Like many fellow advocates, I was glad to hear that the Orleans Parish School Board voted yesterday to retain a policy explicitly prohibiting bullying based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. However, the “zero tolerance” policy that the school board upheld essentially kicks minorities and students with disabilities to the curb in its zeal to “do something” about bullying. “Zero tolerance” is little more a way to sound tough while abdicating the responsibility to deal with the underlying causes of discipline problems in schools and do the hard work of engaging the school community to change behavior and instill positive school climates.
Social science research has been clear on this for years. Policies that require kids to be pushed out of school in essence require that kids be pushed out of the one environment that can actually help them develop positive behaviors and foster the development of community, inclusion, and empathy. As is all too often the case in both American schools and American courts, students of color and students with disabilities inevitably suffer the heaviest under policies mandating suspension, expulsion, and ultimately incarceration.
Recently, national LGBT organizations as well as local advocates have recognized the harmful effects of “zero tolerance” and exclusionary discipline in general and have worked to end them wherever possible. Equality Louisiana is proud to have taken the lead in drafting and advocating for HB 646: The Safe and Successful Students Act in the 2013 legislative session, which would have forbidden any public school from adopting “zero tolerance” for bullying, among many other measures. (For more on what the bill would have provided, see our legislative session report.) We did not successfully pass that bill this year, but we will continue our efforts, because leaving unchallenged policies that deprive any child of their right to an education is morally indefensible.
Many local LGBT advocates applauded the OPSB’s initial adoption of an enumerated anti-bullying policy, as well as the zero-tolerance amendment that was later added at the urging of former board president Thomas Robichaux, a board member of the Forum for Equality in New Orleans and Louisiana’s first openly gay elected official. We should be happy when any elected body takes a stand against homophobia and transphobia in schools, particularly in Louisiana – but we must recognize that we will never end the oppression of LGBT people of any age by oppressing others in turn.
by Matthew Patterson
Legislative Coordinator
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