PAL recommends various books condemning comprehensive sex education.

The Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota is in the process of overhauling its bullying policies after a Department of Justice investigation found that it had allowed anti-LGBT harassment to persist. Despite the model plan the district has agreed to implement, it still faces the demands made by the newly anointed conservative hate group the Parents Action League (PAL), which has been largely responsible for influencing the school’s history of anti-LGBT policies. School Board Chairman Tom Heidemann responded to PAL this weekend, and though he did reject most of the group’s demands, he did not condemn them for their factual inaccuracy or offensive intent:

• SPECIAL RECOGNITION FOR BULLIES: PAL wanted a special set of resources and outreach created for “students of faith, moral conviction, ex-homosexuals, and ex-transgenders.” Heidemann responded that advocating religious points of view “would be a violation of state and federal laws,” but that the superintendent is “open to any invitations from classes or students groups that want to meet with him.”
• ACCESS FOR ANTI-GAY GROUPS: PAL wanted “pro-family” and ex-gay groups access to train the district’s counselors and other service personnel. While these groups often use religious-based pseudoscience to promote harmful “therapy” that does not effect change, Heidemann simply said the school board accepts “all students as they come to us” and listed the mental health specialists that counselors refer.
• QUESTION GLBT ADVOCACY: The conservatives at PAL want students to learn that being gay could be bad, and Heidemann pointed out that the staff development program included the resource Homosexuality (Opposing Viewpoints), a book that “provides many alternative points of view.”
• TEACH HOMOSEXUALITY AS A ‘DISORDER’: Perhaps Heidemann’s strongest response to PAL: “We accept all students and we do not consider them to have a disorder if they identify as gay or support their gay friends.”
• TEACH AIDS AS “GAY-RELATED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY (GRID)”: This was undoubtedly PAL’s most despicable request, and unfortunately Heidemann does not sufficiently manage the offense. He explained that because the district’s sex education curriculum is abstinence-based, “it does not focus on specific sex acts” in discussions about sexually transmitted diseases, adding that “Anoka-Hennepin health classes address homosexuality.” PAL’s obvious anti-gay animus remains unaddressed.

The Star Tribune has provided a full copy of Heidemann’s response. While it is promising that the school is finally showing its capacity to withstand PAL’s influence, Heidemann’s reluctance to defend gay students and object to PAL’s smears suggests the process of creating an LGBT-welcoming environment in the district will be a slow one.

Image from the website of anti-gay hate group Sons of Thundr

Yesterday, ThinkProgress LGBT noted that a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identifies 27 active anti-gay hate groups, up from 17 in 2010. Sadly, the 11 groups new to this list from last year richly deserved the dubious honor.

They are:

• United Families International (Gilbert, AZ): This group backed the sodomy laws ruled unconstitutional in the Lawrence v. Texas case and has argued “No one is ‘born that way.’ Policies that would normalize homosexuality by equating homosexual behavior with innate characteristics such as race or ethnicity should be opposed.”
• Save California (Sacramento, CA): The group is leading the charge to repeal California’s FAIR Education Act, hoping to stop teachers from “kidnapping the brains of kids” by teaching about the contributions of LGBT Americans. Save California’s head, Randy Thomasson, blamed a bullied and murdered gay teen for his own death.
• Sons of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church) (Luthersville, GA): The church’s website feautures a “sodomites can be saved” section which claims “ALL HOMOS ARE: SICK, BRAIN DAMAGED, PERVERTS!”
• You Can Run, But You Cannot Hide (Annandale, MN). Bradlee Dean, the group’s president and CEO, has said, “The gay ‘movement’ is part of a sexual revolution that has stripped sexuality of all moral significance for an entire generation. We cannot accept the physical prosecution of homosexuals and we cannot accept the proposal that homosexuality is either private or moral,” but notes he is opposed to actually executing LGBT citizens.
• Parents Action League (Champlin, MN): A small group of parents in the bullying-riddled Anoka-Hennepin School District want to require schools to teach that AIDS is a gay disease and to promote harmful and ineffective ex-gay therapy.
• Jewish Political Action Committee (Brooklyn, NY): This group claims that marriage equality in New York State has created a “surge” of child molestation and distributes signs that say “G-d sent AIDS to punish male gays.”
• Mission: America (Columbus, OH): Lead by Linda Harvey, who has been dubbed “the most homophobic woman in America,” this group has discouraged the hiring of gay and lesbian employees and claimed that “there is no proof” that gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered people even exist.
• Windsor Hills Baptist Church (Oklahoma City, OK): The church’s pastor, Tom Vineyard, argued against an employment non-discrimination proposal by making the bizarre claim that half of all murders in large cities are by gay people.
• True Light Pentecost Church (Spartanburg, SC): On the church’s blog, it warns that “The sub-human culture created by the anti-christ and magnified by the Sodomite/Lesbian movement,” has “brought end-time prophecy to a final state,” and encourages followers to “fight the great sodomite/lesbian army.”
• Tom Brown Ministries (El Paso, TX): Pastor and exorcist Tom Brown led the charge in El Paso to rescind an employment non-discrimination law he felt was “condoning immorality.” He also preaches that “homosexuality is actually an emotional, psychological disorder brought on early in childhood.”
• Public Advocate of the United States (Falls Church, VA): Run by Loudoun County, Virginia Supervisor Eugene Delguaido (R), this group is infamous for its over-the-top anti-gay fundraising letters, including comments like, “As homosexuals die off due to AIDS, the remaining AIDS carriers prey on children to replenish the ‘Homosexual Community.’”

