Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 15:54:52 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 5/12/98 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. More news on risk behavior study posted to web site 2. NY: More on cancelled gay school 3. NH: Updated info on Nashua gay youth group 4. UT: Trascript of radio program on anti-gay abuse in schools ======================================================================== I've posted more news stories (both positive and negative) on the recently published teen risk behavior study to our web site at URL: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/Alerts/Current/study2.html At over 23K, they're too big to post here, but if you can't access the web and you'd like to have them emailed to you, please let me know. ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 15:33:23 -0700 From: "Reis, Elizabeth" To: "'Tracy Flynn - SeattleSchlsCompHealth'" , Subject: Article in Ed. Week FYI. Last line says it all, eh? "maybe"? tolerance"? Education Week, Volume XVII, Number 34 May 6, 1998 Gay Students' School on Hold The dream of a school for homosexual students in Bay Shore, N.Y., will remain just that, at least for now. Employees of the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education Services had planned to open shortly a one-room public high school for gay and lesbian students at facilities operated by Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Inc. in Bay Shore. But the agency's superintendent and board president halted the plan late last month when they learned about it from a reporter. The agency provides special education and other services to 52 districts with 152,000 students. According to board President Bruce Brodsky, the employees had been told to put a plan together for such a program but believed they had received the go-ahead to start one. The school would have sheltered students from harassment because of their sexual orientation, its supporters said. Instead of a separate program, Mr. Brodsky said, "maybe we have to do a better job teaching their fellow students tolerance." =========================================================================== Nashua Outright - Nashua, New Hampshire Nashua Outright currently offers support/social group meetings for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning youth and their allies aged 21 and under. For more information, you may contact us via one of the following methods: Email: nashuaoutright@nickersonweb.com Phone: (603) 889-8210 Web: www.nickersonweb.com/outright/ Mail: Nashua Outright 443 Amherst Street, Suite 220 Nashua, New Hampshire 03063 =========================================================================== Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 20:03:11 -0600 From: Stuart McDonald Subject: Hostile Schools (5/8/98 KUER News 'Friday Edition' segment transcript) In case you want to send this out to your list, this is the transcript of a story aired on the University of Utah's KUER FM 90 radio station (NPR affiliate, located in Salt Lake City) on May 8, 1998, as part of its' local weekly news program 'Friday Edition'. It is also posted at these two web sites: http://www.xmission.com/~sam3915/hostile_schools.html http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/1443/hostile_schools.html ******************** Hostile Schools (5/8/98 KUER News 'Friday Edition' segment transcript) DOUG FABRIZIO (introductory narrator): From KUER News in Salt Lake City, this is 'Friday Edition.' I'm DOUG FABRIZIO. Today, Hostile Schools. For Utah teens who are the targets of anti-gay harassment, school can be a frightening place. PETER (alias, East High junior): In my class where I was getting gay-bashed daily, you know, it was I could not concentrate because, I mean, you're so frightened that the guy's gonna come over to you and deck you, especially when they're bigger than the teacher, you know, that it can't be handled. DOUG FABRIZIO: We'll talk to students today and ask what can be done to make schools safer... today on 'Friday Edition.' ...This week in the journal PEDIATRICS, researchers reported that gay and lesbian teens are more likely than their straight peers to be targeted for harassment. And it isn't only gay teens who are being harassed for being gay. Straight youth who don't fit a certain image can also be targeted for anti-gay epithets and slurs. For these youth, high school hallways and classrooms are scary places. They get tripped in the hallways, beaten up, called names, even in class, and sometimes the teacher does nothing about it. That's daily life for many teens who are the targets of anti-gay harassment and violence in Utah schools. KUER's KAT SNOW reports: KAT SNOW (reporter): The lunch bell rings at Salt Lake City's East High and students burst into the hallways -- laughing, talking, and