MORGAN HILL
– The January settlement of a lawsuit brought against the Morgan
Hill School District by six former students is having repercussions
for several current Live Oak students, they say, in the form of
continued harassment and blame.
MORGAN HILL – The January settlement of a lawsuit brought against the Morgan Hill School District by six former students is having repercussions for several current Live Oak students, they say, in the form of continued harassment and blame.
The lawsuit, alleging a lack of response by district officials to former students’ claims of harassment based on their perceived sexual orientation, was settled when the district agreed to training of district employees and once-a-year training for district seventh-and- ninth-graders.
The district also agreed to a financial settlement of $1.1 million – $560,000 to be divided among the former students plus $540,000 in attorney’s fees.
Live Oak High Gay and Straight Alliance (GSA) members say students at the school are blaming them for the School District “losing” the money, even though the current Live Oak students do not receive any money from the settlement.
“They think we are taking money from the district, which is having money problems anyway,” GSA President Brandy Houseal said. “We’re not even getting any money.”
Attorney Mark Davis, who represented the district in the lawsuit, said the settlement money does not come out of the district’s pocket. It’s paid by the Joint Powers Authority, he said. The Joint Powers Authority is a consortium of school districts that join together, essentially to share risks – a self-insuring agency.
GSA students also claim they will see no difference in the way they are treated on campus because of the settlement, except perhaps an increase in hostilities.
“We get told, ‘You caused this to be a big issue,’ and what they mean is not us, but ‘people like you,’ and they are resentful,” Houseal said. “Most people still don’t understand.”
GSA members agree that harassment of students because of their sexual orientation is still occurring.
“We still hear derogatory comments all the time,” said Amy Aguilar, GSA treasurer. “And the word ‘gay,’ that now means something is bad. We hear it all the time about something they don’t like, ‘That’s so gay,’ they say.”
The students contend “probably half” of the Live Oak staff and administrators either are unconcerned about harassment or don’t take action because they, too, are prejudiced.
The Flores vs MHUSD lawsuit was initiated to address the alleged lack of intervention by the district and the lack of punishment for the alleged perpetrators of the harassment. GSA students said there seems to be the same lack of concern today as in 1998, when the lawsuit was filed.
“Many times, if we say we have been harassed, it’s like we’re the ones causing the problem,” GSA Secretary Chara Crane said. “It’s almost like you don’t want to tell anyone about it, because you don’t know how they’ll react.”
Live Oak Principal Nancy Serigstad said she was surprised to hear the reactions of the GSA students.
“The amazing thing to me is that when I walk through this campus, I continue to hear more and more positive things from our students,” she said. “No one’s letting those types of things (incidents of harassment) go. And we’re not just focused on attitudes towards perceived gay or lesbian students, we’re focused on all types of harassment.”
Anti-harassment education, specific to harassment due to sexual orientation or perceived orientation, for Morgan Hill School District employees is likely to begin this summer, said Assistant Superintendent Denise Tate, and training for district seventh-and-ninth graders will likely begin sometime next fall.
The district, which already provides harassment training, according to Superintendent Carolyn McKennan, is required to initiate a special program as a result of the settlement.
The students alleged the district did not protect them from the harassment or adequately punish the perpetrators.
While the district agreed to the settlement, it did not admit to wrongdoing.
District administrators will attend training in June, after the close of the school year, and other district employees, including bus drivers, yard duty employees and custodians, will likely attend training in the fall.
Some parents in the district have expressed concern since the terms of the settlement in January were made known that the training for students would focus on alternative lifestyles or in some way promote homosexual behavior.
During a recent district meeting of Home & School Club representatives and district principals, McKennan told attendees they could choose to “opt out” their students from the training, which entails one 50-minute session during a student’s seventh-and- ninth-grade years.
“You can always opt out of a program,” she said. “It is not specifically a part of the written settlement agreement, but you can always opt out.”
