Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 17:08:45 -0700 From: Jean Richter Subject: 6/14/99 P.E.R.S.O.N. Project news 1. WI: Supreme Court decision comes too late for harassed teen 2. Air dates for "It's Elementary" ================================================================== From: KathyWUT@aol.com Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 01:48:02 EDT Subject: Supreme Court decision was too late for him. . .and it won't help others Please feel free to distribute widely. WHEN WILL OUR SCHOOLS ACTUALLY BE SAFE? Please read the note after this article. Kathy SUPREME COURT DECISION IS TOO LATE FOR SOME. (and it won't help many others) St. Paul Pioneer-Press, May 27, 1999 345 Cedar Street, St. Paul,MN,55101 (Fax 612-228-5500 ) 'Enough is enough,' court says, too late for boy Deborah Locke, Editorial Writer "The myth of childhood happiness flourishes so wildly not because it satisfies the needs of children but because it satisfies the needs of adults. In a culture of alienated people, the belief that everyone has at least one good period in life free of care and drudgery dies hard. And obviously you can't expect it in your old age. So it must be you've already had it.'' - SHULAMITH FIRESTONE, "THE DIALECTIC OF SEX'' (1970) This week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on sexual harassment in schools arrives years too late for the family of a Wisconsin boy who went into the den one late summer evening in 1992 and shot himself. No adult knows how long that 14-year-old withstood the hate from his middle-school peers. Ten days before he died, the suburban Milwaukee police logged 25 obscene calls to the family's phone number from classmates. The verbal attacks grew like a cyclone, starting in school with a small clique of kids who decided that the boy was gay. The parents told me a little of the phone message content from the middle-school boys and girls. What the children said was sickening. I lived in Milwaukee then, and received the story assignment after a Milwaukee television station and a weekly suburban newspaper reported that gang influence had some bearing on the suicide. Gang activity had nothing to do with the boy's death, as it had nothing to do with the massacre in Littleton, Colo. Unlike the boys in Littleton, this suburban child didn't gain revenge on his persecutors by turning a gun on them. He turned the gun on himself, and forever shattered the lives of his loved ones. He changed me, even though most of what I know of him came secondhand from parents who cried throughout the interview. I've written about the boy since moving to Minnesota, and will write about him for as long as I can type or hold a pen. Sometimes in this complex job of journalism, reporters encounter an assignment that changes them profoundly. The work demands that we enter strangers' lives at critical and dramatic times. That's not an ideal way to strike up an acquaintance, but it's almost always a memorable way. I changed after the death of that little boy because I never knew the level of murderous, uncontrolled rage that could flourish in a white, wealthy suburban school district. Of far greater concern was the attitude of adults who said the problems were with the boy who died, not with their children. I called the parents; one screamed to his wife that a reporter was on the phone "about that goddamn kid who killed himself.'' A school board member suggested that the boy was "different'' in part because of his accent. In her mind, that made him a likely target for criticism. Another school board member said they needed to put the whole matter behind them. I wondered how that was possible when the whole matter was never before them. And now the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that enough is enough. A woman sued a Georgia school board because beginning in 1992, the same year the Milwaukee boy shot himself, a fifth-grade boy sexually harassed and abused the woman's fifth-grade daughter. The abuse went on for five months. The woman reported each incident