Subject: n1-Roberts Rules: Quake
From: "Shelly Roberts" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 16:52:25 +0000

ROBERTS' RULES
by Shelly Roberts

WHAT WAS THAT NOISE?

Dja hear that?

Oh. Well, it [BEGIN ITAL]was [END ITAL] kind of quiet. Kind of lost in
the vast cacophony (a word that is usually much harder to work into a
sentence.) of tolling bells and victory shouts and whistles.

What was it?

Nuthin' much. Just the sound of the tectonic plates of your world
shifting. 

Kinda funny, though. You'da thought that such a momentous and
monumental reordering of the universe woulda made a lot more noise.

What was it?

Oh, sorry. `Thought I answered that. It was a 21-year old gay man
getting an out-of- court settlement for nine-tenths of a million
dollars. (Makes it seem like more than saying "nine hundred thousand,"
doesn't it?)

What's the big deal? I know. I know. Gay bashed guys are now regularly
getting a voice in court, and their money back. We're practically used
to that by now.

There was this one guy in Detroit who got ten million bucks for
getting beat up. And not even from the guys who hit him. From the
company that employs the security guard who watched the guys who hit
him. Now that's a much bigger award so why didn't that qualify for
changing life as we know it in the homosexual cosmos? 

It was impressive. And a lot of money. A loooot of money. And, yes,
maybe it might convince rent-a-bouncers at tacky clubs everywhere to
stick their noses in to determine whether the totally blasted trio out
brawling by the Bronco are just nosed-over in controlled substances,
or are denying a homosexual citizen his constitutional rights. 

Yeah, right. Something about pigs flying, and geographies of the
divine totality freezing over.

So let me finish my story.

Seems there was this guy, this young gay boy who regularly got pushed
around in middle and high school by the bullies, because he was gay.
They called him the usual unpleasant names we all kind of get used to,
or at least callused over. They trapped him in the shower in the boys
gym. One time they kicked him in the stomach so often that he had to
have surgery. I think they pee'd on him too. Boys will be obnoxious,
er, uh, boys at that age, won't they? Not the prettiest of our
coming-of-age stories, eh?

Well, guess what, it got worse. This young man got so harassed, he
dropped out of school. Good thing he didn't decide to just drop out of
life. We all pretty much know that horrible teen statistic:1/3 of all
teen suicides are gay teens who couldn't take it any more. Didn't
entirely stop our boy, though. First, he got his high school
equivalency. Then he got even. 

He sued. Yup, the school. 

But he also sued the principal (at last a chance to use that other
spelling in one of my columns) of the middle school, and the principal
and assistant principal of the high school. And here's where the
Richter scale moves. The school district was found Not-Guilty of
discrimination.

Seems the good folks of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, had non-discrimination
policies already on their books. And, well, just maybe the
administrators of the area schools just kinda winked and nodded at
those politically-correctors who had them instituted. Everybody knew
they were in place just for this occurrence. If they got sued, they
were covered. Except.

And doncha just love this exception. Seems the administrators actually
were bound to uphold those policies. And much to no one's surprise,
they didn't. So the court ruled that they had violated our young man's
rights by not protecting him from years of harassment by other
students. Nine hundred thousand bucks worth. Which will be tough, I
bet, on a principal's salary. Much less a vice's.

And lo, the word will go out from hamlet to village to shire: And let
it be known to all the school administrators, and teachers and
librarians (though most of them are us), support staff and janitorial
custodians in the land. That your fairies and faggots and dykes, oh
my, are as much your responsibility as any other child in your care.
And if that obligation should get somehow passed you, the court no
longer winks or nods at [BEGIN ITALICS] unwritten [END ITALICS] rules.
Not only will the price be very high, but it will come out of your own
pocket.

Nothing like making your point where it pierces, huh? Finally, with an
expensive precedent like this, kindergarten teachers and biology lab
leaders and everyone in between should be a lot less tolerant. Of
bully behavior that makes our kids feel less than they have - now- the
legal right to.

And that's the earthquake that will change our world. Imagine what
this will mean for every one of our generation Y and Z'ers. Imagine
what you're life would have been like with this decision in place. And
isn't that a fitting end to a bad old tradition?!

There wasn't a whole lot about it in the metro papers. Or the nightly
news. But isn't it amazing how such a very small noise can make such a
big, sweet sound.

________________________ 

(C) 1996. Shelly Roberts.
All rights reserved. May be reprinted only in its entirety with
written permission.

Shelly Roberts is the author of the #1 best-selling
Roberts' Rules of Lesbian Living. Spinsters Ink.