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School
Anti-Harassment
Training
Upheld
by AP
from 365gay.com
From the
Web, February 20, 2006
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Ashland, Kentucky, Feb. 18 --
Students have no religious or free speech right to opt-out of school training
aimed at stopping anti-gay harassment in Boyd County schools, a federal judge
has ruled.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning said "there is simply no basis for an opt-out"
by three students who skipped mandatory sessions at Boyd County schools because
the training did not endorse any viewpoint or require a student to disavow their
religious beliefs
Bunning wrote in an opinion issued late Friday that mandatory training "to
address the issue of harassment at school, including harassment based upon
actual or perceived sexual orientation, is rationally related to a legitimate
educational goal, namely to maintain a safe environment."
The anti-gay harassment sessions were part of a settlement in 2004 of a
three-year dispute between the school district and a now-defunct gay-rights
group that wanted recognition as an extracurricular group.
To settle the case, the school district agreed to hold mandatory anti-gay
harassment sessions for school administrators and students.
A student and two sets of parents sued the Boyd County Board of Education over
that requirement, which penalized students with an unexcused absence if they did
not attend the training.
The student, Timothy Allen Morrison II, his parents, Timothy and Mary Morrison,
and two other parents, Brian Nolen and Debora Jones, were represented by the
Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based legal foundation that takes on
religious rights cases.
The group claimed the training violates their constitutional rights of free
speech and religion because it violated the students right to follow his
religious beliefs because it prohibits him from telling gays that those who
engage in destructive lifestyles, like homosexuality, are wrong.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined the case on behalf of the school
district in an effort to keep the training classes in place.
"Just telling students not to pick on others because of their sexual orientation
or gender identity doesn't force them to change their beliefs, and the judge
agreed with us about that," said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney with the
ACLU's national Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
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