Schools Must Protect Gay Students

This article caught my eye and after reading it
I found it sad that in the 21st century we still
allow this sort of treatment to people that are
only trying to defend themselves and in doing
so still receive added persecution. Check out
the article and send me your thoughts.


Students who are bullied by other students because of their sexual orientation are protected by New Jersey’s antidiscrimination law, and school districts must take reasonable steps to stop such harassment, the state’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday.

“Students in the classroom are entitled to no less protection from the unlawful discrimination and harassment than their adult counterparts in the workplace,” according to the opinion, written by Chief Justice James R. Zazzali.
In the case in question, known as L. W. v. the Board of Education of the Toms River Regional Schools, an anonymous student said that he was taunted with antihomosexual epithets from the time he was in fourth grade until he was in high school and that he was physically attacked twice in high school. Because of the harassment, he contends, he eventually had to change schools.

District policy called for offending students to be punished after a third offense, although they could be punished for being late to class by one minute on the first offense.
In 1999, L. W.’s mother filed a complaint against the district with the state’s Division on Civil Rights, and various appeals ensued. The opinion issued yesterday found that districts must take actions “reasonably calculated to end the harassment.”

Under the ruling, such actions will have to be determined case by case, considering how quickly school officials respond to harassment, its frequency and severity, and the maturity of the children involved.
“We’re pleased with the decision we got today,” said Thomas E. Monahan, a lawyer for the Toms River school board, “because it establishes a standard for student-on-student harassment that takes into account the age of the students and the circumstances of the harassment.”




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