Flour Bluff High School Student Fights Discrimination

by Shannon Cuttle

Bianca "Nikki" Peet, a senior at Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, will head back to school today, but says she now feels afraid for her safety.

Last week Flour Bluff High School gained national attention after Peet, who has been fighting to get a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) approved on campus, was told by school administrators that she couldn't start the club. The school administration even went so far as to ban all extra-curricular activities in order to prevent the GSA from forming.

According to Peet, she wants to create a safe space not just for LGBT students and allies, but one that is  "open to all students to stop bullying for everyone and gives back to the community."

Peet says that she has been a victim of bullying and harassment at Flour Bluff High School, both for her disability and for standing up against bullying and harassment.

But even while some administrators and community members have opposed her plans to start a GSA, many others have expressed support.

"I have heard a lot of students say that they like the idea to start the GSA, that it is needed at our school, but the teachers tell me they are not allowed to talk to me about it," says Peet.

As of Monday, both the Flour Bluff Independent School District and the Flour Bluff High School website are no longer showing a listing of the student clubs for the high school, as the page now reads "error".

Paul Rodriguez, the President of the GSA at nearby Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, has been supporting Peet in her efforts to start the GSA at Flour Bluff High School. Rodriguez says that they have received support from the GetEQUAL Texas chapter and Equality Texas. The ACLU is now also in talks with Peet about next steps.

Tonight, Peet and the local Texas A&M GSA will host a community meeting open to students, parents and supporters about Flour Bluff ISD Superintendent Julie Carbajal's recent decision to ban all after-school clubs to prevent the GSA from forming. They hope to bring the community together against intolerance and discrimination.

"Other groups can disagree with the GSA or not like me because of it, but we need to respect each other and get along with each other and stand up to discrimination. Student clubs have a place at Flour Bluff High School", says Peet.

A peaceful protest has also been called for on Friday at 9am by local students outside Flour Bluff High School in support of having student clubs on campus to fight bullying.

We'll be updating this story all throughout the week as it moves along. Meanwhile, if you haven't added your name in support of Nikki Peet, urging Flour Bluff High School to allow a GSA on campus, please do so here.

Photo credit: basykes


ORIGINAL SOURCE

Garnet Coleman files suicide prevention bill that would ban anti-LGBT bullying, discrimination

by John Wright

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, has filed a bill that he says is designed to prevent future tragedies like the suicide of Asher Brown, a gay 13-year-old who took his own life last year in response to bullying at school.

Coleman’s HB 1386, filed today, calls on the state to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention program for middle, junior and high schools. The bill would also ban anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination in public schools.  Read more here...

Arizona Considers Bullying Bill

By Advocate.com Editors

The Arizona house and senate are considering companion bills that would require school officials protect LGBT students from bullying.

Equality Arizona and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network are lobbying for passage of the bills.

"We are grateful that Senate Minority Leader David Schapira and Rep. Katie Hobbs, along with many of their colleagues in the legislature, are committed to giving every child in Arizona a fair chance to succeed in school," Equality Arizona board chair Tom Mann said in a press release.

There are currently nine states that offer specific bullying protections to school-age LGBT children.

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Report: Facebook bullying leads high school freshman to commit suicide

MONROE, N.Y. — Sadly, another teen suicide to report.

Kameron Jacobsen, a 14-year-old freshman at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Central Valley, N.Y., died Tuesday after taking his own life. Sources report that Kameron was was tormented by Facebook bullies who taunted him because they thought he was gay.

Kameron’s death is the second teen suicide in less than 2 weeks by a Monroe-Woodbury student. On Jan. 9, 16-year-old Justin Dimino also took his life, although there have been no reports of bullying related to Justin’s death.

At the high school they both attended, students tried to make sense of the incomprehensible — that two teens with everything ahead of them seemed to find life too painful.

Full report here from WNYW-TV:

Sources: Teenager Kills Himself After Facebook Taunts: MyFoxNY.com

“Our hearts go out to the families,” said Principal David Bernsley. “We’re devastated as a community.”

