Advocates urge lawmakers to enact anti-bullying bill

Anti-bullying advocates and victims of bullying urged Suffolk legislators Tuesday to enact legislation that would hold school officials responsible for keeping records of bullying claims and punishing those responsible.

Along with Jamie Isaacs, the 14-year-old Lake Grove girl whose story of being bullied for years by Sachem Central School District classmates spurred the legislation, parents of children who suffered similar fates told lawmakers of the damage bullying caused to their families.

Fern Rostas, who said her 11-year-old granddaughter faced five years of bullies' torment that resulted in her suffering a nervous breakdown at school, said administrators would be more responsive to the problem if there were legal consequences.

"For them to claim they have a zero-tolerance policy and then play ostrich and stick their head in the sand is wrong," said Rostas, 62, of Brentwood. "If she didn't have the breakdown she would have come home and she would have proceeded to kill herself."

Isaacs urged legislators to enact the legislation, which is authored by Legis. Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor). Failure to comply with the law would result in a $1,000 fine to the school district.

"Almost all of this could have been stopped or prevented by my teachers and administrators of the Sachem school district," she said. "By holding these people responsible, maybe those who didn't take bullying seriously will now realize how serious it is."

The Sachem Central School District declined to comment on Isaacs' case, citing student confidentiality.

Legis. Lynne Nowick (R-St. James) told Isaacs, who has written a book about her experience of being bullied, that she will outshine those who have bullied her.

"Any young person who can come in front of this body and present themselves the way that you did, you're going to leave them all behind," Nowick said. "You go, you keep it up."

Lawmakers will take more testimony from the public on the legislation at the Legislature's June 8 meeting.