The following news items are various messages that were e-mailed to me and posted for the benefit of the GLBT community. Below is information regarding Washington State's proposed Safe Schools Bill.
Students face malicious harassment every day.
It can escalate into violence. Recent events in the Puyallup school system illustrate what can happen when a school system does not have a clear policy on harassment in place. The lack of a clear policy for addressing the issue of harassment, in this case racial, resulted in further bias-related incidents of escalating violence. Laws and policies can make clear a community's opposition to bias-based harassment. The clarity of standards is a necessary ingredient in a community-wide effort to help schools become safe places where learning can be the number one priority.