NCLR Applauds Congressional Hispanic Caucus for Endorsing Antibullying Legislation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                     Contact:
April 3, 2014                                                                              Joseph Rendeiro
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                                                                                                  jrendeiro@nclr.org

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Earlier today, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) voted to endorse the “Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA)” (H.R. 1199), a bill that would require schools to issue and enforce rules prohibiting bullying and order states to report data on bullying to the U.S. Department of Education. NCLR (National Council of La Raza) applauds the CHC for taking the necessary steps to ensure that our schools are a harassment-free zone, as well as Congresswoman Linda Sánchez (D–Calif.), the lead sponsor of this bill, who has worked tirelessly to champion this essential piece of legislation.

“Bullying is an epidemic in our schools. Unfortunately, Latino children, and LGBT Latino children in particular, are at greater risk of experiencing this type of harassment, which only compounds the barriers to educational success that already exist for Hispanic students,” said Eric Rodriguez, Vice President of the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at NCLR. “This legislation is a crucial piece of the puzzle that will help us turn the tide on bullying for all children. We look forward to getting this bill on the president’s desk to be signed into law.”

NCLR—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. For more information on NCLR, please visit www.nclr.org or follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

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