Facebook issued this statement about the incidents, according to WNYW:

“We are deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of these students, and our hearts go out to their family and friends. These cases serve as a painful reminder of how people can help others who are either bullied or show signs of distress on Facebook. We encourage them to notify us, and we work with third party support groups including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to reach out to people who may need help.”

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Bullied gay teen in Minnesota commits suicide

By Eric Ethington

MILTONA, Minn. — We’ve lost another beautiful life to bullying. Lance Lundsten, 18, an openly gay student at Jefferson High School, took his life over the weekend. Friends say that Lance suffered extreme bullying and harassment for years.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten’s residence in Miltona, Minnesota.

When officers arrived, they discovered Lance needing emergency medical care. Lance was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died.

The Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KSAX-TV that they believed Lundsten’s death was a suicide. The Sheriff would not confirm the nature of the medical emergency.

According to KSAX, Lundsten had revealed on Facebook that he was openly gay, and some students at his high school said he was bullied for his sexual orientation.

Lance’s friends have created a new facebook group after the news of his death, called the “Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition.”

Even if his school didn’t help Lance survive the bullying, the heroic group of friends are pushing to do their part. The page reads “Here to stand up for everyone who needs defending. The school’s staff isn’t protecting us, it’s up to the students to help each other.”

Friends have also set up a memorial page for Lance on Facebook.

No word yet from Jefferson High School.

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Break the Silence: Wisconsin

On April 15, the University of Wisconsin-Madison will spearhead a statewide effort to combat anti-LGBT bullying and harassment as well as general homophobia and transphobia.

By University of Wisconsin – Madison LGBT Campus Center Staff

College campuses are where it is supposed to “get better” for LGBT youth. The question is, does it? Similar to cliques and sports culture, homophobia and transphobia do not disappear after high school graduation. Moving onto college can be liberating for many, but it does not in itself produce the change that makes life better for LGBT youth. Anti-LGBT attitudes and stereotypes remain, and they consistently embed themselves into collegiate culture. Media coverage has been incredibly present over the past few months and has raised visibility and awareness. However, when the reporters turn to something else that is a “hot topic” and the celebrities stop making videos about how much better it has gotten, people will return to complacency as the issue recedes from the public consciousness. When this happens, the bullying does not stop. Students will continue to be targeted because they are or are perceived to be LGBT-identified.

When people are bullied for their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation, they are singled out for the very essence of who they are. The repercussions of identity-based hostility are so severe that a third of LGBT youth have attempted suicide. We can no longer think of bullying as a "character-building" or "strength-developing" activity. It is harassment in its most obvious form. It is hatred played out between people. Bullying forces LGBTQ-identified people to fight for respect in their schools, on their campuses, in their workplaces and communities. Lives are lost while a culture of silence pretends like these issues don’t exist. This is why we must stand up and demand that the bullying stop. This is why we must come together and stop the silence.

Last fall the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s LGBT Campus Center launched Stop the Silence, an action oriented campaign to address LGBT bullying. This campaign focuses on campus climate issues and actions that must be taken to promote safety and equality for our campus community. There is national support for implementing programs that address LGBTQ bullying in K-12 schools, but it has become apparent how little is being done in higher education. This is an issue that has recently received much attention; however, commitment to intervene and prioritize concrete steps to promote a safe and accountable environment has languished.

On April 15 we will make a statewide commitment to put an end to anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, along with other manifestations of homophobia. We are tired of standing by idly. It is not enough to have simple dialogues and move on, because we know what is happening in our schools; students are still suffering. It is time that we take action and send a clear message that bullying will not be tolerated in our schools. Because of this, we will gather at our state capitol, united as students, faculty, staff, family, friends, and community members, to collectively, on the National Day of Silence, take a stand to break the silence.

“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.” — Helen Keller

For more information or to get involved, click here or e-mail stopthesilencelgbtq@gmail.com.

