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A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay
harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink
their efforts against bullying - and in the process, risk
entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.


      The conflict: Gay-rights supporters insist that any effective
anti-bullying program must include specific components addressing
harassment of gay youth. But religious conservatives condemn that
approach as an unnecessary and manipulative tactic to sway young
people's views of homosexuality.


      It's a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail - from the
left and right - directed at Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School
District while it reviews its anti-bullying strategies in the
aftermath of a gay student's suicide.


      The invective is "some of the worst I've ever seen,"
Superintendent Dennis Carlson said. "We may invite the Department
of Justice to come in and help us mediate this discussion between
people who seem to want to go at each other."


      Carlson's district in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis is
politically diverse, and there are strong, divided views on how to
combat bullying.


      "We believe the bullying policy should put the emphasis on the
wrong actions of the bullies and not the characteristics of the
victims," said Chuck Darrell of the conservative Minnesota Family
Council.


      That's a wrongheaded, potentially dangerous approach, according
to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network - which tries to
improve the school climate for gay students nationwide.


      "Policies have to name the problem in order to have an
impact," said GLSEN's executive director, Eliza Byard. "Only the
ones that name it see an improvement."


      According to a 2009 GLSEN survey of 7,261 students, only 18
percent said their schools had a comprehensive program addressing
anti-gay bullying, while gay students in schools that had such
programs were less likely to be victimized and more likely to
report problems to staff.


      Across the political spectrum, every group weighing in on the
issue had deplored the recent deaths - the latest in a long series
of suicides over many years by harassed gay teens, but dramatic
nonetheless because of the high toll in a short span.


      The most recent and highest-profile case involved Rutgers
University freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, who killed himself by
jumping off the George Washington bridge after his roommate
secretly recorded him with another male student, then broadcast the
video online.


      But at least four younger teens have killed themselves since
July after being targeted by anti-gay bullying, including Justin
Aaberg, 15, of Andover, Minn., who hanged himself in his room in
July. His friends told his mother he'd been a frequent target of
bullies mocking his sexual orientation.


      Five other students in his Anoka-Hennepin school district have
killed themselves in the past year, and gay-rights advocates say
bullying may have played a role in two of these cases as well.


      Carlson, the district superintendent, lost a teenage daughter of
his own in a car crash, and says he shares the anguish of the
parents bereaved by suicide. He acknowledges that a controversial
district policy calling for "neutrality" in classroom discussions
of sexual orientation may have created an impression among some
teachers, students and outsiders that school staff wouldn't
intervene aggressively to combat anti-gay bullying.


      The district - Minnesota's largest - serves nearly 40,000
students in 13 towns. The school board adopted the neutrality
policy in 2009 as a balancing act, trying not to offend either
liberal or conservative families.


      Rebecca Dearing, 17, a junior who belongs to the gay-straight
alliance at the district's Champlin Park High School, said the
neutrality policy caused teachers to shy away from halting anti-gay
harassment - sometimes leaving her gay friends feeling vulnerable
to the point where they don't come to school.


      "This shouldn't be a political issue any more, when it's
affecting the lives of our students," she said. "It's a human
issue that needs to be dealt with. They can be doing more and
they're not."


      In August, amid the furor over the suicides, the district
clarified its anti-bullying program - saying that it was not
governed by the neutrality provision and had always been intended
to encourage vigilant, proactive adult intervention to curb
anti-gay harassment. Staffers were told failure to intervene would
be punished.


      Justin Aaberg's mother, Tammy Aaberg, is convinced the broader
neutrality policy has been damaging to gay students and wants it
changed. She said she heard belatedly from Justin's friends about
instances in past years where he was harassed that she was never
notified about even through staff members were aware.


      Now she sees signs that the district wants to be more diligent,
but isn't fully reassured.


      "Most of the teachers and principals, and maybe even now the
superintendent, they mean well - they want to intervene," she
said. "But the teachers still don't know what they can and can't
do."


