ACLU: School Discrimination

6/11/2009 ACLU attorney Elizabeth Gill tells the story of Rochelle Hamilton, a Vallejo student who challenged the anti-gay bias and harassment she experienced from teachers and staff at her former high school, and won.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation is illegal in public schools and workplaces. Yet in many school districts – even in the Bay Area – it's common. Elizabeth Gill is an attorney with the LGBT and AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and she bring us this commentary.

Elizabeth: These are a few of the things Rochelle Hamilton heard, shortly after she started attending Vallejo's Jesse Bethel High School in 2007. "What are you, a man or a woman?" "You're going to hell." "This is a sin." "It's not right to be this way."

The young lesbian faced harassment almost every day – and it didn't just come from students, it came from teachers and other school staff.

Rochelle was encouraged by a counselor to attend a weekly support group for gay students. The group's real purpose was soon revealed when the counselor asked students whether they were sure they wanted to "choose" to be gay. She told them it's hard to get a job if you're gay. When Rochelle's mother complained to school officials, Rochelle was told: "You're going to get this treatment your whole life. What are you going to do, stand up every time?"

Well, yes. State law explicitly protects LGBT students from harassment and discrimination. Yet Rochelle's mother spent three months writing, calling and visiting the school district to try to get someone to intervene. When all of these efforts failed, mother and daughter contacted the ACLU of Northern California.

In May of this year, we reached a settlement with the Vallejo City Unified School District that brings them into compliance with state law. The district also agreed to implement a comprehensive program to address harassment and discrimination that includes mandatory training for all staff and students.

I wish I could say that Rochelle's story was unique. But, unfortunately, far too many California schools still don't take measures to protect LGBT students from harassment and discrimination, even though they are required by state law to do so.

And because education is the best way to combat prejudice, schools can take steps beyond what the law requires to create a welcoming environment for all students:

• Schools can train teachers and staff how to step in when kids use anti-gay slurs like "fag";
• Take advantage of curriculum that includes LGBT people and families; and
• Support the activism of students and teachers in groups like Gay Straight Alliances

The stakes couldn't be higher. In recent months, two eleven year olds, one in Massachusetts and one in Georgia, hanged themselves because of anti-gay bullying.

We're lucky that Rochelle took a different route. Because of her courage, other students in Vallejo won't have to suffer in the same way.

That's why – until anti-gay harassment and discrimination and all other forms of harassment and discrimination are a distant memory in our schools –the ACLU will continue helping students to stand up for themselves.

Elizabeth Gill is an attorney with the LGBT and AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.