Greensburg, Ind.—
There's a new push to strengthen the punishments for bullying after a 15-year-old Greensburg, Indiana teenager took his own life. The State of Indiana already has bullying laws on the books, but one lawmaker believes it needs to be stronger in order to stop the problem.
There seems to be no plans to file charges against anyone who bullied Billy Lucas, but tougher consequences could be on the way. Students said Billy had been bullied ever since he entered the Greensburg School District in the fourth grade.
They said things got worse as he got older until he just couldn't take it anymore and killed himself.
"He got a chair pulled out from him and was told to go hang himself," said student Bobby Quinlan.
Billy's suicide is making national headlines and people are asking if his tormenters will face charges. Earlier this year, nine students in Massachusetts were charged for bullying a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide.
"There should be more punishment for bullying people," said parent Toby Justus.
Greensburg High School has an anti-bully program that requires students to take a class. It's actually part of a state law that forces all schools to do that but now State Senator Tom Wyss wants to make that law stronger. He wants to hold bullies and administrators more accountable.
"What I'm concerned with is do the administrators follow through or they just looking at the teachers to be the ones to enforce the actions," said Wyss.
The Greensburg High School principal said he didn't know that Billy was being bullied but students find that hard to believe.
"So I don't want to hear that the staff didn't know because everyone knew," said Quinlan.
"They have to address this bullying. They have to adddress the bully, and they have to make sure that they are doing the things that are neccessary to prevent the bullying from re-occurring," explained Wyss.
Fox59 News has learned the Resource Officer at the high school is in charge of investigating bullying allegations and if there's enough evidence he's supposed to turn it over to the prosecutor.