The SPLC observed that the advances of the LGBT equality movement “seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain quarters.” These hate groups clearly are among those quarters.

Tammy Aaberg remembers her son, Justin, who committed suicide after experiencing relentless bullying in the district.

As ThinkProgress reported earlier, the Department of Justice found through its investigation that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District did not properly intervene when its students were harassed for their gender non-conforming identities. In the report, the DOJ profiled 10 current and former students, all of whom experienced verbal and often physical threats because of their perceived gender or sexual orientation and faced mental health and/or educational consequences when the district failed to mitigate the bullying. In most of the cases, the district placed burdens on the bullied student rather than take steps to interrupt the harassment, and in every case, the district had evidence that the harassment continued but did not take further action.

Though the school’s former “neutrality” policy exemplified how LGBT students have been made to feel invisible, these profiles reveal the many ways school administrators inappropriately responded to reports of bullying, allowing it to persist. Here are some examples:

• BLAME THE VICTIM: In many cases, the district discouraged the students from engaging in the gender non-conforming behavior for which they were targeted, compounding the stigma by giving the students the impression they were inviting their own bullying. For example, an assistant principal told Student A’s parents to prohibit him from wearing feminine clothing to school and some staff members even took away some of his feminine clothing, enforcing gender norms.
• TREAT THE SYMPTOMS: Student A was also assigned an escort to walk him to his classes and forced him to change for physical education in the assistant principal’s office, actions which made him feel like he was being punished.
• MAKE BUDGETARY EXCUSES: One school administrator told Student B’s parents the school simply didn’t have the resources to train teachers teachers and students about harassment.
• COMPROMISE VICTIM’S EDUCATION: Student B had to leave class early to avoid his bullies, and often missed homework assignments.
• SHRUG IT OFF: After Student C was tripped on the stairs and called “guy,” “fag,” and “transvestite,” her middle school principal told her to just not let the comments bother her. An assistant principal told Student G, “Boys will be boys and you just have to deal with it” after students accused his father of being a pedophile.
• PUNISH THE VICTIM: When the district’s measures failed to prevent Student D’s harassment, she stopped attending physical education for her own safety and received lunch and after-school detention and a failing grade.
• BURDEN THE VICTIM: Rather than remove his bully from the classroom, the school transferred Student E to a different math class. Similarly, Student F transferred to an entirely different high school just to avoid harassment, but it persisted there as well.
• PLEAD IGNORANCE: The school told Student E there was nothing it could do after he was pushed into a locker because he couldn’t identify the bully and it wasn’t captured on camera.
• ABANDON THE VICTIM: After Student E provided a two page list of harassers, administrators told him and his parents they did not want him in school because the environment was not safe for him. He missed five days, and the harassment continued when he returned. He is now homeschooled.

The administration’s mindset in all of these incidents was a resignation that harassment is par for the course and there is nothing they can do about it. Hopefully, the five-year rehabilitation mandated by the consent decree the district has agreed to will shine light on how to create a learning environment that is safe and welcoming for all students.