horsing around. But there's more than teen gossip flying through these hallways. PETER: Oh -- "faggot", "gay faggot." I don't hear a whole lot of the "dyke" thing, probably because I'm not, you know, a girl. Go figure. LISA (East High freshman): Oh -- "lesi", "lesbo". KAT SNOW: Is this like every so often? Every few days? or... LISA: You hear it -- one or two comments between classes, you know, it's... KAT SNOW: Between every class? LISA: Yeah. KAT SNOW: Outside on a neighborhood street, a student we'll call LISA and two friends --CHRIS HANSEN and a boy we'll call PETER-- talk about the things they face on a daily basis in school. First off, the name calling. Then, says PETER, a 16 year old junior, there are the threats. PETER: It actually went on for about two trimesters, almost on a daily basis. This guy would come up and threaten me with physical violence and said that he would kick my ass because I was queer. I mean, he would just get up in my face and --completely and totally-- I mean just... This guy's about twice my size, and so it was just horrible and, you know, all the teachers would, you know, sort of stop it, but not really. KAT SNOW: Did it happen in the hallway? Or... PETER: No, actually it happened in the middle of class. KAT SNOW: Then says LISA, a 15 year old freshman, there's the harassment. LISA says she's been gay-baited since grade school for having short hair. LISA: Even if you're not gay or lesbian, it's over if you're suspected. Like, I'm not a lesbian but I've had a lot of kids call me a lesbian, or tell me I'm gay, or whatever. I've had my locker spray painted. I've had threatening notes sent to my house. I've been egged on the way home. KAT SNOW: And sometimes says CHRIS, a 16 year old sophomore, there's physical assault. CHRIS HANSEN (East High sophomore): I went into gym class and I was sitting there and this boy was like -- I guess I was talking to my friend Rachel Quinn about my boyfriend at the time, and I guess he overheard it and he said something like "you...", you know, "you f***in' faggot" or something like that. And Rachel turned around and said "excuse me"? And he said "you heard me." And then I stood up and I was like "Let's just move." And then he jumped on me and like pinned me on the ground and strangled me, and the gym -- Rachel ran over to the gym teacher and told him, she's like, "Look what that boy's doing to Chris, get him off." And he didn't, like he didn't even pay attention. DOUG WORTHAM (private secondary school French teacher, co-Chair of the Utah chapter of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network): Everyone expects a teacher to stop the word "nigger" immediately. I mean, people would be shocked if they didn't. The reality is that no one is shocked if a teacher doesn't take on the word "faggot". KAT SNOW: DOUG WORTHAM is a high school French teacher at Rowland Hall/St. Mark's and head of the Utah chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN. WORTHAM says teachers and schools simply don't take a strong stand against anti-gay language. DOUG WORTHAM: A kid goes to the office and says "I was just called a faggot and threatened after school," the office says "well that happens all day long." It's just not a... it's not something that they take any solid steps toward. When they try to curb these things... since the words 'gay' and 'lesbian' and 'sexual orientation' are such blacklisted words, even in the state of Utah educational circles, that they won't even say the words. They'll say, "you shouldn't make fun of anyone for any reason," but since they won't specify 'gay' and 'lesbian', they won't say the word 'sexual orientation', guess what? The message doesn't get across. KAT SNOW: There is no state-wide education policy banning specific forms of harassment. State law allows students to be suspended for abusive language, assault or threatened use of force. And state Education attorney DOUG BATES says the state emphasizes teaching respect for all, not banning specific kinds of harassment, because in one school it might be anti-gay language, says Bates. In another, anti-immigrant bashing. DOUG BATES (Utah Dept. of Education attorney): If in a given setting that's a problem, then it's fine to go ahead and list it. But again the focus ought to be on teaching kids not to harass one another. "Just because I'm different, doesn't mean I should be the focus of hateful actions, regardless of the reasons." And try to get more to that global issue. I think that's what we ought to strive for in education rather than "Wait just a minute, let me see my check list here to see if you're one of the protected people." KAT SNOW: Researchers say harassment is one of the factors putting gay youth at risk. In this week's PEDIATRICS article, researchers reported on a study of more than 4,000 high school