HARASSED: Bullying in schools nationwide reportedly has surged in recent years with disabled students being targeted the most. STOCK PHOTO

By David L. Snelling

Miami – In an effort to reduce bullying in public schools, Florida is mandating that students take courses to help them better understand their peers who are disabled.

Students with disabilities, including those with autism, hearing and vision impairment, speech impediments, confined to wheelchairs and with amputated legs and arms are often the victims of bullying.

Some are incessantly tormented to the point where they mull committing suicide, according to a USA Facts survey.

The Florida Legislature passed the Evin B. Hartsell Act, which requires school boards throughout the state to work with the Evin B. Hartsell Foundation to develop the curriculum for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The nonprofit foundation based in Florida creates school curricula for disabled students and lesson plans for their peers to understand their conditions.

Tampa Republican Sen. Jay Collins sponsored the Senate bill (SB 540) and House Bill 447 was approved, as the new legislation was approved by both chambers.

The K-3 curriculum would require teaching about physical disabilities and bullying.

Such conversations may address what students should do if they are being bullied; what they should do if they see someone being bullied; why bullying is not the victim’s fault; what different types of bullying look like; the possibility that a friend could be a bully; or the school’s anti bullying policy, the bills reads.

The grade 4-6 curriculum would add instruction about autism spectrum disorder.

Students in grades 7-9 would learn about hearing impairments.

Those in grades 10-12 would be taught about other learning and intellectual disabilities.

Collins, who is disabled himself after leg amputation from injuries he sustained in Afghanistan for the military, said the legislation would teach students to be sensitive to other pupils’ disabilities, and not bully them.

“What this thing does is make sure that we see people for who they are, where they are (and) the way they are. And that their disabilities are understood and nobody is ever overlooked or undervalued,” Collins said in a statement.

Bullying in schools nationwide reportedly has surged in recent years with disabled students being targeted the most.

According to a USA Facts survey, roughly 29,092 K-12 students reported being bullied based on sex, race or disability in 2020-2021.

The number increased in 2022-2023 to 18 percent, as 18,453 students with disabilities were bullied or harassed.

According to ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students (160,000) nationwide stay home from school each day to avoid being bullied

In 2023, more than 14 percent of high school students reportedly mulled suicide and 7 percent attempted it.

Bullying victims are between two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims.