人兽性交

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Faegre & Benson, LLP today sued the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, challenging the pervasive anti-gay harassment in the district鈥檚 schools as well as a 鈥済ag policy鈥� that prevents teachers from discussing issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five students who have faced severe anti-LGBT bullying and harassment in school. It charges that the district鈥檚 gag policy perpetuates the abuses suffered by these students and others.

The groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after the school district failed to address the persistent abuse or repeal its discriminatory policy.

鈥淲e are disappointed that the district fails to see the serious harm this policy is causing its students,鈥� said Sam Wolfe, the 人兽性交鈥檚 lead attorney in the case. 鈥淪chool and district officials who are entrusted with the safety and education of all students continue to ignore, minimize, dismiss and even blame victims for the abusive behavior of other students.鈥�

人兽性交 legal director Mary Bauer, 人兽性交's lead attorney on the case Sam Wolfe and Ilona Turner of the National Center for Lesbian Rights describe the case to reporters outside Jackson Middle School.

The lawsuit charges that LGBT students and students perceived as LGBT were subjected to anti-LGBT slurs on a daily basis and were physically threatened or attacked by peers. While many of these abuses occurred in front of teachers or were reported to school officials, school personnel almost always took insufficient action to stop the abuse.

鈥淭here is something seriously wrong in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, and district officials know it,鈥� said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. 鈥淚n school after school, kids who are perceived as gay are harassed mercilessly until they drop out, melt down or lash back. This epidemic of harassment 鈥� unlike anything we鈥檝e seen in neighboring districts 鈥� is plainly fueled by the district鈥檚 shameful and illegal policy singling out LGBT people and LGBT people alone for total exclusion from acknowledgement within the classroom.鈥�

The lawsuit comes a day after Anoka-Hennepin officials denied any responsibility for the severe and pervasive harassment suffered by聽LGBT students. It was also reported on Wednesday that the district is at the center of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Office of Civil Rights into reports of anti-gay bullying.

The lawsuit describes numerous incidents of harassment, including the following:

• One student faced daily verbal and physical harassment at school after classmates discovered that she is a lesbian. She reported the harassment to school officials numerous times, but the only response was an occasional verbal reprimand to the harassers. The student eventually dropped out of school and attempted suicide.

• Another student reported chronic anti-LGBT harassment to school authorities for more than two years, only to have school officials suggest that he leave the school because they could not protect him.

• A student was picked on relentlessly because he likes to wear colorful clothes and sing songs by female artists. His school鈥檚 response was not to address the harassment but to treat him as the problem. The school prevented him from wearing 鈥済irly鈥� clothing and made him miss class time to walk through the hallways separately from the other students and escorted by a staff member.

Two parents and a student spoke at a press conference today about their own experiences. 鈥淚t got so bad that every day when my bus got to school I thought about hiding under one of the seats so I wouldn鈥檛 have to go in to school 鈥� so I wouldn鈥檛 be called names or pushed around and so I wouldn鈥檛 have to hear the rumors other kids were making up about me,鈥� said one 14-year-old student.

Jeff Frei, the father of one student who was persistently bullied, said: 鈥淥ur son has a right to go to school every day feeling safe and accepted. This is a basic right that every child has.聽His older sister shouldn鈥檛 have to spend an hour waiting outside his school so she can walk him home to make sure he gets there safely. We cannot go through another school year of this and we cannot lose any more of our young people to this. Enough is enough.鈥�

The school district鈥檚 gag policy, known officially as the 鈥淪exual Orientation Curriculum Policy,鈥� prohibits staffers from offering support to LGBT students or acknowledging the existence of LGBT people. It has played a significant role in encouraging the hostile climate by stigmatizing LGBT students 鈥� casting them as pariahs not fit to be mentioned within the school community, a message that comes across loud and clear both to LGBT students and their harassers.聽It has also limited the effective responses that teachers can provide when they see anti-LGBT harassment taking place.

The lawsuit asserts that the district鈥檚 gag policy and its failure to protect these students violates their rights under the U.S. Constitution, Title IX and the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

The 人兽性交 and NCLR began investigating the district鈥檚 policies in 2010 after several LGBT students from the district died by suicide.