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This article addresses the internal conflict that teachers face when they are part of the LGBTQ community. Some say that their jobs might be in jeopardy, and others say that they can be an advocate for students.

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LGBT educators walk a fine line between keeping their jobs and being honest with their students.

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If there is an increase in LGBTQ materials in education, then it could create more acceptance because people are then made aware. It's no longer a taboo issue, but it's included and normalized in the classroom.

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By 2021, all classrooms throughout Scotland will have LGBTQ inclusive curriculums. It is not just an optional add-on to something that's already in place, but it will be woven throughout their curriculum.

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In what is thought to be a world first, Scotland has approved a plan to mandate an LGBTQ-inclusive education at all public schools across the country.

The Scottish Government announced on Thursday that it had accepted all 33 recommendations put forth by the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group to implement a curriculum that will teach students of different age groups lessons about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex equality, inclusion and history.

Some of the themes that will be incorporated into the curriculum will include "LGBTI terminology and identities; tackling homophobia, biphobia and transphobia; prejudice in relation to the LGBTI community; and promoting awareness of the history of LGBTI equalities and movements," according to a statement issued by the Scottish Government.

A 2017 survey by LGBT Youth Scotland found that 71 percent of LGBTQ young people in the country said they experienced bullying in school due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 94 percent of those who experienced bullying said it had negatively affected their education.

"The recommendations I have accepted will not only improve the learning experience of our LGBTI young people, they will also support all learners to celebrate their differences, promote understanding and encourage inclusion," Deputy First Minister John Swinney said.

Scottish organization Time for Inclusive Education (TIE), a member of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group, has been lobbying for the change since 2015. TIE issued a statement on Thursday hailing the decision as a "monumental victory" and a "historic moment for our country."

Jordan Daly, the co-founder of TIE, said his experience of being gay in school inspired him to begin his grassroots campaign for change.

"I learned a lot about the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and the women's movement for suffrage, but I never learned anything about LGBT history or people like Harvey Milk and Marsha P. Johnson," Daly told NBC News. "It was always kind of excluded from our own educational experience."

Daly added that he hopes the LGBTQ curriculum will empower young people by inspiring confidence and giving them role models to look up to.

"It's all geared toward helping LGBT young people and making sure they know they are part of a diverse and wonderful community of people," he explained.

The initiative comes 18 years after Scottish Parliament repealed Section 28, a controversial law that prohibited "promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material."

"We've dismantled the destructive legacy of Section 28, and we've finally got a strong national package to bring forward an LGBT-inclusive education in all public schools without any exception," Daly said.

TIE, alongside other members of the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group, will now begin designing the inclusive curriculum, which they hope to have fully implemented nationwide by May 2021.
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Scotland to mandate LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum across all public schools

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In what is thought to be a world first, Scotland has approved a plan to mandate an LGBTQ-inclusive education at all public schools across the country. The Scottish Government announced on Thursday that it had accepted all 33 recommendations put forth by the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group to implement a curriculum that will teach students of different age groups lessons about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex equality, inclusion and history.

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Textbook companies are now going to include more LGBTQ material and historical figures into their books. It helps teachers to have a well rounded curriculum without them having to search for these resources or facts on their own.

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This article was published in partnership with the Education Writers Association
When the new academic year begins for California public schools, instructional materials will be available for the first time that ensure every K-12 classroom has access to accurate and unbiased depictions of the sexual orientation and gender identity of historical figures.

The state's FAIR Education Act - FAIR stands for Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful - requires history and social studies curriculum to include references to contributions by people with disabilities and members of the LGBT community.

The law went into effect in 2012, but it wasn't until late 2017 that the California Department of Education approved both frameworks and textbooks that a coalition of LGBT advocates, academics, and K-12 educators spent several years drafting and revising.

Doubtless there will be continued pushback from some who oppose the discussion of gay and lesbian figures in a positive light, some of those involved in developing the materials told journalists at the Education Writers Association's 2018 National Seminar in Los Angeles.

