Student Sues Minn. School District Over Antigay Bullying

Posted on Advocate.com August 10, 2011 08:45:00 AM ET
Student Sues Minn. School District Over Antigay Bullying
By Andrew Harmon



A sixth student targeted by anti-LGBT bullying in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District has sued, claiming that administrators turned a blind eye to the abuse she suffered.

According to a complaint filed Tuesday by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the student, referred to in court documents by the initials “E.R.,” was subjected to “a constant, daily barrage of taunts from other students, who called her names like ‘faggot,’ ‘dyke,’ ‘he/she,’ and ‘it.’”

Five other students had previously filed suit against Anoka-Hennepin on the grounds of equal protection and are represented by NCLR and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The school district has a “neutral” policy on sexual orientation — one that critics have said amounts to a gag policy for teachers and administrators. The policy, NCLR maintains, “prohibits school staff from countering anti-gay stereotypes or presenting basic factual information about LGBT people, even when necessary to address anti-gay hostility within the student body.”

The Anoka-Hennepin School District is currently under investigation by the U.S. departments of Justice and Education for allegations that it has failed to appropriately address antigay bullying. Antigay student harassment within the district is the result of school policies “singling out and denigrating LGBT people,” according to NCLR. “For many years, these policies have deemed LGBT people, and them alone, as unworthy of being mentioned, let alone protected, in [d]istrict classrooms.”

“The district has to stop turning its back on children, and recognize that its illegal policy that singles out those who are LGBT is the reason that so many children in their schools continue to be tormented—verbally, physically, and emotionally—every day,” NCLR executive director Kate Kendell said in a Tuesday statement.

The sixth student is represented by NLCR as well as a Saint Paul-based law firm.

NCLR Represents Sixth Student in Lawsuit Against Minnesota School District
Discriminatory Gag Policy Perpetuates Hostile Anti-LGBT Environment on School Campuses


(Minneapolis, August 9, 2011)—Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Minneapolis on behalf of a sixth student, an out lesbian, who experienced severe harassment while attending school in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, where a discriminatory gag policy prevents staff from addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues, including bullying.

The lawsuit is a companion case to Doe v. Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11, the federal lawsuit that NCLR and partner organizations filed July 21, 2011 on behalf of five other district students who experienced similar harassment. Both lawsuits charge that Anoka-Hennepin’s gag policy contributes to a hostile environment in which LGBT students and those perceived as LGBT are subjected to anti-LGBT slurs and physical threats on a daily basis by their 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 due to the gag policy.

The sixth student, who is referred to by her initials of E.R. in the complaint because she is a minor, started attending Anoka-Hennepin’s Jackson Middle School in September 2010 after her family moved into the district. Beginning on her first day in school, she faced a constant, daily barrage of taunts from other students, who called her names like "faggot," "dyke," "he/she," and "it." While she regularly reported the harassment to teachers and administrators, they did not protect her. A staff member once told E.R. that she had heard other staff talking about E.R. in the office, saying that they wished the school could "get rid of her."

"This is yet another incredibly distressing example of how the district’s shameful policy has hurt kids," said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell. "The district has to stop turning its back on children, and recognize that its illegal policy that singles out those who are LGBT is the reason that so many children in their schools continue to be tormented—verbally, physically, and emotionally—every day."

E.R. is represented by NCLR and the law firm of Culberth & Lienemann, LLP. The attorneys will be working closely with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Faegre & Benson, LLP, who are co-counsel with NCLR in Doe v. Anoka-Hennepin School District No. 11.

administrators turned a blind eye to the abuse she suffered.

CeCe wrote:This is one of the biggest problems. Bullying will not even decrease much less end until everyone is held accountable for it. From the bullies themselves to those in authority who allow it.