Anoka-Hennepin, the largest school district in Minnesota, has come under criticism for its history of anti-LGBT policies that likely contributed to the suicides of  eight students over just two years, and now a Department of Justice investigation has concluded that the district was indeed negligent in its handling of student harassment. With the release of its findings, the DOJ filed a complaint against the district, joining two private student harassment lawsuits so it could help facilitate the consent decree settlement agreed to last night.  After interviews with over 60 individuals, the DOJ found that the district failed to properly intervene to protect students and prevent further harassment:

In  sum,  students in the District experienced and reported verbal and physical sex-based harassment because of their gender nonconformity.  Male students in the District report that they are called pejorative words such as “girl,” “he-she,” “fag,” or “gay” on a daily basis because of their failure to conform to male stereotypes.  Likewise, female students report being called pejorative words such as “manly,” “guy,” or “he-she” regularly because of their failure to conform to female stereotypes.  In addition, District students have faced death threats and other threats to their physical safety because of their gender nonconformity.  Furthermore, students have also regularly experienced physical, verbal, and non-verbal conduct that constitutes sexual harassment.  The District knew or should have known about the sex-based harassment and either failed to respond at all or failed to respond appropriately  and adequately  to the harassment and  prevent its recurrence.

Last month, the district took its first step in the right direction, by replacing its gay-censoring “neutrality” curriculum policy with language geared toward respecting students’ identities. Per the consent decree, the district has agreed to a five-year rehabilitation plan with the DOJ and Department of Education to truly create a safer environment for students. The requirements of that agreement include:

• Retain the Great Lakes Equity Center, an equity assistance center based at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to provide a comprehensive, systemic review and recommend revisions to district policies and practices related to sex and sexual-orientation related harassment.
• Fully investigate reports of harassment; escalate remedial efforts through additional measures when students are harassed on a repeated basis; and mitigate the effects of harassment that occurs.
• Take proactive measures to address the hostile environment.
• Develop procedures for parental notification while maintaining sensitivity to a student’s right of privacy relating to their real or perceived orientation or gender identity.
• Hire a district-level, harassment-prevention official who will help lead the district’s efforts to “eliminate and prevent future instances of harassment in its education programs and activities.”
• Work with the Equity Center, Title IX /Equity Coordinator to develop improved and effective trainings, consistent with best practices, on harassment for all students and employees who interact with students.
• Ensure that a counselor or other qualified mental health professional to be available during school hours for students in need.
• Hire a mental health consultant to review and assess current practices in the district relating to assisting students who are subject to harassment.
• Strengthen its annual anti-bullying survey.
• Enhance a recently formed harassment-prevention task force to advise the district regarding how to best foster a positive educational climate.
• Work with the Equity Center to identify hot spots in district schools where harassment is most problematic, including outdoor locations and on school buses, and work with the equity consultant to develop corrective actions.

The district plans to tap $500,000 to implement this agreement. In addition, the district’s insurance will pay out a total of $270,000 to the six current and former students named in the lawsuits. One school board member, Kathy Tingelstad, voted against the decree and resigned in protest, arguing it cost too much and that the district had been “drug through the mud” by the “out-of-state bullies” who brought forth the complaints.

Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Dennis Carlson (AP Photo/Dawn Villella)

As recently as three weeks ago, the superintendent of Anoka-Hennepin School District, Dennis Carlson, was still denying that bullying or the school’s anti-LGBT environment had anything to do with the multiple student suicides that took place over the past few years. Now that the district has finally implemented a policy that will  allow teachers to respect and affirm LGBT students, he seems to be singing a different tune. In a letter just published on the district’s webpage, Carlson reverses statements made in a 2010 voicemail, admitting that bullying is a serious problem that has had an impact on Anoka-Hennepin:

Although no one can ever be absolutely certain of the specific event that leads to a student’s suicide, there can be no doubt that in many situations bullying is one of the contributing factors. Gay students are especially vulnerable to anti-gay bullying and so are other students that are unique in some way that leads to verbal attacks by students.[...]

My daily commitment is always to protect and ensure the safety of each of our students, especially those who have felt marginalized in the past. It is a fundamental understanding of educators that students cannot learn if they do not feel safe, welcomed and affirmed in their school. Every Anoka-Hennepin school must provide that kind of safe environment for ALL students who walk through our doors – each and every day.

The concession is refreshing, but perhaps too little too late. Though a better policy is now in place, the district still faces a lawsuit filed by students claiming officials did not appropriately intervene with bullying as well as a federal civil rights investigation. And the new policy isn’t going to instantly transform the district into a welcoming environment for LGBT students. Carlson seems to have figured out how to talk the talk, so now it is time for his leadership as superintendent to walk the walk.