Adoption of the textbooks by California school districts is not mandatory, but participants in an EWA panel, "Covering LGBTQ+ Issues in the Classroom," said they expect the resources to be welcomed by teachers who have been unsure which historical figures to include and how to make fair representations in the classroom.

"Now we can mention Sally Ride was a known lesbian with a partner of 27 years," said Dominic Le Fort, executive director of Queer Education, a nonprofit founded last year to help families and schools meet the objectives of the law. "The purpose of this is not just to put this information in front of queer children. It's to be of benefit campuswide."

The California effort has resonance for education writers in other parts of the country, where many schools are working to make classrooms more inclusive. Illinois recently passed a law mandating teaching the roles of gays and lesbians in history, for example. As similar efforts take place in other states, reporters can look to California to learn what issues came up during the law's implementation and how they were resolved.

Case in point: Panel moderator Theresa Harrington's November 2017 EdSource recounting of discussions about how the recommended texts should identify historical figures who were not open about their sexuality or gender identity when they were alive.

The coalition working to create resources for teachers pushed textbook publishers to include more LGBT references, according to Harrington's story. The agreed-upon changes will be reflected in some books distributed throughout the country.

"The review period in California provided an additional opportunity to look closely at our programs and make changes that strengthened our content," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt told EdSource. "The national editions will reflect this process, continue to align with our goals, and embody the spirit of the FAIR Act for students across the country."

California teachers have had legal protection to talk about gay and lesbian issues since 2001, panelists said at the EWA seminar. And with the 2015 passage of the California Healthy Youth Act, schools must include materials about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and different sexual orientations in required sex education.

But that doesn't mean educators know enough about LGBT history or culture to teach it, much less how to respond to community pushback or controversies that arise in the news or in the classroom, the panelists said.

"The story I get over and over is they aren't getting the support they need to help their students," said Rick Oculto, education coordinator at the Our Family Coalition, which helped create the state resources. "They don't have the information and they don't have the skills."

Coverage of issues such as heated debates over bathroom policies for transgender individuals and anti-gay bullying and violence are important, speakers told the journalists in attendance. But it's crucial to also depict LGBT students in stories about academic and other achievements.

"You can't just write stories that say this queer student is prom queen," said Robert Rodriguez, a special education teacher and former president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association in California.

Indeed, making sure youth hear not just about the culture wars but also about the accomplishments and contributions of LGBT people is one of the chief aims of the FAIR Act's proponents.

"When I rattle off those names of victims of anti-LGBT violence, we all know those names," said Oculto. "What we don't do is name those success stories."

Krystal Torres-Covarrubias, education policy manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, echoed that advice.

"Take care to tell stories not typically seen as LGBT," she said, "like college access or immigration stories."

She added, "Enumerating identities really does make a difference. ... If students can see and name educators who are like them, that's really important."

Having a framework and curricula recognized as inclusive can also take the burden off LGBT educators, who tend to be singled out as the de facto campus expert on gay and lesbian issues or the default person in charge of a school's "safe space," Torres-Covarrubias said.

"Some places, especially small districts, lack capacity," she said. "They pull in members of the [LGBT] community and say, 'Hey, you know so much about this, how about we give you an unpaid assignment?'"

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year rescinded federal guidance detailing schools' obligations to protect transgender students. In February, DeVos said the Department of Education would no longer investigate complaints from transgender students denied use of the bathroom and other single-sex facilities that match their identity.

In response to journalists' questions, the panelists underscored the importance of continuing to track incidents of anti-LGBT discrimination and harassment at the state and federal levels.

"All of that data matters," said Le Fort. "When we're not able to collect data on what's happening to our children in schools, we set ourselves up for trouble."

Submit a Letter to the Editor

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Starting This Fall, New Textbooks & Guidance to Help California K-12 Teachers Cover LGBT Issues and Historical Figures in the Classroom

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This article was published in partnership with the Education Writers Association When the new academic year begins for California public schools, instructional materials will be available for the first time that ensure every K-12 classroom has access to accurate and unbiased depictions of the sexual orientation and gender identity of historical figures.

