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NY State Senator To Introduce Bill Against Cyber-Bullying

Posted by: Lez Get Real on September 26, 2011.

NY State Senator Jeff Klein

Following several high profile suicides by bullied students in New York, a Bronx lawmaker says he plans to introduce a bill today that will stiffen penalties for online bullying and stalking and make “bullycide” a felony.

Last week Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old suburban Buffalo, NY boy who had complained in a video about being taunted online and bullied because he was gay, ended his own life.

Now State Senator Jeff Klein says he will introduce a new bill that would expand second-degree manslaughter to include suicides related to cyber bullying, making it a class-C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Klein’s bill would also update third-degree stalking to include cyberbullying, defined as using electronic communications likely to cause fear of harm or emotional distress in someone under 21, making cyberbullying a class-A misdemeanor.

Klein plans to unveil the bill today alongside cyber-bullying victims and advocates.

The senator cites, in part, the death of 14-year-old Rodemeyer, as well as the death of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge last year after two classmates taped him during a sexual encounter with another man and broadcast it on the Internet as the reasons for his bill.

“Words can kill,” the lawmaker said.