The Quad-City Times
Davenport, IA
September 14, 1997
Sept.14, 1997

DAVENPORT SCHOOL BOARD POLICY CHANGE WOULD PROTECT GAY PEOPLE:
Upcoming Vote Will Tackle Issue That City Council Tabled
by Jae Bryson, Quad-City Times

The Davenport School Board soon may tread where the city council got cold feet. The board is expected to vote soon on a policy that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The seven-member board could vote on the measure at its meeting Sept. 29, barring rejection of the proposal by its agenda committee. The proposed policy would combine three existing policies that ban harassment and guarantee equal opportunity.

Sexual orientation would join gender, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, creed, age, marital status, veteran status and disability as a basis for nondiscrimination. Students and staff both would be covered by the provision.

It has been more than a year since Susan Low, the board's policy committee chairman, proposed the addition of sexual orientation to the wording of the school district's anti-harassment and equal opportunity policies.

"When I brought it up originally, we sent it to the director of equity and then to our legal adviser," she said. It will be opened for discussion at a meeting Monday night, before its last step prior to enactment, a vote of the board's committee-of-the-whole.

"If there is not some objection to the policy, it will go forward to a vote on the 29th," she said.

Success with a similar measure in Wisconsin provided a template for the policy change, she said.

"There were harassment policies that needed to be looked at in the Quad-City area," she said. "Staff at the (Mississippi Bend Area Educational Association) had stated concerns about sexual orientation being included in existing policies.

"It is the belief of the policy committee members that we need to stand for respect tolerance and inclusion in all things. We want to make sure our students and employees are not harassed about anything."

The timing of the vote is problematical, coming a bit less than two months since the Davenport City Council tabled a similar agenda item. The council has the city corporation counsel studying the issue to ensure it fully understands the consequences of making a sexual orientation addendum to the municipal code.

It is not scheduled to review the proposal until October.

Alderman Jim Hayek, D-5th Ward, who called the issue a "no-brainer" in August, has changed his stance somewhat since then.

"At first I thought it was a no-brainer, " he said, "but then I realized it's not because there are some very real legal ramifications."

Hayek said calls from citizens to City Hall have been evenly split - with no middle ground - for and against the issue. He does not, however, see the school district and city measures affecting each other.

"They'll probably be totally separate entities," he said. "We'll enforce ours as we see fit and they'll enforce theirs as they see fit."

School board policy committee member Travis Fisher said the council's move to table its version spurred his belief that the district should enact its own.

"We had hoped it (the vote) would come prior to the 15th," he said. "We wanted it earlier, but the agenda committee set it back. It would have made a statement to the city.

"The strongest defense of this policy is that it is a reality in every community."

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