Today, an unqualified plug for the competition: Minnesota Public Radio’s Tom Weber and six of his colleagues yesterday debuted the first portions of a week-long series on bullying in Minnesota schools. With about half a dozen items posted to MPR’s website so far, the sweeping investigation knocks it out of the park.

A few tidbits to persuade you to click over to the interactive package at mpr.org — albeit after you’ve finished with your daily dose of MinnPost: Turns out Minnesota’s anti-bullying law is just 37 words long. Nationwide, a whopping four states have weaker laws.

The law fails to define bullying, or to spell out specific steps school districts must take to combat it besides adopting policies barring it. Attempts to strengthen it have been thwarted both by the “kids will be kids” set and by folks who are normally more responsive.

Lax as the law is, a third of districts actually fail to comply with it, according to the investigation, which took six months to report and produce.  Never mind that half of all Minnesota students have bullied or been a victim, and up to 100,000 are believed to experience bullying on at least a weekly basis.

Bullying per se is not tracked in Minnesota — part of the problem, according to those advocating for stronger legislation — but series editor Bill Wareham has created an interactive state map depicting what is known about rates in different districts. It’s accompanied by a database containing the anti-bullying policies of every district in the state; many simply adopted a model drafted by the Minnesota School Boards Association, the journalists found.

Such scant legal direction is a real problem for a couple of reasons, according to my own reporting. Left to define bullying and decide how to address it for themselves, school districts don’t always make the tough but necessary calls. The best policies cite specific types of bullying that are unacceptable.  

So far my biggest quibble is that none of the stories communicates how hard it is for kids to negotiate school climates in which bullying is pervasive. With four more days of stories to come, however, I would be surprised if Weber and his colleagues don’t give us a teens-eye-view of the problem.

Update: Predictably, I spoke too soon on that teens'-eye-view angle. MPR's site now carries a story by St. Louis Park Senior High junior Grace Pastoor. A participant in the University of St. Thomas' ThreeSixty Journalism program for youth, Pastoor got classmates to open up about bullying, the resulting depression, standing up for victims and even being the bully. Looks like Weber has competition.     

Read, listen and be prepared to end up so sad and angry you find yourself lining up to rail at your local school board.