Fighting Back Against School-wide Homophobia
Published May 19, 2009 @ 05:49AM PT
It's not unusual (although it is still tragic) to hear about LGBT students harassed by their peers in schools. But what about LGBT students harassed by their teachers?
Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that they had reach a settlement with the Vallejo City Unified School District in California, after a lesbian student, Rochelle Hamilton, was taunted and harassed by her teachers. School administrators even made her attend special counseling to discourage her from being a lesbian.
I'm sorry, but that's essentially child abuse. Here's a quote from Hamilton:
All I ever wanted was to be able to go to school and just be myself. But I couldn’t do that when the people I was supposed to be learning from were judging me and telling me something was wrong with me. How was I supposed to learn when I was constantly scared?
Exactly. This year has already seen multiple suicides by children as young as 11, who were taunted and teased at their schools because they were perceived to be LGBT. In Rochelle Hamilton's case, school administrators not only failed to provide protection and safety for her in the classroom, they were actively participating in targeting her for her sexual orientation. For Hamilton, there's at least a silver lining of this lawsuit which has shed light on the malpractice of school administrators in the Vallejo School District. But hundreds of other kids aren't as lucky.
Here's a list of some of the other abuses faced by Hamilton at her school, direct from the ACLU:
- A teacher approached Hamilton while she was hugging her girlfriend and said, “This is ungodly, and you’re going to hell. This is a sin.”
- Another teacher said, “What’s wrong with you? What are you, a man or a woman?”
- Other school staff made repeated harassing comments to Hamilton in front of her classmates, including saying, “it’s not right to be this way.”
- Hamilton was also on several occasions denied access to the girls’ locker room.
I'm half-surprised that school administrators didn't ask Hamilton to drink out of a separate water fountain. Elizabeth Gill, an attorney who worked on Hamilton's case, said that "If a school district ignores anti-gay bias in schools, it is plainly violating both state and federal law. These laws are designed, in part, to ensure that all students are able to learn and thrive free from bias. When it’s left unchecked, harassment can take a serious toll on students."
And I keep going back to Hamilton's own question, posed at the end of her quote: "How was I supposed to learn when I was constantly scared?" Schools have to be safe places for all students - straight or LGBT - or else they become breeding grounds for taunting, teasing, harassment, and violence.
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
Daniel Radcliffe Says No To LGBT Suicide
-
Making LGBT Students Feel Safe and Supported
-
Happy Birthday, Harvey Milk
Comments (5)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.
Featured Gay Rights Actions
-
-
Help Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act!
12558 People
-
Help Repeal the Defense of Marriage Act!
-
Why weren't these teachers and staff FIRED??
Posted by Courtney C............ on 05/19/2009 @ 07:26AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Forget 'fired' - they should have their teaching credentials revoked and be barred from interacting with kids other than their own.
It's psychological and emotional abuse, what was done to that girl, and it makes me sick that this stuff is not only tolerated, but practically accepted.
Posted by Jennifer Brill on 05/19/2009 @ 12:36PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Every school in the United States must be tolerant of their LGBT students, thus teachers and administrators being intolerant of LGBT students is unjustified. In addition, it's unfortunate that administrators made Rochelle Hamilton come to meetings targeting her sexual orientation. The comments in the blog show the intolerance of some teachers that must end so that students may be in an environment that meets the requirements of laws regarding diversity in schools.
Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 05/19/2009 @ 01:08PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
I'm glad teachers at my high school aren't like this. There's allot of homophobia amongst students but the teachers and staff would never act like this at all, several of our teachers ARE gay.
But in spite of this, many of the students are very homophobic or 'anti-gay', and I do think there's a huge difference between the two.
Posted by Cody Mead on 05/19/2009 @ 01:42PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Mmmm, there are actually quite a few homophobic teachers at my school. Some how, I'm the only GLBT in the school who hasn't had these teachers or been harrassed right out. Teachers seem to know to not mess with me since my mom and my god mother are both members of the school board and have shaken a lot of ground to provide more bussing for the middle schoolers.
Posted by Amber Bauer on 05/19/2009 @ 02:21PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.