Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 22:57:01 -0800
From: Gabi Clayton <gclayton@waonline.com>
Subject: A letter from Washington's outgoing Governor

I just got a copy of this at our Safe Schools meeting tonight, and
wanted to share it - the letter which our outgoing Governor sent to 
the 300 school districts in Washington on his last day in office - 
which was yesterday.  ---Gabi

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STATE OF WASHINGTON

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

P.O. Box 40002  Olympia, Washington 98504-0002 
(360) 753-6780  TTY/TDD (360) 753-6466

January 14, 1997

Dear Superintendent:

In your capacity as superintendent, you have been entrusted with one 
of the most important responsibilities in government: ensuring that our
young people receive the opportunity to develop into healthy and 
productive adults. As I leave office, I want to take this opportunity to 
commend you for your excellent work in carrying out this critical 
responsibility and to urge you to continue your efforts.

In addition, I want to ask that you take special care to ensure the 
needs of all of our young people are being met, including gay, lesbian 
and bisexual students. As you may know, the Safe Schools Coalition 
of Washington in a recent report documented an alarming number of 
hate crimes and cases of harassment perpetrated against gay, lesbian 
and bisexual students, their families and school staff.

The report includes data that have been collected over the past three 
years, as well as quantitative data from the Seattle Teen Health Risk 
Survey. The report uncovered the following troubling facts and trends:

Gay, lesbian and bisexual students are significantly more likely 
than other students to be the target of harassment, to be threatened 
or injured with a weapon, and to miss school or avoid certain school 
activities or classes out of fear for their safety;

Harassment ranges from name-calling and offensive jokes to 
verbal and physical harassment, to physical assaults, including 
gang rapes;

Offenders typically outnumber targeted individuals three to one;

Incidents are often witnessed by adults, but are not interrupted 
or reported and

Increasingly, heterosexual students are being targeted on the 
basis of perceived orientation.

These findings are sufficient to cause concern for all of us who are 
responsible for the psychological health, physical safety and academic 
success of our youth in schools. I know you agree that every child 
deserves the chance to learn without fear for his or her safety.

For this reason, I want to urge all school districts to adopt and 
aggressively enforce school policies that explicitly forbid discrimination 
and harassment based upon the perceived or actual sexual orientation 
of students, family members or school staff. Your strong leadership in 
this matter is critically important if we are to ensure our children the 
right to a safe and respectful learning environment while they are in 
our care.

Again, please accept my sincere and heartfelt thanks for all that you 
have done on behalf of our state's youth. I wish you and your district 
a very safe and productive year.

Sincerely,
Governor MIKE LOWRY

========================================================================

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/