South Dakota Gov. Daugaard signed SB130, barring school anti-bullying policies from naming any protected classes

On March 16, 2012, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed SB130, enacted as Session Law 2012, ch. 96 and codified at SDCL 13-32-14, requiring every school district in the state to adopt an anti-bullying policy. Beyond that general mandate, the enacted text's operative provision states that "no school district policy prohibiting bullying, whether it is existing or adopted pursuant to this Act, may contain any protected classes of students" — reaching backward to require districts to strip any protected-class language, such as enumerated categories covering race, religion, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity, from bullying policies they already had in place.

The bill's prime sponsors were Sen. Dan Lederman and Rep. Jacqueline Sly. The rest of the enacted act — definitions, reporting and investigation procedures, immunity for good-faith reporters, and a model policy for districts without their own — is standard anti-bullying boilerplate; the enumeration ban is the law's substantive, contested provision. No South Dakota court has ruled on the statute, and no legislator has been documented stating an intent to target LGBTQ students specifically, but the enacted text's own operative language compels removal of existing protective language regardless of legislative intent.