teens in the Massachusetts school system, finding that one-third of gay teens reported being threatened with a weapon in the previous thirty days --compared to seven percent of straight teens. One-fourth of gay teens reported missing school because of fear in the previous thirty days --compared to five percent of straight teens. And thirty-five percent of gay youth attempted suicide in the past year, compared to ten percent of straight youth. East High's PETER says he once had the gun in his hand, but he couldn't pull the trigger. As for school, PETER has a GPA of 3.2, but it wasn't always so. And LISA, who remember is not a lesbian, also says harassment interferes with school. LISA: It's hard to concentrate. Like people in the middle of class will throw bottles at you, or paper, or spit wads, and it's hard to, like, think about what's doing when you've got something pelting you in the head, you know. PETER: In my class where I was getting gay-bashed daily, you know it's this incredible overwhelming fear, and so you don't really con.., you don't concentrate. My grades fell because of it. I had a .667 because I was so afraid to go to school that I was sloughing and... DOUG HALDEMAN (Seattle psychologist, Chair of APA's Committee on Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Concerns): Let me make my first suggestion here --not to the kids themselves, but to the administrators, to the teachers, and to the school personnel-- which is: don't permit this to continue. KAT SNOW: Seattle psychologist DOUG HALDEMAN chairs the American Psychological Association [APA] Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns. HALDEMAN was in Salt Lake last weekend at a conference for Mormon parents of gay children. He says students like PETER, LISA and CHRIS can rely on each other for support, but the real responsibility lies with adults. DOUG HALDEMAN: Whatever your personal beliefs are, children or teenagers in schools do not deserve to be treated in this way. And I realize that these days schools are very difficult places to manage in some ways, but we also have the clear suggestion from some of the literature now that there are many school personnel who are aware of these kinds of problems, but are standing by, not doing very much about them, and letting anti-gay harassment continue. And that is just not right, and it's a terrible disservice. KAT SNOW: Students and adults agree that despite its' problems, East High has done more than any other school in terms of teacher training and intervention with perpetrators to combat anti-gay harassment. Principal KAY PETERSON included the school's harassment policy in a mailing to all parents this year. The policy reads: "Harassment is anything that causes annoyance and inflicts distress on a targeted victim. Some of the most common forms of harassment are," and the list includes "sexual orientation harassment." KAY PETERSON says the response has been mixed. KAY PETERSON (East High principal): For the most part, I think it's been very well accepted. We've received lots of comment, both locally and even nationally. Some of them critical. Some of them negative. Some of them supportive. We have questions, you know... Why do we single that out, and my response is "we don't single it out. We include it with all of the other issues for which kids might be harassed." KAT SNOW: While school liability for anti-gay harassment hasn't been tested in Utah, it was tested in a ground-breaking Wisconsin case. DAVID BUCKLE of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund [LLDEF] was the lead attorney. DAVID BUCKLE (attorney for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund): We put a price tag on a school's failure to address anti-gay discrimination on school campus. It was nearly a million dollars in the JAMIE NOBOZNY case in the state of Wisconsin. What we established there was essentially that a school can't pick and choose which students are going to be safe and are able to get their education, and which students won't be safe and can't get their education. All students are entitled to a safe environment in which to get their education. KAT SNOW: In Utah, sexual orientation remains a controversial term because many people don't believe it exists. That is, they don't believe being gay is an orientation. They believe it's a choice. That makes it hard to ban harassment on the basis of sexual orientation. But people like KAY PETERSON ask: "Do you have to agree on whether being gay is a choice or an orientation in order to agree that children should be safe from threats and harassment while they're at school?" I'm KAT SNOW. [END of segment] ============================================================================= Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK OUT OUR INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/