Local News in Brief : School Board Takes Stand on Use of Slurs

Concerned about reports that racial and ethnic slurs and hate crimes are on the rise, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday voted unanimously to require schools to develop rules for disciplining students and employees who engage in “the willful or negligent use of slurs.”

School board member Jackie Goldberg, the proposal’s author, said she considered slurs based on a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability or politics “the highest form of obscenity.”

The board also affirmed as district policy that any actions “motivated by hate or bigotry,” including intimidation, verbal harassment or threat of physical violence, will result in disciplinary action. The board did not specify the form such discipline could take, but in the case of name-calling, it could mean requiring a student to write an essay on the origin of the slur or epithet used.