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Advocating for Sexual Diversity in Education

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Advocating for Sexual Diversity in Education

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This website advocates for a more inclusive and well-rounded education for ALL students. They want sexual diverse (used in place of LGBT to include heterosexuals) materials to reduce the stigmatism and negative connotations to being in the LGBT community.

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GALE is a learning community focusing on education about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. We promote the full inclusion of people who are disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation, sexual identity and their expression by identifying, enhancing and sharing educational expertise. The membership of the community is free and open to anyone actively involved in education about LGBT issues.

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GALE is a learning community focusing on education about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. We promote the full inclusion of people who are disadvantaged because of their sexual orientation, sexual identity and their expression by identifying, enhancing and sharing educational expertise.

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This website highlights how the states measure up to each other based on LGBTQ laws. You can select a state to see exactly what the laws are regarding LGBTQ issues within that state. It even rates them against the other states, so, for example, Pennsylvania seems to be rated better than most states, but it still has work to do.

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Movement Advancement Project | State Profiles

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Check out Pennsylvania's LGBT Policy Tally at the Movement Advancement Project. Read more and find your state's tally at http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/profile_state/PA

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This article discusses that the supreme court will be deciding whether employers can discriminate based on gender identity. Multiple cases have gone back and fourth, but now the supreme court will make the decision.

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Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty Images

Advocates wave a flag outside the US Supreme Court during arguments for Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission on December 5, 2017.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide whether it's illegal under federal law for employers to discriminate against gay and transgender workers.

The case centers around Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The Supreme Court will determine whether "sex" applies to sexual orientation and gender identity as well.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the employees claiming discrimination, it will be an important win for LGBT advocates who have been advocating for protections under the Civil Rights Act for decades. It would also be a major hit for the Trump administration, which has openly advocated against the Civil Rights Act applying to LGBT individuals in hearings and briefs.

The court said Monday it will hear three cases on the issue: One from New York, one from Georgia and one from Michigan. The New York and Georgia cases came to opposite conclusions about whether sexual orientation is protected by the Civil Rights Act. The Michigan case will examine whether gender identity is protected.

The New York case, Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, was brought by a skydiving instructor claiming he was fired because he was gay. In February a federal court of appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the employee, concluding that discrimination based on sexuality was a "subset of sex discrimination" because discriminating against someone for being attracted to people who are the same sex as them was, in part, based on what sex they are.

"A woman who is subject to an adverse employment action because she is attracted to women would have been treated differently if she had been a man who was attracted to women," the majority wrote in the New York appeals court decision. "We can therefore conclude that sexual orientation is a function of sex and, by extension, sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination."

A court in Georgia drew the opposite conclusion, however. A child welfare services coordinator claimed he was terminated for being gay, and the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta ruled this was legal, citing a 1979 case that ruled the Civil Rights Act did not protect discrimination based on sexuality. Georgia's ban on consensual sodomy wasn't overturned until 1998.

When examining the third case, in Michigan, the Supreme Court will consider the separate but related question about whether gender identity is protected under federal law. The case was brought by Aimee Stephens who sued the funeral home she worked for for firing her after she announced she identified as a transgender woman and would start presenting outwardly as female.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Stephens, concluding that discriminating against an employee because they are transgender was illegal.

The New York and Michigan cases cited Supreme Court precedent that could help their arguments. In 1989 the Supreme Court ruled in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that it was illegal to discriminate against workers because they did not conform to ideas of how a certain gender should behave.

Ann Hopkins had claimed she was denied a partnership at Price Waterhouse because she didn't act feminine enough. The court ruled in that case that Price Waterhouse "had unlawfully discriminated against her on the basis of sex by consciously giving credence and effect to partners' comments about her that resulted from sex stereotyping."

The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, a federal agency, cited this precedent as well, in a hearing in the New York case in September, arguing that, "sex stereotyping says that if you are a man attracted to a man, or a woman attracted to a woman, you're not behaving the way those genders are supposed to behave."

The Justice Department countered this point in the same hearing, arguing that there is "a common-sense difference between sex discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination."

The Supreme Court will hear the cases in its next term, which begins in October, 2019.

