Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
2 Sept 2012
US Teen Sues school board
The gay teenager from Indianapolis who had been expelled from school for taking a stun-gun to school for protection from the homophobic bullies that had plagued his school days, is now suing the public school system for failing to protect him from bullying.
Darnell Young, 17, and his mother Chelisa Grimes, filed the lawsuit on Friday in Indianapolis, seeking unspecified damages over several recent incidents of bullying. These incidents all lead Darnell Young to fire the stun-gun in school which then resulted in his expulsion from the Tech High School.
Legal representatives working for the family said that Indianapolis Public Schools had failed to protect Darnell Young from homophobic bullying, and that they had discriminated against him for his sexuality. Christopher F. Stoll, from the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, who is working on the case said, “All students should be able to get an education without fearing for their physical safety, and they should be able to rely on school administrators to protect them when abuse does occur.”
26 Aug 2011
Illinois college becomes first to ask undergrads if they're gay
Elmhurst says the sexual orientation question helps the college advance diversity and connect students with school resources.
Elmhurst College, a private liberal arts school in suburban Chicago affiliated with the United Church of Christ, has become the first college in the country to ask an optional question about a student's sexual orientation and gender identity on an undergraduate admission form, according to the school and a gay rights advocacy group.
21 Aug 2011
A loving home, gay or straight, is what a child needs.
An ageing Catholic bishop and a noisy gay rights group spoke up for children last week. And each did so in the name of the family.
There has long been one excuse or another for not delivering on political promises to protect children's rights better in the Irish Constitution. "Unless we do it, to my mind all the rest is just talk", said Mary O'Rourke, former chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, at the Merriman Summer School last Thursday.
16 Aug 2011
Female teacher may be jailed after admitting sexual offences with girl pupil
A female teacher from Suffolk may be jailed after admitting two counts of sexually touching a girl under sixteen, this week.
Suzanne Harrison, 35, also admitted a charge of sexual assault and engaging in sexual activity with the girl while in a position of trust, between December 2005 and July 2006, during the hearing in Ipswich Crown Court.
11 Aug 2011
Minnesota School Board faces new lawsuit over treatment of gay students
— The Anoka-Hennepin School District is facing a new lawsuit over its alleged treatment of gay and lesbian students.
The lawsuit, filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), says school officials failed to intervene to help a 15-year-old student at Jackson Middle School who was being harassed and physically assaulted by fellow students because of her sexual orientation and perceived gender nonconformity,reports MPR news.
Executive director Kate Kendell said the district's actions violated the student's rights under the U.S. Constitution, Title IX and the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The center is also representing five other students in a similar suit and will ask to have the two cases consolidated.
"The facts are chillingly similar and also heartbreaking," she said. "These are students who were called all sorts of names (and) faced a daily barrage of anti-gay slurs directed at them."
The lawsuit seeks punitive damages and requirements that the district create policies and trainings to prevent harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.
The NCLR and the Southern Poverty Law Center have also requested the district change its sexual orientation curriculum policy, which says that sexual orientation issues aren't part of the regular curriculum. The document instructs teachers to remain neutral if the subject comes up in class.
The policy has come under scrutiny in the wake of at least seven student suicides in the district in the past two years. Parents and students say some of those students had been bullied.
A spokesperson for the Anoka-Hennepin School District did not respond to requests for comment.
After the initial lawsuit was filed in July, district spokeswoman Mary Olson told MPR News that officials stood by the policy and were disappointed the groups decided to go ahead with the lawsuit. She said the district would have preferred to work with them to improve teacher training and student awareness of bullying.
The latest lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal district court in Minneapolis, alleges that 15-year-old student, who was enrolled in Jackson Middle School for the 2010-2011 school year, was subjected to anti-gay slurs. It says the girl was punched in the stomach by a male student who had previously called the student a "he/she" and taunted inside the school's locker room.
The lawsuit says the girl, whose name has not been released, complained about the harassment many times to teachers and administrators at Jackson Middle School, but that school officials responded by punishing her.
School officials, the lawsuit claims, forced the girl to change into her gym clothes by herself and walk down the hallways at different times than other students. As the result, the suit alleges, the girl refused to change into her gym clothes and started skipping classes to avoid harassment. She failed the gym class and the lawsuit alleges her other grades dropped as well.
In April, school officials cut the student's class schedule to a half day, the lawsuit says, and the student frequently skipped class to avoid harassment.
The girl has been assigned to Champlin Park High School this fall, but her mother may ask for a transfer to the Osseo Area School District, the lawsuit said. The girl previously attended Osseo district schools, and the lawsuit says she never experienced any harassment there.
