Federal investigators are looking into a complaint filed by parents of LGBTQ students in the Farmington, Connecticut school district who say school officials are not protecting their children against “chronic bullying that included homophobic slurs and a group stomping of a Pride flag,” according to the CT Insider.
Reports the Insider:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Aug. 10 notified the parent who wrote the complaint that investigators will examine whether the school district failed to respond appropriately to gender identity/sexual orientation harassment that included reports of a middle school student telling an LGBTQ student to “go die” multiple times.
OCR enforces Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any organization that receives federal funding. Parents who reported bullying of their children contend that school officials either mishandled or did not complete investigations into parents’ and students’ reports of bullying and harassment. …
“Numerous students have stopped reporting harassment because ‘the school does nothing,’ ” the complaint stated. …
In a statement, Farmington Public Schools said the district does not “tolerate” bullying and discrimination and takes disciplinary action when “rare” incidents occur. …
School officials will work with federal investigators, but said they cannot comment on individual students because of privacy laws….
“While the district has a different perspective on the factual allegations of the complaint, we respect the process and will be working with OCR to assist them in their review of these issues,” the district said in the statement….
Necessary remedies to the hostile environment, according to the lead complainant, would focus on creating a safe and affirming school climate, including adoption of a policy on protecting transgender and non-binary students, communicating support for LGBTQ students and staff to the community, adopting an inclusive curriculum and LGBTQ “upstander” intervention training.
Read the complete CT Insider story here.
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