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The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Employers Can Discriminate Against LGBT Employees

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WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will decide whether it's illegal under federal law for employers to discriminate against gay and transgender workers. The case centers around Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.

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Looking specifically at "Children & Youth" section, this website highlights ways that schools can support LGBTQ students. It contains resources for "I am Jazz" school reading, a guide for supporting transgender students in school, professional development opportunities, and they have resources for talking about LGBTQ issues in schools. This website can fill the void in public schools when they don't have the necessary training to help LGBTQ students.

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Explore: Children & Youth | Human Rights Campaign

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Find a wealth of resources for supporting LGBTQ youth at home, in school and in the community.

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LGBTQ Students Need to Know Their Rights

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LGBTQ Students Need to Know Their Rights

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This article discusses issues that LGBTQ students should be aware of if they're being discriminated against. They discuss how LGBTQ students can self-advocate for themselves in their school.

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Jump to navigation Skip navigation

Harassment

Anti-LGBT harassment is one of the most pervasive, frightening, and potentially damaging threats LGBT students face in our public schools. If you're being bullied, called names, threatened, or physically harmed at your school because of your sexual orientation, you don't have to take it!

Under the U.S. Constitution, public schools have to address any harassment against LGBT students the same way they would address harassment against any other student. And a federal education law called Title IX bars public schools from ignoring harassment based on gender stereotyping. What this all means is that public schools can't ignore harassment based on appearance or behavior that doesn't "match" your gender: boys who wear makeup, girls who dress "like a boy," or students who are transgender. Nor can school officials tell you that you have to change who you are or that the harassment is your fault because of how you dress or act.

If anyone at school is harassing or threatening you, it's crucial that you report it to a principal or counselor. Then the school has been put on notice and can be held legally responsible for protecting you. And keep notes about all incidents of harassment and interactions with the school about it. There are tips on how to effectively do this at the end of this handout.

If you've reported harassment to your school and they've done little or nothing to stop it, contact your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project.

Privacy

Your school does NOT have the right to "out" you to anyone without your permission, even if you're out to other people at school.

Doing this to a young person can have tragic consequences, such as when police officers in 1997 told a young man in Pennsylvania that they were going to tell his family he was gay. He committed suicide rather than face what he feared would be rejection from his family. His mother sued, and a federal appeals court has held that threatening to disclose private information violated the teenager's Constitutional right to privacy. This applies to schools, too.

If a teacher, counselor, or any other school official threatens to tell your parents or anyone else that you're gay and you don't want them to, make it clear that this is against your wishes. If they still do it or threaten to do so, you should contact your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project.

Freedom of Speech

Sometimes schools try to silence students who are open about their sexual orientation. But you have a Constitutional right to be out of the closet at school if you want to be. Sometimes schools punish students for talking about being gay. Sometimes schools censor students for wearing gay-themed t-shirts, even when the shirts aren't obscene and other students are allowed to wear t-shirts expressing their views on political or cultural issues.
Know Your Rights on School Dress Codes
In Tinker v. Des Moines, over 40 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students don't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech at the schoolhouse gate." The only time a school can legally restrict a student's speech is when it causes significant disruption in the classroom. And while schools often use disruption as an excuse to censor student speech, there are clear legal guidelines about disruption really is. It's not just whenever a school administrator says something is disruptive. For example, yelling, "I'm gay!" in the middle of English class isn't okay, but talking about being gay with other students between classes or at lunch is. Nor is your speech disruptive just because someone else might not like it. And if your school's dress code allows other students to wear t-shirts about their beliefs, then it's illegal for them to ask you to take off your t-shirt just because it has a rainbow or says something about gay pride.

If your school is trying to keep you from talking about your sexual orientation or expressing your beliefs about it, you should contact your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project.

Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students

Everyone has the right to be themselves in school - including you! Your gender expression is protected by the U.S. Constitution, Title IX, and any state or local law that bans discrimination based on gender identity. This right to free expression includes your choice of clothes. As long as what you want to wear would be appropriate if worn by other students - a skirt, for example, or a tuxedo - then you should be able to wear that clothing even if it isn't stereotypically associated with your gender.

