EDITOR: I am writing in response to the Aug. 15 article in The
Times about the lawsuit that six former Live Oak High School
students brought against the Morgan Hill School District because of
the relentless anti-gay harassment they faced at Live Oak High
School (Settlement Talks in Gay Harassment Suit).
EDITOR:
I am writing in response to the Aug. 15 article in The Times about the lawsuit that six former Live Oak High School students brought against the Morgan Hill School District because of the relentless anti-gay harassment they faced at Live Oak High School (Settlement Talks in Gay Harassment Suit).
This lawsuit is not and never has been “about the money.” These students brought this lawsuit so that other students would not have to endure the same pain and humiliation they endured when teachers and administrators failed to take minimally reasonable steps to stop rampant anti-gay harassment including physical attacks.
They don’t want one of this year’s students to find the words “Die, dyke bitch, die” scrawled on her locker, or to be jumped at the bus stop because he is perceived as being too feminine.
In its April 18 editorial on the lawuit, The Times asked: Are Morgan Hill Unified School District employees currently trained how to handle incidents of anti-gay harassment?
Sadly, the answer is no.Five years after this lawsuit was filed, the district still does not have in place any kind of systematic training for administrators, teachers or staff that will give them the tools they need to prevent anti-gay harassment or to respond to and remedy harassment when it occurs.Nor is there any kind of program in place to make sure that students learn in a meaningful way that attacking other students because of their sexual orientation – or their perceived sexual orientation -i s wrong and will not be tolerated.
Last year, the Visalia Unified School District settled a lawsuit similar to this one by implementing just such a comprehensive training program for both students and staff.Visalia also paid monetary compensation to the victim of that harassment.
Do the six students whose high school existence was a living hell because school officials failed to protect them from gay-bashing deserve to be compensated? Of course. But even more important they deserve the assurance that what happened to them won’t happen again. Is this lawsuit all about money?Not by a long shot.
Ann Brick, staff attorney
ACLU of Northern California
