of those different situations," Dukes said. "We did a lot of that already, because we always wanted to help families, even if it was outside of school. But this really puts the responsibilities directly on school administrators to investigate it."

David's Law also gives districts more leeway when it comes to disciplining students, including the ability to expel students who are proven to have attempted to coerce students to commit suicide.

Finally, the law makes bullying a misdemeanor after redefining the term in statute to include one single incident. But, modeled after a law on the books in Maryland, David's Law focuses more on rehabilitative services and counseling to both victims and aggressors rather than punitive aspects.

Abilene's adjustments and the Big Country's implementations

On Sept. 1, Dukes addressed a letter to parents and guardians of each student informing them of David's Law.

In the letter, Dukes included the URL to the district's new bullying report forms, which meets the state's standard for anonymous reporting (It can be found under the "Quick Links" section of the district's website, www.abileneisd.org). Dukes said the district decided to create Google Forms for each of its campuses to help facilitate the process.

Before taking the role of student services director, Dukes served as principal of Craig Middle School.

Dukes said bullying has become an overused word, synonymous with conflict. He said he understands the definition change, but that it creates a number of new issues for administrators at the campus level.

"What becomes hard for administrators is sifting through all of the situations brought to us, to get down to the truth, because conflict is conflict," Dukes said. "Conflict resolution is a skill that students have to learn, because it’s a great life skill to be able to work out a conflict with somebody without making it a bullying issue."

While Abilene, with its large and diverse population in this section of the state, has its own issues, smaller city districts like that in Brownwood have their own.

Brownwood ISD Deputy Superintendent Liesa Land said the district, like the Abilene ISD, has anonymous reporting available on its websites. However, the district has offered this for years, she said.

As a district, Brownwood's affected most by the law's notification requirements, Land said, with parents and guardians of the alleged victim now required to be notified on or before the third business day after receiving the report. It also requires the district to communicate with the parent or guardian of the alleged bully within a reasonable amount of time.

Land praised the change, though.

"The timely communication piece has actually been a positive, because as we know communication is the key to success," Land said in an email.

Little districts, too

Bangs ISD Superintendent Tony Truelove hasn't changed much in implementing David's Law. Like Brownwood, Bangs already offered anonymous reporting to students.

For several years, he said, Bangs has provided a website form for students to make reports, which are then followed up quickly, he said.

He said bullying incidences can create a changed culture if not dealt with quickly and appropriately.

Truelove, though, feels the conversation has changed in recent years to include cyberbullying for a number of different reasons.

"Cyberbullying has been added to the conversation recently and it is a real concern since so many parents fail to properly monitor the online habits of their children," Truelove said in an email. "The cyberbullying can go on for days, weeks, and months because of lack of parental supervision. When cyberbullying is reported to us, we treat it very seriously because initially, we don’t know for how long it has been occurring."

He said the biggest obstacle his and many other districts face is getting the word out about the reporting tools they have at their disposal.

There are only a certain number of ways to inform students about reporting. He said the school notifies students at the beginning of the school year and then periodically throughout the year to remind them of the resources. They also use the district's Facebook page, the student/parent handbook and its website to inform.

At Clyde Consolidated Independent School District, Superintendent Ken Baker said its policies, similarly to Truelove's in Bangs, have remained fairly similar to how things have historically been done.

"Clyde CISD has always encouraged students and parents to notify school officials if their child feels threatened or bullied, regardless of what form the bullying occurs," Baker said in an email. "As far as cyberbullying is concerned, it has always been our policy that if a situation is causing a student to feel unsafe at school, we investigate and work to resolve the problem. Our main goal is for our students to feel safe and supported when attending school."