POLL: No Name-Calling Day. Effective or Waste of Time?

Gov. Deval Patrick announced in early January that he had designated Jan. 25 as "No Name-Calling Day." The event, according to a press release from the governor's office, fulfills a provision of anti-bullying legislation signed by Patrick in 2010.

The idea of the day is to have students wear black to symbolize efforts to "Black Out Bullying," but Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham finds the whole idea of the day to be ridiculous, going so far as to say "only here [Massachusetts] could a single government edict result in so much public embarrassment."

"Does anyone really believe a politician can stop school kids from calling each other [EDITED]? Or [EDITED] or even [CURRENTLY BEING INVESTIGATED AS A HATE CRIME]?" Graham writes.

He goes on to say that it is "laughable" to assert that Massachusetts has a widespread bullying problem. "When kids start coming home from school with black eyes or torn clothes from being stuffed into lockers, then we’ll have a problem," he writes.

But it's only been two years since the suicide of Phoebe Prince shocked Massachusetts and led to the creation of anti-bullying legislation in the first place. And, it's been less than a week since Tennessee teen Phillip Parker committeed suicide after enduring anti-gay bullying.

So what do you think? Is "No Name-Calling Day" just an empty government declaration, or is there a place for such a day in our schools? Vote in our poll and tell us in the comments.