The Murray City Council unanimously passed a bully-free resolution at its regular meeting on Jan 24.
The resolution states the Murray Human Rights Commission plans to “launch a Bully Free Community Education Campaign to inform the community about the nature of bullying, why it must stop, and how it can be prevented. Additionally, the City and the Commission are encouraged to collaborate to develop a city ordinance against bullying.”
The council heard from Human Rights Commission Chairman Jody Cofer and Allan Beane of Bully Free Systems, LLC, in Murray who helped create the ordinance.
Cofer said while the city has continued to grow and develop since the ordinance’s adoption, the ordinance itself has not been revisited in 35 years.
“We are working with the Mayor, City Administrator and City Attorney and plan to get back to that effort in April following our Bully Free Community Education Campaign,” Cofer said
He said the Commission has envisioned holding a series of programs over the next few months as part of the Bully Free Community Education Campaign to highlight the issue.
The group has already scheduled a February Commission meeting to include representatives from the Murray Independent School System and a variety of other community and civic leaders.
In March they are planning to hold a community?wide town hall style forum that will hear firsthand accounts from the community of what has happened with bullying and how they believe Murray should respond. In April the group will come together with the new information and formulate what recommendations should be made.
“The Bully Free Resolution is the first action step the Commission is proposing to address the issue of bullying in our community,” Cofer said. “There are many ways in which a community can respond and speak collectively to say that we recognize that bullying exists, we don’t approve it, and we empower the community to speak out whenever possible to oppose it.”