to school officials, but the boy was never disciplined. The Supreme Court decided that the school district could be held financially responsible for the sexual harassment of the girl if officials with the authority to come to her aid knew of the harassment but were "deliberately indifferent'' to it. Officials at the suburban middle school knew that the boy was being sexually harassed, but rather than punish the perpetrators, they gave the boy a pass so he could leave class after reaching the breaking point. The girl who was harassed in the fifth grade is now a junior in high school. The boy who was harassed to death would be 21 years old now, undoubtedly graduating from college this spring. During the three-hour interview with his parents in 1992, they opened the garage door, and the sight of a boat made the boy's dad start to cry again. The father and son used to go out on that boat on weekends. The boy's mother was surprised when I asked for a tour of the house, but willingly pointed out a Cub Scout uniform on the boy's bed, his toys in the basement and the dresser in his room where he left a copy of the Act of Contrition, a Catholic prayer expressing sorrow for sin. An interview with the parish priest revealed that the family was stable, churchgoing and devoted to the children. Then one late summer day, the son went into the family den and shot himself in the chest with a rifle. He died an hour later. The last thing he heard was his parents' sobs. Write Locke at dlocke@pioneerpress.com or at the Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St., St. Paul, Minn. 55101. NOTE from Kathy: the sad thing is that the recent Supreme Court decision might have helped this boy, but it wouldn't help the many kids who are being tormented, humiliated and abused for things that don't qualify as "sexual". Why is it that our schools are now doing more to prohibit "sexual" harassment and most have good sexual harassment policies in place, but there is no protection for student who is being harassed because he or she wears glasses or is overweight, shy, unathletic, short, tall, skinny, has pimples, is poorly dressed or groomed, . . . you name it. Today I got a copy of our local school district's policy on sexual harassment. It's actually quite good and they make sure all students and parents get a copy of it. BUT, all they would have to do is take out the word "sexual" and they'd have a fine policy prohibiting ALL harassment. It would be that easy, but no one does it and no one seems to think it's necessary or would work. "Kids will be kids and they'll always be cruel." I say that's BS. We MUST put a stop to the abuse and harassment in our schools. ALL of it. Not just the stuff that can be called "sexual harassment." THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED A LONG TIME AGO. How many deaths will it take 'til we finally get it? How many ruined lives or unhappy children must there be to get us to ACT and say "enough is enough"? Write letters, make phone calls or personal visits. Don't just sit there, DO something. I have addresses and phone numbers, if you want some. Kathy Worthington, Salt Lake City ================================================================================== From: SARATOGANY@aol.com Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 11:23:01 EDT Subject: Fwd: Air Dates For It's Elementary To: GLB-PRESS@listserv.aol.com Return-Path: Subject: Air Dates For It's Elementary Date: Fri, 28 May 99 16:03:31 -0000 x-sender: wemfilms@pop.dnai.com From: WEM Beginning June 2nd and throughout the summer, PBS stations around the nation will be airing It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School, for the first time. Eighty-nine stations including twenty-five of the top thirty markets are scheduled to screen the film! Your support has helped make this happen. Thank you so much! Please share this information as widely as you can with friends, family and colleagues. If you do not see your local public television station listed below, you can call its program