C'mere, ya fay-get!
Posted on 09/01/2002 5:03:59 PM PDT by It'salmosttolate
Nevada School District Settles Key Gay Abuse Case
August 28, 2002 04:54 PM ET
By Andrew Quinn
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Nevada school district will pay almost $500,000 to an openly gay student who was repeatedly bashed and brutalized in Reno public schools in a settlement deal signed on Wednesday that lawyers said could set policy precedents for schools around the country.
Derek Henkle said he was beaten, spat upon, called names and even threatened with a lasso during his years at three Reno high schools in a campaign of intimidation and harassment that literally left him fearing for his life.
Worse still, Henkle said Washoe County School District officials did little to stop the brutality -- telling him to "stop acting like a fag" and keep his sexual orientation quiet.
Henkle signed a $451,000 settlement with the school district which commits school administrators to implementing sweeping new policies designed to protect gay and lesbian students on campus.
"There were points in my childhood when I didn't know that I'd make it past my childhood, so it's great to be standing here today," Henkle, now 21, said at a news conference in San Francisco announcing the deal.
"My hope going forward is that every school district will take the message that we're sending, which is that every student deserves a safe school."
OFFICIALS ADMIT NO WRONGDOING
Officials in Washoe County, Nevada's second largest school district, confirmed the settlement details while noting they had made no admission of wrongdoing. "Our position is pretty clear: any kid that walks on to one of our campuses -- gay, straight, black, white, Muslim, Jewish, rich, poor, whatever -- deserves to be treated with respect, free of harassment, threats and intimidation," school district spokesman Steve Mulvenon said. v
Henkle's case, which was taken up by Lambda Legal, a national gay and lesbian legal nonprofit group, and the San Francisco law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, was seen as an important test of how far public school districts should go to prevent harassment of gay students.
Henkle's lawyers said Wednesday that the Washoe deal, while not setting any explicit legal precedent, would serve as a clear message to school administrators across the country that ignoring campus gay bashing can leave school districts exposed to claims of civil liability.
"This is the farthest reaching settlement in a student sex orientation case in the nation," said Jon Davidson, senior legal counsel at Lambda Legal. "This case has established the Constitutional right of gay students to be 'out' at school."
LESSONS IN FEAR
Henkle said his school troubles began at the age of 14 after he appeared on a public access television program to discuss being gay.
In his first school, students began shouting "fag" and other epithets at him, beat him up, threw him into lockers and at one point even threatened to tie a lasso around his neck and drag him down the road behind a pick-up truck.
"They said they were going to put on latex gloves so when they beat up the AIDS whore they wouldn't get AIDS," Henkle said.
Administrators reacted by transferring him to another school, where the harassment continued, and then to a third before finally sticking him into an adult education program at a local community college at the age of 16.
"I was forced from school to school, and treated like I was the problem," Henkle said. "My teachers chose not to protect me, my administrators chose not to protect me, and my school let me down."
Under the settlement agreement, county school administrators will add explicit anti-harassment protections for students who "come out" -- spurred by a Federal court ruling which, for the first time, established that gay and lesbian students have a constitutional right to discuss their sexual orientation in school settings.
Henkle, who said he plans to use part of the settlement money to pursue a college career, said he hoped his case would give hope to gay and lesbian students around the country -- at least 84 percent of gay students reported being intimidated or physically harassed at school.
"My school experience was a nightmare," Henkle said. "Kids are being beaten in America's schools on a daily basis."
In this Orwellian Hate Crime world it pays to be gay.
C'mere, ya fay-get!
Oh, of course! It goes without saying! But there's one little problem with your thesis.
They didn't get away with it.
I appreciate the ad hominem smear, though, and now that you've enlightened everyone as to the "sexual insecurities" of those involved, perhaps you'll let us know how to stop such insecurities from getting out of hand.
After all, you're a healer, not a hater.
Too bad someone didn't tell this poor fellow that he is the ceo of the "I wanna be respected" club.
Plonk
But it has ... to girls, to others getting beat up and harassed for all sorts of reasons ... and they've won rewards also. The school district handled this badly.
Who pays ? Those who perform the harassment ? Noooooo, not them. Everyone else gets to pay because of the wrong actions of a few.
Choice #3 : Suspend or expel those who gang up on and beat up other students.
Definitely ... when I said the school district handled it badly, I was referring to to their failure to physically protect students from assault. That's what I meant about those who actually performed the harassment getting off scott free. The school district could have (should have) taken the few bone-heads who thought it was "fun" to beat up the gay guy out of the school ... problem solved. By failing that, they caused the entire school district to pay out a large award.
I have to agree with you on that one, but it happens and that by itself is not an excuse for assault. Kids who gang up on and beat up the "faggy" kid aren't going to think too long about beating up anyone else they feel "deserves" it for some other imagined reason.
That's why I don't have any real sympathy in these cases for the school district - they could have addressed the source of the problem (and it isn't the gay kid) and taken care of it a long time before. They failed.
Always remember, each and every individual who administers a school or a school district is a former member of the National Education Association (NEA), or an equivalent thereof, and it is part of the NEA agenda to make homosexuality acceptable in the public schools. This is just one more step along the way.
... No person should accost another for any reason ...
That's all anyone else here has said too ... I'm glad you agree.
... please, all you misunderstood folks, stop trying to convince my children that it is ok to be a pervert ...
I you're referring to me or to anyone else on this thread, you're mistaken. I understand your need to make a statement like that, but don't pretend that being against beating up gay kids is the same as saying its OK to be a pervert, it doesn't follow or fit here.
... God said it is wrong, and I believe HIM ...
Amen
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