Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 16:06:45 -0800 From: Jean Richter Subject: 12/17/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. WA: What can you do to make schools safer next year? 2. OR: Lesbian teen can wear tuxedo to formal dance 3. AR: Reminder of important Title IX victory 4. UT: News column on East High School court decision ========================================================================== From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 20:37:38 EST Subject: FYI: Before you leave for winter break To: SARATOGANY@aol.com, bdm3g@gateway.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Reis, Elizabeth Co-Chair Safe Schools Coalition - Washington State http://www.safeschools-wa.org/ December 03, 1999 Subject: fyi: before you leave for winter break Dear Safe Schools members and friends ... According to Education Week, 10/6/99, there are 2,071 public K-12 schools in Washington State with a total of 990,000 students. Of that nearly 1 million young people, how many will be afraid to return to school after the winter holidays? January is one of the two most dangerous months in terms of anti-gay harassment in schools, according to the data collected by the Safe Schools Project. * It is likely that other forms of harassment increase after vacations, too. What is YOUR school doing NOW to build the kind of caring community that makes every child want to return a month from now? Do you have a PLAN for handling a potential increase in bullying as pecking orders get re-established in January? Maybe NOW is the time to talk it over with your staff. * October is the other month in which reports to the Project peaked. ======================================================================= Associated Press, December 4, 1999 Girl can go to ball wearing tuxedo. SALEM, Ore. (AP) ­ Not everyone's happy about it, but Rachel Headrick has rented her tuxedo and is going to the SnoBall dance. YWCA officials overruled a student dance committee decision to bar Headrick from wearing a tuxedo to Salem's most popular teen event. [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] ======================================================================= From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 10:13:37 EST Subject: COMPLAINT BY GAY STUDENT TRIGGERS HISTORIC CIVIL RIGHTS AGREEMENT To: SARATOGANY@aol.com, bdm3g@gateway.net Msg from: The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020 Email to: saratogany@aol.com "The Actual or Perceived GLBT Student Protection Project" CSS-NYS Note: The following TITLE IX article was released June 98. Due to the major impact of this case, I felt it worthy of periodic review by list recipients. This case should be referrenced as part of your advocacy work towards ending anti-gay abuse in schools. The article is posted at http://www.glsen.org/pages/sections/involved/studentpride/news/199806-1.article, the GLSEN Student Pride homepage (see addtional addresses below). ========================================================= This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only. COMPLAINT BY GAY STUDENT TRIGGERS HISTORIC CIVIL RIGHTS AGREEMENT Fayetteville, Arkansas Schools Must Comply with Title IX NEW YORK, June 23, 1998 - In an important step in combating harassment of lesbian and gay students nationwide, the federal government reached agreement with the Fayetteville Public Schools in Arkansas on broad civil rights protections in the schools, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said Tuesday. The "Commitment to Resolve," entered into by the federal government and the school system, remedies an administrative complaint brought by a Fayetteville student, William Wagner. Lambda represented Wagner, now 17, and his parents, in a sex discrimination complaint to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the United States Department of Education. The complaint is the first filed under Title IX on behalf of a harassed gay student. In a letter dated June 17, 1998, Lambda learned that OCR had reached agreement with the Fayetteville Public Schools, calling for the district to "recognize the various forms of sexual harassment," including "sexual harassment directed at gay or lesbian students..." Under the agreement, the school district must overhaul its policies and procedures and train faculty, staff, and students with written reports of progress to the OCR until June 1999. Throughout 1995 and 1996, several students harassed Wagner in grades eight to ten at his Fayetteville, Arkansas, school; the harassment escalated to a gay bashing by a gang that broke Wagner's nose and bruised a kidney. Criminal charges resulted in probation for those students, but others at the school continued to sexually harass Wagner. After the school failed to address the on-going harassment, Wagner and his parents filed their OCR complaint in January 1997. The Wagners subsequently pulled William out of school in fear for his life. Wagner's mother Carolyn welcomed the agreement. "My heart broke when my son was so terribly abused, just for being himself. A mother's dream for her children is that they be happy and healthy, and this includes being safe at school," she said, adding, "This agreement with Fayetteville Schools, hopefully, will safeguard many parents' dreams and protect their kids." OCR enforces compliance with Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual harassment. In March of 1997, OCR released new Title IX guidelines for schools which, for the first time, made explicit reference to "gay or lesbian students" as also being covered by federal prohibitions against sexual harassment. "This is the first case in the nation under the new Title IX guidelines' explicit coverage of sexual harassment directed at gay students," said Lambda Staff Attorney David S. Buckel. "School principals who question whether sexual harassment of gay students is illegal will learn a big lesson from this breakthrough. And now, more lesbian and gay students may be able to finish high school," he said. Rodney Allen Bell, II, B.A. =================================================================== Chris Tuttle, Student Organizing Student Pride - GLSEN 121 West 27th Street, Suite 804 New York, NY 10001 (212) 727-0135 Ext. 134 ctuttle@glsen.org GLSEN Online: http://www.glsen.org/ Student Pride Online: http://www.studentprideusa.org/ JOIN the NEW Message Boards: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/glsensstudentpride/ Sign GLSEN's Petition: http://www.glsen.org/pages/sections/news/psa/petition.html ======================================================================== Salt Lake Tribune, December 5, 1999 P. O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT, 84110 (Fax 801-237-2022 ) (E-MAIL: letters@sltrib.com ) ( http://www.sltrib.com ) Court Action ­ as It Should ­ Vindicates Gay/Straight Alliance BY KAY KOSOW FOX Like my daughter Ivy, I was appalled when I heard three and one-half years ago that the Salt Lake City Board of Education banned 46 student clubs from campus rather than allow students worried about anti-gay harassment at East High School to form a "Gay/Straight Alliance." [Deleted article. filemanager@qrd.org] * Kay Kosow Fox is the mother of Ivy Fox, a student who sued the Board of Education of Salt Lake School District in federal district court over school club policies. ===================================================================== Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) These messages are archived by state on our information-loaded free web site: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/