After more than five years, the harassment case of six former
Morgan Hill School District students has been settled. The
students, thought to be gay by fellow students, accused the
district of failing to protect them from physical and verbal abuse
from their peers.
After more than five years, the harassment case of six former Morgan Hill School District students has been settled. The students, thought to be gay by fellow students, accused the district of failing to protect them from physical and verbal abuse from their peers.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced the settlement at a press conference in San Francisco on Jan. 6 after the remaining details were worked out in the courtroom of federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ware in San Jose.
The settlement, according to the ACLU office in San Francisco, includes “a comprehensive training program for administrators, staff and students to combat anti-gay harassment.” It also included a $1.1 million damage award, to be split between the six plaintiffs and to cover costs and attorneys’ fees, Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said after the announcement.
MHSD trustee Shellé Thomas said that, in accepting the terms of the settlement, the district was not accepting any liability in the matter.
“This is not an admission of guilt,” Thomas said.
The money, McKennan explained, will be paid by a Joint Powers Authority the district belongs to, a consortium of school districts that join together, essentially to share risks – a self-insuring agency. She said school districts are generally unable to secure insurance policies that would shield them from such lawsuits.
Diane Ritchie, the attorney who filed the students’ original lawsuit, said in April 2003, that the suit was not about money, but about protection and making the district change its ways.
“All of them wanted to file to get protection on campus; they wanted the policy to change,” Ritchie said then.
During the five years, only former student Alana Flores was willing to have her name used publicly. At today’s hearing, Freddie Fuentes and Jeanette Dousharm have added their names to hers.
McKennan said Flores would receive $150,000; Fuentes and Dousharm, $100,000 each; two unnamed plaintiffs $80,000 each and the final student, $50,000.
“I am so happy that the district has finally recognized the seriousness of this problem and is ready to do something to stop it,” said Flores about the settlement in a press release. “The kind of abuse I had to deal with every day when I went to school was horrible. No student should have to face that. Making schools safe for all students through this kind of training is something every school should do.”
All district administrators, teachers, campus monitors, custodians, school safety officers and bus drivers will undergo an annual sensitivity training program designed around issues of harassment and discrimination for sexual orientation and gender identity.
Students will take part in an age-appropriate program on the same issues and the district will put in place an anti-discrimination policy barring harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
McKennan said the costs of training will be paid by the Joint Powers Authority.
Ann Brick, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California who worked on the case, said the settlement was a long time coming.
“The mandatory annual training program for both students and staff should serve as a model for schools everywhere that care about protecting their students from harassment,” Brick said.
In April 2003 the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision, proclaimed as historic by the ACLU, insisting that Morgan Hill (and other) schools give equal protection to all students. By August 2003, the case having been appealed several times by the school district but never gone to trial, the two sides agreed to pursue a settlement.
The case, filed in April 1998 for plaintiffs including Flores and five others named district Superintendent Carolyn McKennan; Bob Davis who was interim Live Oak principal; Delia Schizzano, assistant principal; Maxine Bartschi, assistant principal at Live Oak; Rick Gaston, a Live Oak assistant principal; Larry Carr, now a city councilman but then president of the school board; Susan Choi, Del Foster, Jan Masuda, Tom Kinoshita, John Kennett and Rick Herder, all school board members; and Don Schaefer and Frank Nucci, principal and assistant principal, respectively, at Martin Murphy Middle School.
“The bravery of these students in speaking out about the horrific abuse they faced on a daily basis at school will reach far beyond Morgan Hill,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“Because these six kids came forward, schools now know they can’t just ignore abuse of gay students when it’s happening in their hallways. This training program isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s what schools have to do if they want to keep their students safe.”
Both McKennan and Thomas said they were happy to get the lawsuit behind them.
“It was a good deal for both of us, McKennan said. “Now we can move forward.”
The students were represented by the ACLU of Northern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ACLU’s national Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, and cooperating attorneys Stacey Wexler, Christine Sun, and Jay Kuo of Keker & Van Nest, LLP in San Francisco, James Emery of San Francisco, Diane Ritchie of San Jose and Leslie Levy of Boxer and Gerson in Oakland.
