News Round Up - Do US School Help LGBT Students?

A gay teenager in New York wins $50,000 from a school district that failed to stop taunts about his sexual orientation. The Justice Department investigates complaints that administrators ignored racial bullying in a Philadelphia school.


And in Massachusetts, a 15-year-old girl hangs herself after she is mercilessly harassed for months.    Now, with nine students charged Monday in the bullying of Phoebe Prince, questions have arisen about how accountable school officials should be for stopping bullying.


Phoebe, ostracized for having a brief relationship with a popular boy, reached her breaking point and hanged herself after one particularly hellish day in January -- a day that, according to officials, included being hounded with slurs and pelted with a beverage container as she walked home from school.


The teenagers face charges of what a prosecutor called "unrelenting" bullying, including two teen boys charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe's civil rights.


Phoebe's mother had brought her concerns to at least two school officials, but none are being charged because they had "a lack of understanding of harassment associated with teen dating relationships," and the school's code of conduct was interpreted and enforced in an "inconsistent" way, Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said.


"Nevertheless, the actions -- or inactions -- of some adults at the school are troublesome," Scheibel said.


Barbara Coloroso, a nationally known anti-bullying consultant, had been contacted by South Hadley school officials months before Phoebe's death, after a young boy in nearby Springfield killed himself. She spent a day there in September, training teachers and administrators on how to recognize and deal with bullying.


More on this story from AP on Portland Press Herald.


Jason Shaw
















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