********************************
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
http://www.gsanetwork.org
********************************

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:Carolyn Laub
415-552-4229

GSA Network and Visalia Unified School District Reach Historic Settlement in Anti-Gay Case

Parties Agree to Comprehensive Reforms to Counter Sexual Orientation Discrimination

SAN FRANCISCO, August 13, 2002 - An historic settlement in an anti-gay harassment lawsuit was filed in federal court today, the first filed under a recent California law that protects students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Visalia Unified School District, the defendant in the case, and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSA Network), the lead plaintiff, agreed on a comprehensive plan to prevent the discrimination brought to light by George Loomis, a former VUSD student and also a plaintiff in the case.

"This settlement is a real milestone for California students," said Carolyn Laub, Executive Director of the GSA Network. "It demonstrates that when students challenge a hostile school culture, they can win. The agreement also provides a model to school districts that want to make changes to comply with California's school non-discrimination law - as well as a warning to school districts that have resisted or ignored it."

The participation of GSA Network in the lawsuit, which was strongly opposed by the District, sets a precedent with momentous implications, since most students who have sued school districts in the past are no longer enrolled and can recover damages but lack standing to insist on broad reform to protect all students.

"GSA Network represents students in school now, and our members have a stake in seeing the district implement real reform," said Laub. "This is why the settlement breaks new ground - it brings about systematic, lasting reforms that will create safer schools for all Visalia students."

Loomis and other Visalia Unified students described a climate of pervasive hostility, including:

• Teachers and other staff making anti-gay slurs and statements to students
• Students harassing, spitting at, throwing objects at, sexually harassing, and attacking other students
• Administrators either refusing to respond or isolating students who complained and encouraging them to leave school and enter independent study, a program that severely limits students' future academic options, providing only one hour of instruction per week.

"This settlement ensures that other students won't have to go through what I went through," said George Loomis. "That's what matters most."

Laub noted that the case and its settlement coincide with the rapid growth of the GSA movement in California's Central Valley.

"In just over a year, fifteen new GSAs have been founded in the Central Valley, and student activists are leading a dynamic movement to alter the culture of hostility that still pervades far too many schools," said Laub.

"It's great that our school district has made these commitments, because George was definitely not alone in experiencing harassment in this district," said Jennifer Lopez, a GSA leader and student at Redwood High School in Visalia. "My friends and I want our school to be a safe place, and this settlement gives us hope that it will become one."

The three-year agreement between GSA Network and VUSD includes requirements that the district:

• Develop and disseminate clear harassment and discrimination policies and procedures,
• Conduct mandatory, annual training for K-12 teachers and other staff on preventing harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,
• Conduct mandatory, annual, peer-to-peer training for all 9th graders on preventing sexual orientation harassment or discrimination, and
• Assign a compliance coordinator in each school to handle sexual orientation harassment and discrimination reports.

The ACLU of Northern California represented GSA Network and Loomis, and the law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin acted as pro bono co-counsel in the case.

Founded in 1998, GSA Network is the nation's largest youth-led organization dedicated to ending harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools through the establishment and support of GSA clubs. With offices in San Francisco, Fresno and Los Angeles supporting more than 275 GSAs, GSA Network has created a regional support system for California's burgeoning GSA movement, helping California youth lead the way to a more equitable future. More information can be found at http://www.gsanetwork.org.

# # #

****************************************
empowering youth activists to fight homophobia in schools

Carolyn Laub
Executive Director
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
160 14th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
ph:415.552.4229
fax:415.552.4729
carolyn@gsanetwork.org
http://www.gsanetwork.org/
****************************************

From:SARATOGANY@aol.com
Date:Tue, 13 Aug 2002 18:14:07 EDT
Subject:CA:California School Agrees To Strongest Anti-Gay Harassment Program in Nation

Message from:
The 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
===================================================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, August 13, 2002

PRESS CONTACT:
Chris Hampton, ACLU, 212-549-2673
Stella Richardson, ACLU-NC, 415-621-2493

California School Agrees To Strongest Anti-Gay Harassment Program in Nation

VISALIA, CA -- The Visalia Unified School District has agreed to adopt sweeping reforms to address anti-gay harassment, including groundbreaking measures to train staff and students with the goal of preventing harassment before it happens, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today.

