TAKE ACTION: Combat Bullying in Illinois 

As your constituent and a member of Illinois’s Sikh community, I am writing to urge your attention to the issue of bullying, and particularly the harm of bias-based bullying, in our schools. Specifically, I respectfully request that you consider sponsoring or supporting legislation that would reestablish Illinois’s Anti-Bullying Task Force, which has been inactive since 2011.

While bullying can impact all students, it is a pervasive issue for the Sikh community. According to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sikh Coalition’s latest school climate report, nearly eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students polled in their nationwide survey reported experiencing at least once incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident—perhaps because 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. Independent research about other marginalized racial, ethnic, and religious groups, as well as students with varying sexual orientations and gender identities, shows that they experience similarly high rates of targeted harassment–and those numbers will continue to climb rapidly without serious intervention.

Bullying has a direct harmful impact on student mental health, and can negatively affect their performance in the classroom; students who bully, in turn, can also see the biases that they develop early metastasize in their youth into bigotry and hate later in their lives. In general, bullying is the exact opposite of the tolerance, inclusion, and respect for others that should be fostered in our education system to prepare all of our students to succeed as adults in our diverse, vibrant nation.

For the betterment of my community and all of Illinois’s students, I urge you to consider sponsoring or supporting legislation to reestablish our anti-bullying task force. Task forces that are appropriately inclusive of students, parents, educators, administrators, scholars, and others from different backgrounds and communities can perform essential services like ensuring our state’s anti-bullying laws are modern and comprehensive, auditing how those laws are being implemented at the city and school-district levels, and identifying or even creating resources that can help prevent bullying. Additionally, members of an anti-bullying task force serve as critical links between communities and government bodies, uplifting the voices of those most harmed by any exclusionary behaviors taking place in Illinois schools.

Thank you for your consideration of this bipartisan, common sense priority. By working together, I am confident we can reduce bullying and help all of Illinois’s children feel they can learn and thrive in a safe educational environment regardless of their background. I look forward to continuing this conversation.