Rep. Brandon Markosek speaks to students about bullying

“Bullying does not have a zip code.”

State Rep. Brandon Markosek, D-Monroeville, spoke to students at Spectrum Charter School and O’Block Junior High School in Plum Borough School District over two days about his experience being bullied and how that has buttressed his fight for legislation to make bullying illegal.

Markosek, 27, said he didn’t start speaking until he was 3 years old and his speech developed into a stutter.

Throughout school, his peers called him names like Stutter Brandon or they would pronounce his name with a stutter to mock his impediment. By his teens, the stuttering morphed into more of a “speech blockage,” he said.

“Certain words just wouldn’t come out,” he said. “And I battle that to this day.”

When he shared his story with a group of Spectrum Charter School students in Monroeville, he harped against bullying — he knows what it feels like.

“We all have feelings. Words hurt. Words hurt. I mean, I was called names, I was called everything,” Markosek said to the students. He encouraged them to think before they hurled derogatory names at someone who might look or sound differently.

His close connection to bullying made the decision to sign on to state Rep. Kyle Mullins’, D-Peckville, bill easy.

The legislation would make bullying a punishable offense and classify it as a misdemeanor. It defines bullying as an action committed by a person with the “intent to harass, annoy, alarm or intimidate another individual or group of individuals.”

The definition also includes placing someone in “fear of bodily injury or property damage.” Additionally, it punishes people who make false reports of bullying.

Today, the bill has 17 sponsors from both sides of the aisle and remains in the House Judiciary Committee. Markosek said legislators are currently seeking the PA District Attorney Association’s input on the law.

When Markosek allowed questions from Spectrum students, some shared similar stories of being bullied. But some had questions.

Jerome Drew, 18, asked his representative how this bill will protect citizens’ freedom of speech.

“That’s a great question,” Markosek said.

The legislator responded by saying sometimes bullying leads to severe harm to people or property, sometimes even suicide. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent,” he said.

Additionally, the bill provides protections to actions that could be construed as bullying during labor disputes, “or to any constitutionally protected activity.”