“Tonight we celebrate a great victory for New York. In a bipartisan vote, the State Senate stood up for New York’s schoolchildren by passing the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). This will give New York State the tools is needs to finally address the problem of bullying and bias-based harassment in our schools.

“A school environment free of bullying and harassment is essential to the academic success of every child. No young person should fear going to school because of who he or she is, or is perceived to be.

“I want to thank the lead sponsors of this bill – Senator Thomas Duane and Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell – for their tireless leadership on this important legislation. I applaud Senate Majority Leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for their leadership on this issue in Albany. I also thank the advocates who worked for so many years to reach this point, as well as the thousands of New Yorkers who called, wrote and met with their Senators about this bill, year after year.

“Going forward, we will use the tools that this bill provides to combat bullying in all forms, among all our youth.”

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