The fifteen year old founder of Gays and Lesbians United Against Discrimination, Caleb Laieski, sent a letter to more than 5,000 school administrators and lawmakers demanding change. The Arizona gay teen activist claims that "he was a victim of bullying and harassment, and even received death threats from other students". Believing that it is the school's responsibility to try their best to prevent bullying, Laieski is demanding that the school's anti-bullying policies include sexual orientation and gender identity. Unless the school takes action soon, the teen threatens "legal ramifications." Armed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Laieski will sue if the school does not change it's anti-bullying policy. Do you guys have any thoughts on the issue? Should Laieski be respected for his courageous actions? Or is blaming the school administration the wrong thing to do?
By the way, the website doesn't allow me to post the URL as my link (sorry!), here's is the link for the article:
http://www.jsyk.com/2011/01/11/gay-teen-plans-to-sue-schools-if-they-dont-prevent-bullying/?icid=maing|aim|dl7|sec2_lnk3|35901
3 comments:
I'm hesitant to judge how I feel about this without knowing more. What does the school's anti-bullying/harrassment policy currently say? If the text is general and not very specific and the school were to change the policy to specifically include sexual orientation and gender identity, there's no reason the school shouldn't include a lot of other specific provisions as well (such as religion or ethnicity). Also, has Laieski persistently asked counselors and administrators for help before, only to be ignored? I'd like to know how why he felt that the school "could have done more."
Also, how can a fifteen-year-old have the ability to sue the school?
Though I wouldn't hail him as a hero, it is undoubtedly courageous for Laieski to put himself on the line, draw attention to himself, and make himself even more vulnerable all to stand up for a cause he believes in.
School administrations should be held accountable to stop bullying, but I don't think the courts should be the place to go to resolve the issue, except as a last resort when all other options have failed (which I admit is a possibility in this case). Regardless of what the school's policy is, this is a matter of whether or not the teachers and administrators are willing to step in to prevent bullying. If they are not, the courts and new policies will probably not be able to change that. Still, I admire Laieski's courage and wish him good luck.
I agree with Jack. While Laieski's cause is great, I don't think that suing the school will accomplish anything. Sarah also has a good point that more information is needed in order to fairly asses the situation because schools should be able to stop physical violence or death threats that aren't anonymous. However, in many cases, the school is powerless to respond because administrators can't prevent verbal harassment or catch the writers of (i think) anonymous death threats. Really, if anyone should be sued, it should be the bullies for harassment.
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