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LGBT Groups Scale Back Goals In 2011, Search For Smaller Victories With New Congress

by Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- Facing an emboldened Republican House unlikely to consider significant gay rights legislation in 2011, the nation's leading LGBT advocacy organizations are aiming to push for measures that advance pro-equality causes but are a far cry from historic bills like the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

A new analysis by the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBT advocacy group, argues that the 112th Congress will have 53 more lawmakers unlikely to vote on behalf of advancing gay rights than in the previous session; the Senate will have five more, bringing the total of such members in the new Congress to 265:

"There will be some opportunities that will be presented to us," said Allison Herwitt, legislative director at HRC. "I think that going into the 112th Congress, generally, we'll be looking at, what are the bigger bills that will be moving that we can put pieces of pro-equality -- either amendments or provisions -- into those larger moving bills?"

She said the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act might provide opportunities to include measures addressing bullying and harassment. The Older Americans Act could allow advocates to push for provisions that benefit older LGBT Americans. A piece of free-standing legislation, the Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act, would equalize tax treatment for employer-provided health coverage for domestic partners and other non-spouse, non-dependent beneficiaries.

HRC will still work on larger pieces of legislation, like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Defense of Marriage Act, pushing to introduce the bills, educating lawmakers and holding hearings on the issues.

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, also acknowledges that major measures are unlikely to go anywhere but said there are opportunities to marry the fiscal concerns of the Republican Party with pro-equality legislation. Like Herwitt, he pointed to inequalities in the tax code.

Currently under federal law, employers who offer health benefits for the domestic partners of their employees face unequal treatment: both the employers and employees are taxed at a higher rate and essentially, employers are rewarded for discriminating.

"We have drafted a tax reform bill that would address a 'donut hole' -- people call it different things -- there is currently a problem with the way the federal tax code is written that is punitive to employers, and employees who may have a same-sex partner," said Cooper, noting it would be LCR's first piece of legislation this Congress. "We figure, with the current appetite in Congress for tax reform, and the current appetite for economic growth and limiting the federal budget and balancing the budget, this may be an opportunity for a successful piece of legislation that could be introduced and sponsored by Republicans, with bipartisan support from Democrats."

He is less pessimistic that Republicans will try to take away LGBT rights, pointing to 11 of LCR's endorsed candidates -- including five new members -- who will be in the 112th Congress. He also noted that on Dec. 15, the Republican Study Committee, run by the socially conservative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), convened a meeting with conservative and Republican auxiliary organizations -- including the Heritage Foundation, National Rifle Association, and LCR -- and made clear the party will be focused on fiscal issues.

"What Chairman Jordan shared with us is that all the priorities for this Congress are fiscal-related," said Cooper. "One could interpret it as there have been lessons learned either at a pragmatic or principled level by certain Republicans on social issues, that they're not good for the party; they are divisive. And frankly, in many respects, from a true definition of conservatism, social issues don't have a role in the government."

The three priorities identified by Jordan, according to Cooper, were: 1) a rescission package that would eliminate previously approved spending; 2) balancing the federal budget; and 3) federal welfare reform.

Herwitt is less optimistic. She said that LGBT advocates will have to look closely at budget numbers Republicans put out and where they decide to cut spending. Will they go after funding for HIV/AIDS programs? Hate crimes enforcement?

Additionally, as the 2012 elections heat up, she said Republicans might bring social issues to the table again.

"I think they're going to have to give some red meat to their base, and I assume it's either going to be anti-gay, anti-choice, or anti-immigrant, or all of the above," said Herwitt. "So I just think that when you have someone like Jeb Hensarling, who is chairman of the House Republican Conference, he's extremely connected and close to a lot the right-wing religious groups, so there's going to be pressure on the leadership to deliver on some of these issues."

One branch of government that could hold major victories (or upsets) for the LGBT community: the judicial system. There currently are two major cases making their way through the courts, one challenging the constitutionality of DOMA, the other the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban. Either could end up at the Supreme Court.

