The article that I read was found in TEACHER magazine. The title was Pride & Prejudice. This article tells of the acounts of gay and lesbian teenagers suing a California school system for allowing students to physically and verbally harass gay students. Alana Flores is the girl who got the ball rolling and brought this type of harassment into the public's attention. Flores recalls an incident where a male in her math class called her a "fucking dyke" and then kept repeating the word faggot. Flores told him that she didn't like that and eventually the math teacher intervened. According to the report the math teacher asked if the reason that Flores didn't like the word was because she is gay. There was a student named Jamie Nabozny who sued a Wisconsin school district for similar happenings and won $900,000. in damages.

My reaction to this article is that I'm sick and tired of schools being held accountable for everything from discipline problems to sexual preference in our students. Can't the general populus figure out that maybe we as teachers might sometime want to be able to teach and not spend all day trying to solve all of societies problems. Maybe we should sue the board of education for allowing us to get certified without ever taking a class on how to deal with the sexual preferences of students. What a joke! Give me the $900,000. and I'll deal with these situations any way they desire.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 1999