The Texas state school board has withdrawn from a national organization over disputes about how to handle bullying and homophobia in schools:
In a 10-5 party-line vote Nov. 18, the elected Republican-controlled board dropped the state’s membership in the National Association of State Boards of Education, or NASBE. The decision was prompted in part because one of the Texas board members said the group had run a conference that included discussions of policies at odds with the board majority’s views on how to address bullying of students because of their sexual orientation.“I disagreed with the whole framework of discussion,” Terri Leo, the board member who recommended that the state pull out of NASBE, said last week in describing the October symposium. She said some speakers had advocated policies prohibiting the bullying of particular groups of students, including gays and lesbians, not just overall bans on mistreatment of fellow students.
“They’re pushing for hate-crimes-type legislation through bullying policy,” said Ms. Leo, who believes that such an approach unfairly establishes special protections for gay students.
The fact that her fellow Republicans all supported her motion to leave the national group, while all the board’s Democrats opposed it, is an “indication of the partisan direction that NASBE is going,” Ms. Leo said in a telephone interview...
At the Oct. 12-13 symposium in Phoenix sponsored by NASBE, Ms. Leo said, speakers argued that bullying policies should specify homosexuals as students who need to be protected from harassment and suggested that those who bully gay students should receive more-serious punishments than those who bully other students.
“Bullying is wrong, period,” Ms. Leo said. “All victims should be dealt with the same—compassionately—and all bullies should be treated equally.”
I wondered how long it would take the "hate crime" debate to reach into schools.
Posted by kswygert at December 14, 2005 12:19 PM