      Nadia Boufous Phelps, the school psychologist at Anoka's Blaine
High School, is co-advisor for its gay-straight alliance - to which
27 of the 3,000 students belong. She welcomes the attempt to
clarify the stance toward anti-gay bullying.


      "In the past, the staff often would not intervene," she said.
"Now the district has come out loud and clear, if you hear
"That's so gay,' if you witness anything, you must do something."


      Still, she said, "We still have a long way to go."


      Carlson says his district, seven years ago, was among the first
in the state to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying program.
Now he's exasperated by the highly charged, politicized debate that
has flared since Aaberg's suicide.


      "It's a terribly sensitive situation," he said. "Hurtful
statements on either side are not helpful ... and the kids are
watching."


      Phil Duran, staff attorney for the statewide gay rights group
OutFront Minnesota, says Carlson and his colleagues are constrained
by school board members who do not want to anger conservative
voters in the district.


      "They're between a rock and a hard place," he said. "I do
think they want to do the right thing - I don't think they known
what the right thing is."


      Nationally, the recent suicides have intensified calls on
Congress to pass a pending bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
It would require schools receiving federal funds to implement
bullying prevention programs that specifically address anti-gay
harassment.


      Supporters of the act say it has bipartisan support, but the
likelihood of Democratic losses in the Nov. 2 election cloud its
prospects, and it is vehemently opposed by many conservatives.


      "A lot of these anti-bullying programs are crossing the lines
far beyond bullying prevention into adult-oriented material and
politics," said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the
Family. Mission America president Linda Harvey said the act would
"incorporate mandatory pro-gay propaganda."


      According to GLSEN, 10 states have anti-bullying laws along the
lines of the Safe Schools Act - requiring specific components
addressing anti-gay harassment. But gay-rights activists say
enforcement and compliance is not uniform.


      For example, Dave Reynolds of the Trevor Project, which seeks to
combat teen suicides, says many California schools are not in
compliance with the state's 10-year-old law. One problem area, he
said, is California's Central Valley - the source of many calls to
the Trevor Project's suicide hot line.


      Jeffree Merteuil-Clark, 17, is a junior who's active in the
gay-straight alliance at Frontier High School in Bakersfield, a
Central Valley city not far from Tehachapi. That's the town where
13-year-old Seth Walsh, hanged himself outside his home last month
after enduring taunts from classmates about being gay. He died
after nine days in a coma.


      Merteuil-Clark said the teachers who are sympathetic to bullied
gay students tend to be cautious, fearing they might antagonize
Kern County school administrators who want to "sweep the problem
under the rug."


      "Growing up gay in Kern County, you have all this opposition to
you," he said. "It does have an impact on you. When you're
little, you think the rest of the world hates you."


      The debate has proved to be a minefield for the Olweus Bullying
Prevention Program, one of the largest in the nation, as it strives
to serve schools ranging from progressive to conservative.


      "We have to be extremely careful," said Marlene Snyder, the
Olweus development director, describing a community-by-community
approach which enables schools to tailor the program as they see
fit in regard to anti-gay bullying.


      "We've worked in all kinds of schools," Snyder said. "Some
have very much taken on the homophobic situation. Other schools
won't touch it with a 10-foot pole."


      GLSEN sees a mixed picture nationwide - gay-straight alliances
continue to spread, numbering more than 4,000 nationwide, yet nine
of 10 gay students in its latest survey reported suffering anti-gay
harassment,


      Asked for an example of an effective program, GLSEN leader Eliza
Byard cited New York City's Respect for All Initiative. The
district, which serves 1.1 million students, makes specific mention
of sexual orientation in its anti-bullying training for teachers
and its materials for students.


      "There's always more to do," said Elayna Konstan, head of the
Office of School and Youth Development. "We're always trying to do
this work better."
      

Gallery

A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay
harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink
their efforts against bullying - and in the process, risk
entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.


Suicide surge: schools confront anti-gay bullying

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