Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Pro-Tem Brad McGirr recently spoke to a crowd of schoolchildren about the issue of bullying after online bullying resulted in a suicide. The incident was part of the reason McGirr decided to write an anti-bullying ordinance, which is set to go before the city council at their meeting on Wednesday.
Anna Mendez, the mother of the Santa Margarita middle schooler who shot and killed himself as a result of bullying, started the National Association of People Against Bullying in the wake of the tragedy. She told reporters that she wishes there had been an ordinance against bullying at the time of her son’s suicide in 2009. She believes that schools and administrators should not be the only ones protecting kids against bullying, since bullying occurs outside of schools as well.
McGirr, who explained to the students and reporters present that he had his own experiences with bullying as a child, is especially focused on preventing cyber-bullying with his ordinance.
Read more about the anti-bullying ordinance here.