The Pioneer Press's Christopher Magan reports in After marathon House debate, school-bullying bill goes to Dayton:
After nearly 12 hours of impassioned objections by Republicans, the DFL-controlled House sent an overhaul of Minnesota's bullying-prevention law to Gov. Mark Dayton early Wednesday morning.
GOP lawmakers acknowledged from the start of the debate at 1 p.m. Tuesday that House DFLers had the votes to pass the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, but they objected to the measure right up until the vote, shortly before 12:30 a.m.
The bill prevailed on a 69-63 vote, mostly along party lines.
Among DFLers, David Dill, Gene Pelowski and Jeanne Poppe joined Glenn Gruenhagen and rest of the Republican Caucus in the no column.
During the debate, Gruenhagen shareda precious story about getting the bully spanked out of him by a bus driver, and encouraged the use of corporal punishment, rather than the tools in the bill, to end bullying.
Here's what The Uptake had to say about the video clip, Beating Kids Will Solve Bullying Problem Says Rep. Gruenhagen:
During a debate on Minnesota's anti-bullying bill, Representative Glenn Gruenhagen (R-Glenco) suggests repealing laws that prevent corporal punishment in schools. When he was a kid, he bullied a girl on a bus. The bus driver then beat him for doing so. Gruenhagen says that solved the bullying problem. He offers another story about a fellow teacher that he says shows preventing teachers from beating children causes more problems because the anger becomes pent up and the teachers eventually punch out the student. . . .
Here's the video:
Image: Recently disclosed picture of the character-building episode in young Gruenhagen's life. Big hat tip to Marie Garza for the image.
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