News
Litigation
May 31, 2001
Bullies Keep Gays From Classes, Report Says
LOS ANGELES - Public schools that ignore the harassment of gay teen-agers are failing to educate these vulnerable students, according to a national report released Wednesday at Fairfax High School.
Other students bully the teens so much that they cannot attend classes, the report says.
"It is hard to receive an education when you are being lassoed and threatened with being dragged down the highway or being beaten so badly by fellow students that you are bloodied," attorney Jon W. Davidson said at the news conference.
Davidson is the senior counsel for the western regional office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Produced by Human Rights Watch, the report was based on in-depth interviews with 140 youth and 130 teachers, administrators, counselors and parents in seven states: California, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Utah.
The report "Hatred in the Hallways: Discrimination and Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in U.S. Public Schools" found that teachers and administrators frequently ignore bullying and even violence against gay students.
School officials often refuse to accept reports of harassment or to hold the perpetrators accountable; in some instances, they either have encouraged or have themselves participated in such abuse, according to Human Rights Watch.
Davidson is the lead attorney in the Lambda lawsuit filed on behalf of Derek Henkle, who dropped out of a Reno, Nev., high school because of alleged harassment.
Henkle, who also participated in the news conference, described how a fellow student beat him while other students stood by and cheered. Two school police officers stood nearby, according to Henkle.
These officers not only did nothing to stop the beating but also told him, as he walked by after the beating, that they were not going to do anything to discipline the perpetrator.
Henkle sued the school district and school officials under the federal equal protection law and sexual harassment statutes. Henkle v. Gregory, CVN00-0050 (Washoe Super. Ct., filed January 2000).
A new law in California, the Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, covers hate crimes against any person based on sexual identity, Davidson said.
The law gives all people, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation, equal rights. The law makes remedies easier for students who believe that they have been harassed and discriminated against, Davidson said.
"The No. 1 complaint I hear from kids in California is they cannot find an attorney to represent them," he said.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Roy Roemer said, "No person should be harassed for their sexual orientation."
Since the passage of the violence prevention act, the Los Angeles school district has been reviewing its policies on handling complaints from students, Roemer said.
"We are training every teacher and staff member to handle complaints of discrimination," Roemer said.
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Jill Boekenoogen
Daily Journal Staff Writer
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