Subject: Lambda Legal Defense Challenges Anti-Gay Violence In School
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 10:58:52 -0500

LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          Contact: Patricia Logue
Monday, December 18, 1995                       (312) 759-8110
	                                                   David Buckel, Margie
Hanssens
                                	                       (212) 995-8585
                 
     LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE FILES BRIEF IN FIRST FEDERAL APPEAL
                 
                  CHALLENGING ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS

     In the first federal appellate case challenging anti-gay violence in
public schools, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund filed its brief today
in a case by a gay student whose school failed to stop anti-gay assaults on
him and ignored his pleas because of his sexual orientation.  
     "Despite years of physical assaults and continual harassment by other
students, school officials told our client he had to take the abuse because
he is gay.  That is unacceptable," said Patricia M. Logue, Managing Attorney
at Lambda's Midwest Regional Office, and counsel to Nabozny. "Every child
deserves a safe environment in which to get an education, and that education
should emphasize teaching the value of respect for others." 
     Jamie Nabozny -- the plaintiff in the case --  suffered multiple
physical assaults during his years in an Ashland, Wisconsin school district,
from seventh grade to eleventh grade.  Students would trap him in the
hallways or the bathroom and beat, punch, kick, and even urinate on him. In
addition to the repeated beatings, during the four-year ordeal he suffered
relentless verbal abuse and sexual harassment.  The torment led him to make
multiple suicide attempts, to dropping
out of school, and to develop post traumatic stress disorder.  
     Throughout the years, Jamie's parents stood by their gay son, constantly
attempting to get the school to discipline the boys who abused Jamie.
 However, no meaningful discipline was imposed and school officials scoffed
at Jamie, telling him that he had to expect such abuse because he is gay. 
     "If I didn't have parents who showed they continued to love me after
they found out I was gay, I would probably be dead,"  said Nabozny.  "I hope
this case will help other teens who go through this terror year after year,
especially those who don't have the love they need at home to help them
through it." 
     "Anti-gay violence is on the rise in schools, and students themselves
have forced public hearings in the states of Massachusetts and Washington,
and in the cities of Austin, Providence, and Wichita," said David Buckel,
Lambda Staff Attorney working on the case.  "It's a national shame that
schoolchildren have to pursue safety issues on their own behalf."  
     Lambda, which took the case over on appeal, filed its brief in the
federal Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago today,
challenging a grant of summary judgment on October 5, 1995 by a federal judge
in the Western District of Wisconsin.  Joining Lambda in  a
friend-of-the-court brief are the National Association of School
Psychologists, the National Association of Social Workers, the national
office of Parents and Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Horizons
Community Services of Chicago. 

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