NEWS FLASH

Kentucky House Committee Rejects Anti-Bullying Bill | An anti-bullying bill that would have enumerated gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes was rejected by Kentucky’s House Education Committee today despite pleas to pass the bill from parents and friends of two teenagers who committed suicide due to bullying, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. State Rep. Ben Waide (R), in announcing his opposition to the bill, said the bill aimed “to achieve equality by making some people more equal than others” and said it was “about gay rights in our schools,” not bullying. Two Kentucky students — an eighth grader and a high school freshman — committed suicide in the last five months to escape bullying.