There will also be action at the state level, with Maryland, New York and Rhode Island looking to advance marriage equality bills, and states like Tennessee, Arizona and Florida likely considering legislation to restrict adoption rights for same-sex parents.

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Seth Walsh's Brother Shawn: 'One Word' Can Make Gay Teens Want To Kill Themselves

I'm standing behind my declaration that Nate Berkus hosts a terrible, sometimes unwatchable talk show, but this week he did something just terrific. He invited Wendy and Shawn Walsh, mother and brother to dead gay teen Seth Walsh, to tell the story of what happens when kids are bullied: they die.

Wendy has already cemented herself as a hero in this space, becoming one of a growing number of mothers using their personal tragedies to reach other parents. And, hopefully, school administrators. In Seth's suicide note, which he left before hanging himself from a tree in September (which would land him on life support for 10 days before he ultimately passed), he asks his mother to "make the school feel like shit for bringing you this sorrow." She's been on a mission to do exactly that, even managing to get the Department of Education to investigate the Tehachapi Unified School District in California for turning a blind eye to Seth's torment.

But it's Seth's brother Shawn, at just 11-years-old, who stands out as a remarkable human being. He tells Berkus that he knew of Seth's bullying, and says he encouraged Seth to tell his mother, but Seth feared it would only make his classmates' attacks even worse. "I want people to remember that bullying isn't okay," says Shawn, "because one word can make them have suicidal thoughts."

Along with Chely Wright, Berkus and the Walshes this week unveiled a new gay teen lounge at the New York City community center YES. And Chely bestowed Shawn with her first-ever Chely Wright Like Me scholarship, which will go to five teens a year who act as advocates in their schools. Well deserved.


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Leaving the Bully Behind in 2010

by Shannon Cuttle; Dec 30, 2010

This year will go down in history as ‘full equality became one step closer for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adult community members.’  From the historic Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which will eventually allow openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members to serve,  to full marriage equality in Washington D.C., to victories such as hospital visitation mandates for LGBT families nationally.

One of the biggest under-reported stories of 2010 affects a population who mostly cannot yet legally vote nor make a donation to a campaign or an organization, and most of whom still depend on an adult to look out for their best interests and in some cases save their lives:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender non-conforming youth and allies.

In 2010 we saw bullying and harassment in schools and communities in Washington, D.C, Texas,  Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Massachusetts,  Colorado,  Virginia, Florida, New York, Michigan, Utah, California, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Louisiana, Idaho, Connecticut and California, and those were just the stories that we heard about.

In more than half of the United States of America in 2010, youth experienced bullying and harassment.

In 2010 we lost over 20 youth due to reported suicide from bullying and harassment. Keep in mind those are only the reported cases. Across the nation, we were heartbroken and shocked to learn about many suicides due to bullying harassment, including Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince, Chloe Lacey and others. The youngest student that attempted to take hir life from severe bullying and harassment at school was just six years old. Not every story made the news.

This year we also saw student heroes like Will Phillips, Constance McMillen, Ceara Sturgis, Paige Rawl, Graeme Taylor, Derrick Martin stand up and fight back after serve bullying and harassment at school. There are countless other youth whose stories have yet to be told about their struggle, strength, courage, and pain facing bullying and harassment in schools, colleges, and universities.  Over 150,000 students miss school each day due to bullying and harassment. And 9 out 10 LGBT youth experience bullying and harassment—especially given the advent of  Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites—according to GLSEN. And 40% of all youth who have access to a computer have experienced cyber bullying.

Youth in 2010 have faced not just bullying and harassment, but homelessness as well.  Up to 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBT and are struggling for food and shelter across this nation. Most of these homeless youth were thrown out of their homes or disowned by their families, left on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

And even progressive advances such as the DADT Repeal Act of 2010 still do not address creating safe spaces for lesbian and gay youth in JROTC, young adults in ROTC, or cadets in our nation’s schools, colleges, and universities.