department and request that it be aired. For a list of PBS stations contact information, go to www.pbs.org/states To order a copy of It's Elementary call 1-888-367-9154 or visit our website at www.womedia.org where you can access the It's Elementary Viewing Guide. Warmly, Debra Chasnoff & Helen S. Cohen Producers, It's Elementary ALASKA Anchorage, KAKM 7, TBA July Bethel, KYUK 4, 6/20/99 11:00 pm Fairbanks, KUAC 9, 6/20/99 11:00 pm Juneau, KTOO 3, 6/20/99 11:00 pm ARIZONA Tempe, KAET 8, TBA Tucson, KUAT 6, TBA Aug CALIFORNIA Eureka, KEET 13, 6/19/99 9:00 pm Los Angeles, KCET 28, 6/30/99 10:00 pm Los Angeles, KLCS 58, 6/10/99 10:00 am & 6/17/99 9:00 pm Palm Springs, KCET cable, 6/30/99 10:00 pm Redding, KIXE 9, TBA Aug Rohnert Park, KRCB 22, 6/8/99 7:00 pm Sacramento, KVIE 6, 6/23/99 10:30 pm & 6/25/99 3:30 am Salinas, KQED cable, 6/30/99 8:00 pm San Diego, KPBS 15, 6/10/99 10:30 pm San Francisco, KQED 9, 6/30/99 8:00 pm San Mateo, KCSM 60, 6/24/99 8:00 pm Santa Barbara, KCET cable, 6/30/99 10:00 pm COLORADO Denver, KRMA 6m, TBA Aug/Sept Denver, KBDI 12, 6/2/99 8:00 pm & 6/16/99 9:00 pm Pueblo, KTSC 8, TBA Aug/Sept CONNETICUT Conneticut Public Television 6/13/99 6:00 pm DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington, WHUT 32, 6/14/99 9:00 pm Washington, WETA 26, 6/11/99 9:00 pm FLORIDA Miami, WPBT 2, 6/28/99 11:00 pm Miami, WLRN 37 cable, 6/8/99 8:00 pm & 6/11/99 6:00 pm Tampa, WUSF 16, 6/23/99 10:00 pm & 6/29/99 1:00 am GEORGIA Atlanta, WPBA 30, 6/30/99 9:00 pm IDAHO Idaho Public Television 9/7/99 10:00 pm ILLINOIS Chicago, WTTW 11, 8/30/99 11:00 pm Urbana, WILL 12, 6/23/99 8:00 pm INDIANA Bloomington, WTIU 30, 6/25/99 9:00 pm MAINE Maine Public Television 7/9/99 11:00 pm MARYLAND Maryland Public Television 6/7/99 9:00 pm MASSACHUSETTS Boston, WGBH 2, TBA Boston, WGBX 44, 6/18/99 9:00 pm Springfield, WGBY 57, 6/12/99 10:00 pm & 6/23/99 10:30 pm MICHIGAN Detroit, WTVS 56, TBA Aug or Sept East Lansing, WKAR 23, 6/8/99 10:00 pm MINNESOTA Austin, KSMQ 15, TBA Mpls/St. Paul, KTCA 2, 6/22/99 9:00 pm & 6/27/99 11:30 pm MISSOURI St. Louis, KETC 9, Possibly in Sept MONTANA Bozeman, KUSM 9, 6/25/99 8:00 pm & 6/27/99 9:30 am Missoula, KUFM 11, 6/25/99 8:00 pm & 6/27/99 9:30 am NEBRASKA Nebraska Public Television 6/13/99 5:00 pm NEW MEXICO Albuquerque, KNME 5, 6/30/99 9:00 pm Las Cruces, KRWG 22, 6/30/99 9:00 pm NEW YORK Binghamton, WSKG 46, 6/27/99 9:00 pm Buffalo, WNED 17, 7/19/99 9:00 pm New York, WNET 13, 6/3/99 10:00 pm Schenectady, WMHT 17, 6/8/99 9:00 pm Syracuse, WCNY 24, 6/25/99 9:30 pm OHIO Bowling Green, WBGU 27, 6/23/99 9:00 pm Cincinnati, WCET 48, 6/18/99 11:30 pm Dayton, WPTD 16, 6/8/99 10:00 pm Kent, WEAO 49, TBA Aug/Sept OREGON Oregon Public Television 6/22/99 10:00 pm PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg, WITF 33, TBA Sept Philadelphia, WHYY 12, 6/22/99 10:00 pm Philadelphia, WYBE 35, 6/17/99 9:30 pm Pittsburgh, WQED 13, 6/24/99 11:00 pm Pittsburgh, WQEX 16, 6/24/99 11:00 pm RHODE ISLAND Providence, WSBE 36, TBA Sept SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen, KDSD 16, TBA Aug Brookings, KESD 8, TBA Aug Eagle Butte, KPSD 13, TBA Aug Lowry, KQSD 11, TBA Aug Martin, KZSD 8, TBA Aug Pierre, KTSD 10, TBA Aug Rapid City, KBHE 9, TBA Aug Sioux Falls, KCSD 23, TBA Aug Vermillion, KUSD 2, TBA Aug TEXAS Austin, KLRU 18, 6/23/99 10:30 pm Dallas, KERA 13, TBA Houston, KUHT 8, 6/8/99 9:00 pm San Antonio, KLRN 9, TBA July UTAH Salt Lake City, KUED 7, 6/14/99 11:30 pm VIRGINIA Arlington, WETA 26, 6/11/99 9:00 pm Falls Church, WNVT 53, 6/6/99 11:00 pm WASHINGTON Seattle, KCTS 9, 7/7/99 9:00 pm WISCONSIN Milwaukee, WMVS 10, 6/9/99 11:00 pm WYOMING Riverton, KCWC 4, TBA Women's Educational Media 2180 Bryant Sreet Suite 203 San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 641-4616 (415) 641-4632 fax www.womedia.org ====================================================================== Jean Richter -- richter@eecs.berkeley.edu The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) CHECK OUT OUR INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/