Judge’s Reversal of Bullying Ruling Upheld by State Education Chief
Two years after enactment of New Jersey’s strict anti-bullying law, state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf has for the first time reversed a district’s finding of bullying, saying the incident was simply a more-innocent conflict between two students.
In a decision handed down in late April and posted last week, Cerf found that the Pittsgrove school district’s charge against an eighth-grade student identified as C.H. ran counter to the new law. The student had been accused of bullying after a February 2012 incident in which he shoved a piece of crumpled paper down a classmate’s shirt. (Mooney/NJSpotlight)