The settlement ends a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU over routine harassment of lesbian and gay students, some of whom were then forced into a special program for students with behavioral problems.

"This milestone settlement shows schools how to meet their legal obligation to not only respond to anti-gay harassment, but to actively work to prevent it," said Ann Brick, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. "Anti-gay harassment is a particularly big problem in schools outside major urban centers, like those in Visalia. Students there will now have a shot at being treated equally, and the rest of California and the nation will have a strong model for addressing these issues."

The settlement - which was presented this morning to the federal judge presiding over the case - requires mandatory training for all school staff and all high school students. The staff training will be designed by an outside expert, the Intergroup Clearinghouse, a nonprofit organization set up to promote tolerance. The training will be aimed at teaching staff how to intervene and remedy acts of harassment, and how to prevent them from occurring in the future. The sessions will be supplemented with annual updates.

The student training will be designed by the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The student trainings will be conducted "peer to peer" by other students, and will eventually be made a part of the permanent curriculum. The settlement also requires the district to:

• Adopt policies explicitly forbidding staff or student harassment or discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation;
• Name "compliance coordinators" to help parents, students and teachers with incidents of discrimination;
• Establish a community advisory group to help address discrimination and assess how the settlement is working.

Loomis was a senior at his California high school when one of his teachers, referring to the boy's earring, told his class, "Only two kinds of guys wear earrings, pirates and faggots, and I don't see any water around here." Over the next few weeks the teacher continued making such remarks about Loomis in class, sparking a wave of harassment and threats from other students and school staff that eventually drove the honor student from school.

The ACLU filed the federal lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of Loomis and the statewide Gay-Straight Alliance Network, charging that because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, students are harassed by school administrators, teachers, and classmates. During the lawsuit, attorneys presented the stories of over a dozen other students who had suffered similar harassment over the past few years. The school's response, the lawsuit said, was to move gay students off campus by placing them in inappropriate special programs. The case claimed the hostile environment this creates is unlawful under the U.S. Constitution and California state law.

"The settlement is a victory for Visalia students and every student across the country because it provides a model for how school districts nationwide can prevent harassment on their campuses," said Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. "GSA Network welcomes this unprecedented opportunity to work with the Visalia Unified School District to create safe schools for all its students." GSA Network, which has over 275 gay-straight alliance clubs in California, will design and implement a mandatory peer-to-peer student training program in all Visalia high schools, as required by the settlement.

"In terms of policy changes and lasting system-wide reform, this settlement sets the standard," said Kevin Lewis, an attorney with the San Francisco law firm of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, who served as lead pro bono counsel to the plaintiffs in the case. "This is a great victory - not just for our clients but for students everywhere in America."

According to the ACLU, this settlement is a model for California school districts because it complies with the statewide anti-discrimination law, the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, and with federal laws against harassment in the schools.

"This case isn't just about Visalia, California - it's about a nationwide epidemic in non-urban schools, where young people face unspeakable harassment and violence because of who they are," said James Esseks, litigation director at the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "This could - and often does - happen at almost any school outside urban America."

More about the Gay-Straight Alliance Network's student-led efforts to create safer schools in California can be found at http://www.gsanetwork.org, and more about the ACLU's work nationwide on making schools safe for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth can be found online at http://www.aclu.org/safeschools. Settlement documents can also be viewed at http://www.aclu.org/court/loomis.pdf or the ACLU of Northern California's website at http://www.aclunc.org.

###
============================================================================
This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Subscribe at saratogany@aol.com

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

Return to P.E.R.S.O.N. Project Home Page