Your right to be yourself in school includes the right to be transgender or to transition your gender in school. Unfortunately, there aren't yet clear rules in most places about how schools should accommodate students when they transition. There are often many obstacles to deal with, including restroom and locker room accessibility, your name and what pronouns to use when talking about you, and how official records classify you. Call your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project if you want help making sure your school treats you with respect and keeps you safe.

Gay-Straight Alliances

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are student clubs, just like Drama Club or Key Club, that allow students with a common interest to get together and have discussions or activities about that interest. GSAs are made up of students of any sexual orientation or gender identity, not just gay students. They can be support groups, social groups, or they can be activist organizations dedicated to making school safer for all students, or some combination of any of those.

The federal Equal Access Act says that if a public school permits any noncurricular clubs, then it must allow students to form a GSA if they want to, and the school can't treat it differently from other noncurricular clubs. Noncurricular clubs are groups that aren't directly related to classes taught in the school. For example, Math Club is curricular but Chess Club isn't.

Starting a GSA is like starting any other club! Find out your school's rules for forming an official student organization (like getting a faculty sponsor if one is required, etc.) and then follow those rules carefully. And document everything just in case the school gives you a hard time about your GSA. There are tips on how to do this at the end of this handout.

We've found that school officials often don't know much about the law or think they can find some way to get around it. Blocking a GSA from forming or treating it differently from other noncurricular clubs is against the law, and if your school does it you should contact your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project.

Prom, Homecoming, and Other School Events

If you're a girl, can you go to homecoming with another girl? If you're a boy, can you run for Prom Queen? Yes! The First Amendment and your right to equal protection guarantee you the right to express yourself by bringing a same-sex date to the prom or homecoming. Similar protections should apply if you are a boy and want to run for Prom Queen or if you're a girl and want to run for Prom King.

If you go to a public school and school officials try to tell you that you can't bring a same-sex date to prom, you can contact your local ACLU affiliate or the ACLU LGBT Project.

General Tips

If you ever suspect that your school is treating you wrong because of your sexual orientation or gender identity:
Be respectful and follow the rules
Don't give your school any excuses for treating you badly by behaving badly or losing your temper.
Document everything
Keep detailed notes about everything: dates, where things happened, who was there, who said or did what, and any other details that might come in handy. If the school gives you anything in writing or if you submit anything in writing yourself, keep copies. If you have to fill out any forms or submit anything in writing, keep copies of those things. The more you document what you're going through, the better your chances of getting it addressed.
Get support
There are groups all over the country for LGBT youth, and if you live somewhere that doesn't have one, you can probably find an online discussion forum where you can be yourself and get reassurance that you're not alone.
Don't just believe what school officials tell you
A lot of the time, school officials either don't know what the law requires them to do or they're just betting that you won't question what they say. Don't take their word for it!

Fight for our rights

Take a stand.
Donate to the ACLU.

Donate

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Know Your Rights! A Guide for LGBT High School Students

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students face discrimination and harassment at school all too often. Unfortunately, many school officials know very little about how the law requires them to protect LGBT students. And sometimes they do know that they're breaking the law, but they think that students won't question their actions.

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"L.G.B.T. Students in Oregon Were Bullied and Forced to Read Bible, Report Says"--New York Times Article

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"L.G.B.T. Students in Oregon Were Bullied and Forced to Read Bible, Report Says"--New York Times Article

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In this article, students reported that they were being discriminated against because they identified as LGBTQ by the staff at their high school. The school had existing anti-bullying policies, but they need to be implemented effectively. Even if schools have these policies, they are nothing without the proper training and implementation.

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An investigator in the Oregon Department of Education said there was evidence of discrimination toward gay, lesbian and transgender students at North Bend High School, on the state's southern coast. Credit Credit Jillian Ward/The World

In the hallways of a rural Oregon high school, gay and lesbian students were taunted with homophobic slurs. In the cafeteria, students pelted a transgender student with food. And when gay and lesbian students got into trouble, the school's principal assigned a specific punishment just for them: readings from the Bible.