How are we truly providing high quality education if we are not providing inclusive safe schools?

In 2011 we must fight together to make safe schools a priority so that all youth regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity (actual or perceived), socioeconomic status, disability or impairment , religion, immigration status, race, national origin, HIV/AIDS status, and others are free from bullying, harassment and discrimination.

  

What can you do?


   
Join the movement for safe schools in your local communities and stand up to bullying and harassment when you hear it, see it and take action. Help create inclusive safe spaces and anti-bullying and harassment polices on a local, state-wide, and federal level such as the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Safe Schools Improvement Act.


  
Make 2011 the year we invest in youth and make sure no child is left behind by making inclusive safe schools  a reality.


  
Get Involved today: Safe Schools Action Network, GLSEN, Make it Better Project, Project Life Vest, Operation Shine America, PFLAG, Trevor Project, It Gets Better Project, Ali Forney Center, GSA Network and your local PTA, LGBT community Center, classroom, school board or college campus.


  
If you need help please call The Trevor Help Line at: 1-800-U- TREVOR (800-488-7386)

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Schools take steps to protect students from bullying

By Christine Rogel crogel@lcsun-news.com

LAS CRUCES - Christopher Burton understands how cruel kids can be. He said he was "tormented" for his appearance, experiencing beatings and receiving life-threatening letters from gang members.

"Bullying has always been a part of my life since I started going to school," said Burton, an openly gay senior at Las Cruces High School. "I was Tased in school - on school property - by another student. This was the same student who had just been bullying me the entire time I was in middle school."

According to statistics provided by the Family Pride Foundation, an advocacy agency for at-risk youth, 28 percent of gay youth drop out of school because of physical or verbal harassment, and gay youth are six times more likely than straight teens to attempt suicide.

Bullying not only targets youth who are gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual, but all children considered different by their peers.

In Las Cruces Public Schools, between 15 percent and 20 percent of students have been bullied and between 15 percent to 25 percent of students have bullied others, according to Nancy Parker a counselor at Camino Real Middle School who is helping launch a districtwide, anti-bullying initiative. In middle school specifically, where bullying behavior tends to peak, 30 percent of students experience bullying.

"The district has made a commitment to revisiting this because right now it's a matter of life and death. That's just how serious this is," Parker said. "It's become pervasive, it is ongoing. It is almost the new normal. And that scares the dickens out of me."


12-point plan

The program, called Bully Proofing our Schools, involves a 12-point plan for addressing bullying, said Martin Greer, lead supervising school psychologist and supervisor of counseling and guidance services for LCPS.

"We are really trying to emphasis this isn't a one-time training. We want teachers and kids to understand that we are going to be consistently on this, we want to keep it up," he said.

The program includes updating the disciplinary plan, training students and staff and working with parents. It also involves collecting new data, and the district plans to launch an online bullying survey that schools can access. At Camino Real Middle School, there is a more extensive data collection project, involving focus groups to document student experiences.

"The message is that we're not going to support bullying and we'll exercise discipline on those that do," Superintendent Stan Rounds said. "We want a good road map so we're consistent and reasonable in our approach. The end game is we want to stop it."


Ebb and flow

Bullying escalates in third grade, becomes most prevalent in middle school and then starts to diminish in high school, Parker said. Statistics for high school students may be lower because students drop out because they feel unsafe, insecure and unhappy as a result of being bullied, she said.

Greer said that some students bully for social power, others because they come from dysfunctional families and others because of abuse. Greer said part of the Bully Proofing our Schools program involves psychological screenings to evaluate bullies for aggressive tendencies and victims for depression, anger, suicidal thinking, retaliation and the level of trauma.

If left unchecked, kids who are bullied can suffer from depression and anxiety into adulthood, Greer said.

This type of trauma led to a school shooting at Zia Middle School in 1992.

"Fortunately the other student survived and recovered, but essentially the kid was tired of being bullied," Greer said.