Last night, Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School Board voted to approve a “Respectful Learning Environment” curriculum policy that will finally allow faculty and staff to affirm LGBT students’ identities. It replaces the troublesome “neutrality” policy that prevented school officials from discussing sexual orientation, thereby creating a toxic environment for students who went unprotected from anti-gay bullying.

The Southern Poverty Law Center praised the change, but said it plans to proceed with the suits it has filed on behalf of students who were subject to harassment under the policy:

Today is the first day in nearly 18 years that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District no longer has a harmful policy that singles out lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Although we would have preferred for the District to have repealed this stigmatizing policy without replacing it, we are pleased that the new policy expressly requires district staff to affirm the dignity and self-worth of all students, including LGBT students.

The repeal of this policy is an important first step, but the District must do much more to create a safe, welcoming, and respectful learning environment for all students, including LGBT and gender non-conforming students, and those perceived as such.

Rolling Stone magazine recently profiled the district and the trauma students have experienced, particularly losing friends to suicide. School officials called the portrayal “grossly distorted” and attempted to downplay the negative environment, refusing to take any responsibility for the impact of the “neutrality” policy. The Parents Action League, a radical group of conservative parents that promotes ex-gay therapy and calls AIDS a gay disease, continues to object to the school “caving” to the “demands of the homosexual activists.”

Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Dennis Carlson (Photo Credit: Tom Weber, MPR News)

Administrators at Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District are none too pleased about Rolling Stone’s in-depth look at the school’s anti-gay reputation, the role of conservative Christians in fostering that reputation, and the several student suicides that exemplify it. Superintendent Dennis Carlson denounced the profile as a “brutal and distorted attack” that didn’t recognize any of the “immediate steps” that were part of the school’s response to the suicides. He also claimed that the district did not find any connection between the suicides and bullying, a sentiment also echoed in the official response offered by the district:

The article in Rolling Stone presents a grossly distorted portrayal of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, its schools, and its communities. [...]

When we learned that some teachers were confused over whether or not to intervene when witnessing bullying and harassment, the School Board and superintendent went on record stating that staff are required to intervene in all instances of bullying or harassment, if they do not they face discipline.

The district’s anti-bullying policy specifically protects sexual orientation.

None of the points made in the district’s response address the root of its problem: the “neutrality” curriculum policy that prevents teachers from discussing issues of sexual orientation. Given that most bullying is verbal, the policy makes it quite difficult for teachers and staff to interrupt homophobic harassment without talking about homosexuality, nor can any education take place about why comments like “dyke,” “faggot,” and “that’s so gay” are inappropriate. According to Tammy Aaberg, whose gay son Justin was among the students who committed suicide after experiencing severe bullying, the Rolling Stone article is “accurate,” and many students have reached out to her to echo its legitimacy.

Fortunately, the district will likely soon replace that provision with a new “Respectful Learning Environment” curriculum policy, which the teachers union has endorsed. In the meantime, Anoka-Hennepin serves as a model for how dangerous it can be when policies restrict staff from talking to students about LGBT issues or using education about those issues to help prevent bullying. As Andy Birkey points out at The American Independent, six states (Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah) have similar “No Promo Homo” laws that restrict LGBT outreach in schools, and Tennessee’s proposed “Don’t Say Gay” bill, compounded by a bill that would protect religious bullies, represents the possible expansion of harm against LGBT students.

It does not bode well for future LGBT students in Anoka-Hennepin School District that administrators are still not taking responsibility for their harmful policies and are calling exposure of that harm an “attack.”

Howard Stern took a significant chunk of time on his radio show today to defend Ellen DeGeneres from the conservative group One Million Moms’ boycott of JC Penney. During the impassioned discussion, he admonished Republican presidential candidates for their anti-gay rhetoric and highlighted the portrayal of bullying in Rolling Stone’s article about Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District:

STERN: First of all, I’m proud of JC Penney for not buckling. You know, I am not the world’s biggest Ellen DeGeneres, but I’ll tell you what: I will defend her to the end. If JC Penney fires Ellen DeGeneres, I will call on all my listeners to boycott JC Penney and I will do everything I can for Ellen DeGeneres. I mean, I was so outraged.

This defense of the gay community is a must-listen (language NSFW):

Additionally, DeGeneres thanked Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly today for defending her on his show. Watch it:

(HTs: Joe.My.God. and SheWired.)