Gender Bullies in Our Schools

Re “School’s No-Bias Wording Gets OK,” April 20: Congratulations are in order for the Westminster School District’s refusal to back down over the repeated threats from the state superintendent of public instruction, Jack O’Connell, to punish those board members for standing up for what is wholesome and rational-minded. Their opposition to a dangerous policy that separates the words “sex” and “gender” to allow cross-dressing is not, in his words, “a destructive example for our children.”

What is destructive is to place children in scary situations that could confuse and frighten them. New York City has set up a separate high school because the bizarre behavior of some proved disruptive to the many, who were there to be taught. Sacramento has fallen under the spell of a handful of multicultural fanatics, bent on using school funding to silence critics who object to turning kids into guinea pigs. To quote O’Connell: Our children deserve better.

John Primavera

San Diego

I agree with Kay Hymowitz’s conclusion in “Silly Laws Are No Way to Fight Bullying” (Commentary, April 18) that “front-line educators” are in the best position to stop harassment and violence in the schools. However, without laws like the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, which led to the definition of gender now included in the Education Code, educators would not have the clout to “smash the peer-driven hierarchy.” Teachers and principals are not only faced with the social power of the kids doing the bullying but also with parents of these kids, who are inclined to brush off such behavior as inconsequential, or blame the victim.

Prior to the passage of the act, my son was harassed and threatened by the “cool kids” during his senior year in a high school in Orange County. My repeated complaints did not result in any action taken against his harassers. The principal was not only ignorant but was faced with parents telling her that my son was the problem. Her advice to me was to take him out of school and have him get a GED (a high school equivalency diploma).

Ultimately, we were forced to withdraw him from school, and he finished his senior year on independent study. This experience caused me to work very hard for the passage of this law. Principals and teachers now have the tools to deal with kids and parents who minimize or rationalize bullying behavior. The challenge is to educate the educators on the provisions of the act and their obligation to enforce it.

Felisa Ihly

Aliso Viejo

What is up with Hymowitz? She states that no one could quarrel with the goals of this law and that the bill’s architects sought to ensure all students “the inalienable right to attend campuses that are safe, secure and peaceful.” And then she acknowledges this serious problem by saying, “Sure, there is racial tension in the schools. And there’s no question that schoolyard bullies look on gay kids the way hunters look at a grazing deer.” And she feels a law that addresses these issues is silly?

I can’t think of anything more serious than the state protecting my child by trying to give schools the legal backing to take action against bullies. Or, in some cases, making teachers themselves aware that their own language and statements to students could make them liable under the law. I find the fact that we need to have a law like this sad. But ask any high school kid how many times a day he or she hears a derogatory comment regarding sexual orientation or gender. We need to require that our schools start to get serious about this matter.

Pam Woody

Lakewood

I support the decision of the Westminster School Board to not accept the state’s crazy sex definitions. And I urge those who also support the board to become active by writing and attending school board meetings.

Philip J. Johnson

Fullerton