School programs

Along with the new districtwide initiative, schools handle bullying on an individual basis, hosting programs that inform students and encouraging them to speak out against bullying behavior.

At Picacho Middle School, a group of students participated in a two-day training with the Safe School Ambassadors program, a national program that trains bystanders to speak up. At San Andres High School, media students produced an anti-bullying video. At Valley View Elementary School, students performed skits on bullying and Conlee Elementary School students signed an anti-bullying pledge and marched in an anti-bullying parade.

Student groups are another important piece in creating a positive school environment. At Las Cruces High School, members of the pom squad and students with hair dyed pink participate in the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) which aims to promote solidarity, faculty sponsor Daniel Ruben said.

While the club's mission is honorable, it's not always easy.

"We can't keep up GSA posters on the walls at school," Ruben said. "They get torn down very quickly."

Ruben said that when he first decided to sponsor the club, bullying was not a primary concern, but since then it has become weekly topic.

"As trust was formed, that's when people started staying after and saying, 'Hey, Mr. Ruben, this is happening in this class," he said.

Christopher De La Rosa, president of the Las Cruces High School GSA, said he wants to create a safe haven for any student who needs it.

Burton, a senior, said the support of the GSA was ''incredible."

"Just knowing there are people in the school that understand what we go through, and even though we suffer the slings and arrows of insults and horrific scenes, or beatings, we just know there are people there that can pick us back up and stand in front of us or beside us and tell these people, 'no, they are just like you and me, they just have an different opinion of life,'" he said.

"Bullying, I've seen it all my life. And it hurts, but I've learned that bullying has no affect on my soul because the people that I love and care about are there for me and are able to support me," Burton said.

Christine Rogel can be reached at (575) 541-5424.


Warning signs of bullying

•Avoiding certain situations, people or places.

•Pretending to be sick so that he or she doesn't have to go to school.

•Changes in behavior, such as being withdrawn and passive, being overly active and aggressive, or being self-destructive.

•Frequent crying or feeling sad.

•Signs of low self-esteem.

•Being unwilling to speak or showing signs of fear when asked about certain situations, people, or places.

•Signs of injuries.

•Suddenly receiving lower grades or showing signs of learning problems.

•Recurrent unexplained physical symptoms such as stomach pains and fatigue.
Source: Stop Bullying Now! - http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Warning_Signs_that_Your_Child/

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Seth Walsh Bullying Case: Feds Investigate California School

LISA LEFF | 12/21/10 08:40 PM | AP

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal education officials are investigating a school district in a Central California town where a 13-year-old boy committed suicide after allegedly being harassed by classmates because he was gay, a spokesman for Education Secretary Arne Duncan confirmed Tuesday.

The probe was launched in response to a complaint from Seth Walsh's mother that Tehachapi Unified School District employees failed to adequately address the years of bullying that preceded her son's death last Sept. 28, spokesman Justin Hamilton said.

Seth's mother Wendy Walsh said U.S. Department of Education investigators spent two days in Tehachapi last week interviewing students, teachers and administrators. She said she contacted them when her son, who hanged himself from a backyard tree on Sept. 19, was still hospitalized in a coma.

"They put this on their very important list, their priority list," Walsh said of the federal review. "Obviously, there must be a big problem that needs to be addressed, and it isn't just around Seth. It's the whole nation."

District Superintendent Richard Swanson and other officials were not available for comment since the district is closed for the holiday break. Swanson did not respond to an e-mail sent to his work address.

He told The Bakersfield Californian last week that since Seth took his life, the 1,100-student district has formed an anti-bullying task force and adopted a bullying prevention program that deals with the topic generally but does not discuss harassment based on sexual orientation in detail.

Seth was one of at least seven gay teenagers whose suicides this fall – all occurring within a month – focused renewed attention on the pain inflicted by peers who mock other children because of their sexual orientations.

In late October, the Education Department's civil rights division responded by reminding school districts and universities they could face administrative penalties and even lose federal funding if they fail to take concrete steps to counter anti-gay harassment about which they knew or "reasonably should have known."

