Message from:
Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
John Myers, Director of Operations and Programs
Email to:SARATOGANY@aol.com
The Real or Perceived Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Protection Project

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Modesto Bee
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/5956076p-6915807c.html
Modbee.com | Local (see Derek Henkle pic)

Gay students need security, speaker says

January 22, 2003 Posted:06:05:10 AM PST

By MARIJKE ROWLAND
BEE STAFF WRITER
After narrowly escaping being tied to a truck and dragged along a highway by schoolmates, Derek Henkle knew he would be lucky to make it out of high school alive.

He also knew his Reno school district should have been doing more to protect him.

"Had (the students) been any better at lassoing, I really don't feel I'd be alive today," said Henkle, now 22. "Myself and other gay kids across the country go to a place that should be giving them an education, but instead are being turned away."

Henkle's experiences in high school led to a precedent-setting lawsuit against his former school district and a record-breaking $451,000 settlement.

He is scheduled to tell his story as the keynote speaker for the second annual Safe Schools Summit, set for Saturday in Modesto.

The event is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, as well as several school districts, community colleges, student and teacher associations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Modesto Police Department.

"My day-to-day experience was of going to high school and being violently, violently attacked," said Henkle, who now lives in San Francisco. "I want educators and administrators to realize that if kids are getting bashed in their schools, we will hold them accountable."

'Every teacher needs to see'

The summit is open to teachers, administrators, students and parents. GLSEN Co-Chairman David Barbaree said the conference will be particularly useful to educators.

"This is information every teacher needs to see," Barbaree said. "I hope people will come away with the absolute conviction to protect gay students and gay-identified students at schools."

Besides Henkle's talk, the conference will include more than a dozen breakout sessions, on such topics as studies about gay youth in high school, overviews of school policies, and panel discussions with parents and students.

Beth Bailey, an administrator with event co-sponsor Modesto City Schools, said the summit's goals mesh well with the district's Safe Schools program.

"We hope to increase people's awareness of the different ways that this can affect a child's learning," said Bailey, coordinator of the Resolving Conflicts Creatively Program. "It would be our hope that this will give our teachers and administrators ways to operate a class and school that is sensitive and aware."

How not to handle harassment

Bailey said the Henkle case is a school district's worst-case scenario in dealing with gay harassment.

After being bounced from school to school and facing violent or stifling harassment at each new campus, Henkle was placed in adult education classes at age 16. He had endured being beaten in front of school security officers and told that he was acting too gay by a school principal, Henkle said.

After leaving Nevada, he teamed with the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, a gay-rights organization, and in 2000 filed a lawsuit against his former school district.

It was the first case to obtain a federal court ruling establishing the extension of free speech rights to gay students. The ruling said that it was illegal to tell students not to discuss their sexual orientation, and that trying to silence gay students is a violation of First Amendment rights.

His case and its subsequent settlement landed Henkle in the media spotlight, from "Good Morning America" to the "O'Reilly Factor." He has since traveled across the country speaking out on the topic.

"I am bringing to teachers and administrators across the country a look at what happens when they don't do their jobs," Henkle said.

The Safe Schools Summit is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Student Center on the Modesto Junior College East Campus, 435 College Ave. Preregistration is required. Fees, which include lunch, are $25 for the general public, $20 for GLSEN members and $10 for students. For more information or to register, call 527-0776, Ext. 2.

Bee staff writer Marijke Rowland can be reached at 578-2284 or mrowland@modbee.com.

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John Myers
Director of Operations and Programs
(518) 587-0176

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