Students detailed those allegations in recent state investigative reports into the North Bend School District, a coastal area about 100 miles north of California. In the reports, gay and lesbian high school students described years of harassment and bigotry from school employees and other students, and a deeply religious culture that silenced their complaints.

The two reports, completed in March by an investigator in the Oregon Department of Education and made public this month, found that top officials in North Bend had for at least the past two school years fostered hostile conditions for gay and lesbian students, hesitated to intervene after reports of sexual harassment and retaliated against a school counselor who had cooperated with the state investigation.

The state found "substantial evidence" of discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at North Bend High School. "The department finds that discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation may have occurred," the investigator wrote.

In schools across the country, L.G.B.T. students are more likely to be bullied and suffer depression than their straight peers, studies have found. It is no different in Oregon, gay and lesbian activists said, despite the perception of the state, and particularly places like Portland, as a progressive paradise.

In the state reports, the district denied that students had been mistreated and said that when they had reported cases of harassment, it resolved them promptly and appropriately.

School officials initially denied that students were required to read the Bible as punishment. But they later told investigators it was true, adding that they handed down the punishment not to promote a religion but "to assist students in understanding the effects of certain behaviors."

The state ordered North Bend in March to settle with a pair of female students whose complaints to the State Department of Education led to the investigation. But no deal was reached, so the state has scheduled a hearing on May 24 with both sides to help mediate a resolution.

North Bend's superintendent, Bill Yester, said Wednesday that the district disputes many of the state's findings and will present its evidence at the hearing. He said the Bible was used as punishment only once.

"The district works hard every day to make sure all students feel respected and safe at school and will continue these efforts regardless of the outcome of the hearing," Mr. Yester said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon has agreed to represent the students next week.

"It's incredibly troubling that there is a school in Oregon that thinks it's O.K. to discipline students using forced readings of the Bible," Mat dos Santos, the chapter's legal director, said in an interview. "It's equally troubling that there are students who feel unsafe going to school because they identify as L.G.B.T.Q."

The two female students, who had dated while attending North Bend High School, brought their stories to the state last summer.

The discrimination they described included a teacher telling them that their kissing was "disgusting," the principal's son yelling anti-gay slurs at one of them and a school resource officer dismissing their complaints about harassment.

The officer told them that "homosexuality is a lifestyle that someone chooses and revealed that homosexuality is against the school resource officer's personal religious beliefs," according to the reports.

While the North Bend School District denied many of the allegations, a school counselor and mental health professionals in Coos County told the state investigator that the stories of discrimination were similar to those they had heard from other students. The school counselor said administrators had discarded past reports of harassment.

There is "a general lack of awareness within the local culture of how personal beliefs have interfered with identifying discrimination," they wrote in a letter to the state.

Administrators reassigned the counselor to another school after they discovered the employee had been cooperating with the investigation, the report said.

For the past three years, a group of L.G.B.T. students in North Bend have met in private once a week to discuss their experiences. Last fall, gay and lesbian activists also held a community meeting at the county museum to discuss discrimination in the area.

"Kids can be cruel, and it's coddled," said Alan Brown, a gay activist in the area who helped organize the community event, where one of the students spoke about her experiences at North Bend High School. "I experienced my own harassment growing up here."

Shortly after the youth weekly meetings began, the two students who later filed the complaints started to show up and share their stories, said the Rev. Israel Jurich, a pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in North Bend who helped organize the events.

"It didn't surprise me to hear the stories that these students shared," Pastor Jurich said in an interview. "But the severity of it surprised me a little bit."

Pastor Jurich said he had been helping the two students through his church. The students are not seeking monetary damages from the district, he said, but wanted North Bend officials to better train school employees and enforce its existing anti-bullying policy.

"The policy is great, but it doesn't matter if it's not enforced," he said.

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L.G.B.T. Students in Oregon Were Bullied and Forced to Read Bible, Report Says

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In the hallways of a rural Oregon high school, gay and lesbian students were taunted with homophobic slurs. In the cafeteria, students pelted a transgender student with food. And when gay and lesbian students got into trouble, the school's principal assigned a specific punishment just for them: readings from the Bible.