The guidance also clarified that even though federal civil rights laws do not cover sexual orientation, the department has authority to investigate cases so severe that school has become a "hostile environment" for students perceived to be gay, lesbian or transgender.

The investigations can be done under laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender stereotypes, Hamilton said.

"What we found anecdotally was harassment of gay, lesbian and transgender students was often not referred to the Office for Civil Rights on the assumption of, if they are gay, there are no civil rights violations," he said. "While they are not protected as a group, oftentimes the type of bullying they experience is protected. So what we are saying is, harassing someone for failing to conform to gender norms is sexual harassment."

Wendy Welsh is claiming school officials in Tehachapi neglected to take action to protect Seth and to address anti-gay bias in general, even though she and the boy's grandmother, a former school board member, alerted them several times that he was called anti-gay epithets and threatened in the boys locker room.

He attended Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi, but twice was given permission to be homeschooled because of the ongoing problems, according to a letter the American Civil Liberties Union sent to the superintendent last week on Wendy Walsh's behalf.

The ACLU is demanding to know what steps the district has taken to address bullying of gay students.

California state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill requiring public schools to include lessons on gay history and the contributions of prominent gays and lesbians as a way to combat bullying.

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Stop Anti-Gay Bullying: Seth's Story

by Elizabeth Gill, LGBT Project

Seth Walsh was a sweet, intelligent boy who loved his family and did well in school. He was also gay. And for this, he endured years of relentless bullying and verbal abuse at his Tehachapi, California, school. On September 19, 2010, Seth Walsh hanged himself from a plum tree in the family's backyard. He was on life support for nine days before he died on September 28. He was only 13 years old.

Wendy Walsh, Seth's mother, teamed up with the ACLU to help make a difference in the lives of LGBT youth facing harassment. "Schools need to take harassment and bullying seriously when parents or students tell them about it, and when they see it in the halls," she told the ACLU.

Seth's mother is speaking out publicly to tell her son's story.



Seth was in fifth grade when students started calling him "gay." As he got older, the verbal abuse and taunts were more frequent and severe. Seth's family and close friends report that by seventh grade other students constantly called him "queer" and "fag." He was afraid to use the restroom or be in the boy's locker room before gym class. One student reported that a teacher called Seth "fruity" in front of an entire class. Seth's mother told the ACLU that her pleas for help to the school were often brushed aside. Seth's grades eventually dropped from A's and B's to failing as the harassment continued. Friends say that he became depressed and withdrawn.

Seth's story is heartbreakingly common. Verbal and physical abuse at school isolates and degrades lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Recent studies from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and in the Journal of Adolescent Health confirm what we know about the serious harassment and safety fears that LGBT youth face. A tragic result of these factors is that LGBT youth are three times as likely to commit suicide as heterosexual youth.

Wendy Walsh is on a mission to change these statistics. Schools, too, can make a big difference. In fact, public schools have a duty to protect students from harassment based on sexual orientation. According to the 2009 School Climate Survey from our colleagues at GLSEN, California and 14 other states require that schools take specific steps to protect LGBT students. Federal legislation — the Student Non-Discrimination Act — is expected to come up early next year and would extend additional protections for LGBT students nationwide. Even when good laws are in place, schools often need tools to adequately protect LGBT students.

At the very least, schools should be taking these five steps to make a safer climate for LGBT students:

1. Create strong and clear anti-harassment policies and programs.
2. Take all complaints of harassment seriously.
3. Provide ongoing professional development for teachers, school counselors and administrators about identifying and stopping anti-LGBT harassment.
4. Hold regular programs that explain the harmful impact of harassment to students and staff, and include LGBT topics and history in basic curricula.
5. Support Gay-Straight Alliances on campus.

Wendy Walsh's message is clear: Students have the right to be safe and supported at school for exactly who they are. And parents deserve to know that their kids are going to school in a respectful environment where they are nurtured to reach their full potential. I think we can all agree on that.

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