Bullying accusations at the Capitol

Mon, Apr 14th 2008, 11:07

Representatives Jeanette Mott Oxford and Sara Lampe held a news conference Thursday morning, accusing Representative Jane Cunningham of bullying two students by throwing them out of her office because of their facial piercings and colored hair. The students were at the Capitol in late March for a Safe Schools Act/Missouri Non-Discrimination Act lobbying day. They were not present at this event.

"During that time, Desiree Bain and Austyn Langston, two students from the Kansas City area, were asked to leave her office because she said they were difficult to look at. She later told another group of students that looking at them was making her ill," says Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis.

Representative Oxford says the students also believe Cunningham kicked them out because of their sexual orientation. I went to Cunningham who says none of that is true. She says that day she only had time to sit down with her constituents.

She then asked for their address, which she says is common office policy. When the students couldn't come up with an address, she says she realized they were lying and were not in fact from her district. Cunningham says she and her assistant asked the students to leave.

Cunningham says the students then became disruptive and that's why they were asked to leave.

"I really feel like those young people were used for political purposes by legislators to promote their legislation," says Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield.

That legislation is House Bill 1751, sponsored by Lampe and co-sponsored by Oxford, a bill all about bullying. Supporters say the bill would incorporate specifc types of harrassment into the current state anti-bullying law and require school districts to have detailed policies to address bullying cases.

But opponents, like Cunningham, say the current legislation protects all students equally and making a list could end up excluding some students.