Source
Anoka-Hennepin faces new lawsuit over treatment of gay students | Minnesota Public Radio News
8 Aug 2011
Teacher suspended over alleged lesbian affair with pupil
PE teacher Nicola Webster, who was accused of having an ‘inappropriate affair’ with a pupil, has been suspended from teaching for two years.
26-year-old Webster is reported to have initiated a relationship with the Year 12 student at The Abbey School in Kent following a school ski trip in 2008, reports the Daily Mail newspaper.
27 Jul 2011
US Opponents of Californian gay history law seek referendum
California's secretary of state on Tuesday cleared a group to begin collecting signatures for a ballot referendum to overturn a first-in-the-nation law requiring public schools to teach the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies lessons.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB48 earlier this month, making California the first state to mandate such lessons in public school curriculum. The requirement is set to take effect in the 2013-14 school year.
22 Jul 2011
Minnesota School District Sued Over Allowing Anti-Gay Harassment.
Five students or former students sued Minnesota's biggest school district on Thursday claiming a policy that limited staff discussing gay and lesbian issues left them open to slurs, threats and attacks. The lawsuit alleges these students were subjected to years of pervasive bullying from near daily anti-gay slurs to much more disturbing and worrying reports of being urinated on, stabbed in the neck with pencils, choked or shoved into walls or lockers.
19 Jul 2011
Four excel in Stonewall's gay guide to universities | Education | The Guardian
12 Jul 2011
New Zealand Teacher Tries To Ban Gay.
A primary school teacher from New Zealand has asked his pupil’s not to use the word ‘GAY’
Warren Bowers who did his masters degree on homosexuality in education made the statement that from research it appears New Zealand children and teenagers seemed to use "gay" as a negative colloquial, dismissive and disrespectful, or lame term perhaps a lot more than school children in other countries.
6 Jul 2011
LA Assembly approves bill to require textbooks and history lessons to include contributions of gays
Textbooks and history classes in California schools would be required to include the contributions of gays, lesbians and transgender Americans under a proposal given final legislative approval in the Assembly on Tuesday and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown,
2 Jul 2011
US - California school district fails gay teen
A Central California school district did not adequately investigate or respond to complaints of bullying endured by a 13-year-old boy who later committed suicide after being harassed by classmates because he was gay, federal officials said in a letter to administrators released Friday, the AP news agency reports.
4 Jun 2011
It’s LGBT Heritage Month in LA
Outside Los Angeles City Hall, a string of balloons hovered in the muggy June air. They were red, yellow, green, purple and blue, the colours of the rainbow, the rainbow theme was is so fitting, recognizable all over the world as a symbol of the unity of the gay community. Flying these the balloons was a simple way to help launch city's first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month.
2 Jun 2011
Australian School Programme Dangers
A LABOR senator has expressed concern about the controversial national school chaplaincy program, happening in Australia, saying the idea of chaplains sharing their conservative views on homosexuality with children struggling with their sexuality scares him as a parent.
1 Jun 2011
Homophobic Catholic charity Awarded £89,000 Schools Contract.
The south-west London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, which earlier this year awarded an £89,000 contract to the homophobic Catholic Children’s Society to offer counselling and support to children in the borough’s school, wants to reassure critics over the decision.
26 May 2011
Brazil sex education material suspended by President
Dilma Rousseff the president of Brazil has spectacularly suspended the distribution and production of sex education films for schools in Brazil. The President Rousseff believes the footage is not suitable for youngsters. However, it’s these education packs contain gay and lesbian video scenes and are supposed to combat homophobia in the country.
20 May 2011
Cali Gay Site Censoring At School Scrapped
A harsh school internet software filter in California will now be re-edited to stop censoring gay content.
18 May 2011
A UK schoolboy wears a skirt to school
A Cambridgeshire boy has worn a skirt to school in a protest against what he said was "discrimination".
Holding Hands Offends Head! No Fun in Florida.
School Board back the high school head!
Pompano Beach in Florida, the US nation’s six largest public school district has cleared a high school principal accused of lecturing and threatening two female students with suspension for holding hands on campus. The students say the principal also “outed” them to their parents.
17 May 2011
School Students Support Gay-Positive Policy In Canada.
They may have lacked numbers, but they made up for that in their enthusiasm! Dozens of Burnaby students, complete with signs, flags and their voices, rallied for more than two hours Tuesday night before, during and after the Burnaby school district's regular school board meeting.
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