DES MOINES REGISTER, March 14, 2002
Box 957, Des Moines, Ia., 50304
(Fax 515-286-2511 ) (E-MAIL:letters@news.dmreg.com )
http://desmoinesregister.com/news/stories/c4780927/17611286.html

Advocates want policy for Iowa's gay students

By STACI HUPP, Register Staff Writer

Ames, Ia. - A gay student's request to add sexual orientation to the Gilbert school district's discrimination policy shows the need for mandatory rules protecting gay students in Iowa, advocates say.

Proposed state rules to include sexual orientation in school diversity policies were scrapped last year when lawmakers deemed them outside state law.

Education officials have gone back to the drawing board.

Jerryn Johnston, a Gilbert High School senior, asked the school board this week to add sexual orientation to the school's definition of diversity. School officials promised a decision within a few weeks.

State law requires school discrimination policies for students and employees that cover race, sex, disability, religion, nationality and marital status. Sexual orientation is not mentioned.

Johnston also wants the school to offer a $500 reward to find vandals who apparently tampered with the wheels on his car and slashed its tires.

School officials have suggested Johnston park his car in a more visible area.

Teachers and staff will receive diversity training this spring, but the school superintendent wasn't sure whether the training would address sexual orientation.

"Certainly the school district is very concerned about harassment of any student," said Gilbert Superintendent Doug Williams.

Johnston, 18, doesn't think that's good enough.

"I would like to be like any other student and not have to be in fear," Johnston said.

The state Department of Education wanted to tie diversity in schools to accreditation. The proposal drew fire from some state lawmakers and interest groups. Education officials dropped the plan.

Education officials are "doing more research and figuring out where our authority stands," said Kathi Slaughter, a Department of Education spokeswoman. "The whole point of updating the policies is that they are about 25 or 30 years old. The big important goal is to make sure all kids are protected in school and free from harassment."

At least four Iowa school districts - Ames, Des Moines, Iowa City and Decorah - have extended their policies to protect gay students.

Several others, including West Des Moines, Storm Lake and Lamoni, have turned down such proposals.

"The concern was, where does the list stop?" said Bill Kruse, superintendent in Storm Lake, where the school board voted this week. "If sexual orientation is added, should we add others?"

Gay-rights advocates don't buy the argument.

"Quite often people will say fat children are harassed cruelly, but not with the intensity of the harassment" to gay children, said Carolyn Cutrona, an Iowa State University psychology professor and president of the Ames chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "Presumably, the reason other protected classes have become protected classes is because there's a problem."

A survey taken at Ames High School two years ago indicated gay students were the No. 1 target of harassment, Cutrona said.

"I think it's very harmful not to take an official stand," she said.

Galen Newton, a West Des Moines Valley High School alumnus who unsuccessfully pushed the school board to protect gay students several years ago, supports a statewide rule.

"The fact that he went to such great lengths should indicate to school officials that they're neglecting part of their student population," said Newton, a member of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network chapter in Iowa City.

"I think a lot of schools aren't doing it because they're afraid they'll get a bad reaction from the public."

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