Posted on: Thursday, May 31, 2001
Rule on harassment of gay kids yet to be imposed
By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
Gay rights advocates in Hawai'i are frustrated that a new school rule to protect gay students still is not being enforced, just as a national report released today reveals widespread bullying of gay teenagers.
The advocates say the trend reported by Human Rights Watch is being duplicated in Hawai'i, and that gay students aren't protected because the Department of Education has yet to decide how to implement its new anti-harassment rule more than six months after it was approved.
"Maybe the administration is tired — they've had a rough year — but they will never be able to make up to the students who are being harassed the year that they've lost," said Carolyn Golojuch, president of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Golojuch is one of more than 20 community members and department staff appointed to a task force to help decide how the so-called Chapter 19 anti-harassment rule will be implemented in schools.
The Board of Education asked the department to set up the task force as a way to defuse the heated argument that surrounded the passage of the anti-harassment rule. But the group has yet to meet.
Deputy superintendent Pat Hamamoto, who is heading up the task force, said a planned April meeting was derailed by the teachers strike.
"We are behind, we do admit," she said. "But we're trying to catch up."
Hamamoto plans to bring task force members together over the next month. She said implementation of the rule will begin in the next school year.
The release of today's report underlines why enforcement is needed, according to Nancy Kern, another task force member who lobbied for the inclusion of gay students in the anti-harassment rule.
The report, "Hatred in the Hallways: Discrimination and Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in U.S. Public Schools," reveals that gay teenagers are being bullied to the point where they are missing out on their education.
Based on interviews with students, parents and school staff in seven states, it found that teachers and administrators frequently ignore bullying and even violence against gay students.
School officials often refuse to accept reports of harassment or to hold the perpetrators accountable; in some instances, they have encouraged or have themselves participated in the abuse, according to Human Rights Watch.
The result is that gay students go into "survival mode," figuring out how to get to and from school safely, avoiding the hallways to escape slurs and shoves and cutting gym classes to escape being beaten up. Some drop out of school. Others commit suicide.
The report did not include Hawai'i, but experts say the situation is the same.
"There's definitely hatred in the hallways here," said Camaron Miyamoto, project coordinator of the American Friends Service Organization.
One student who testified in favor of the anti-harassment rule last year, later received a death threat, he said. Other gay students are beaten, and verbal abuse is commonplace, he said.
Some worry that the task force could reopen last year's debate that saw street demonstrations and the board flooded with emotional testimony on both sides of the issue.
But "the debate is over," Hamamoto said. "I believe Chapter 19 states clearly that we will take measures to be sure those people listed are not harassed."
Task force member and Hawaii Eagle Forum President Gayle Gardner was one of those who opposed including gay students in the anti-harassment rule. Gardner believes singling out certain groups of students will create more animosity.
"I felt that making exceptions for one group will cause more problems than it will cure by playing favorites," he said. "It's human nature."
