CALIFORNIA – Last week, a Department of Education investigation found Tehachapi Unified School District was negligent in intervening in the harassment of Seth Walsh.
Walsh, a 13-year-old Jacobsen Middle School student, committed suicide in 2010 after he was the victim of severe harassment due to his nonconformity with gender stereotypes.
In a 20-page letter, the DOE found, “Although the District’s sexual harassment policy and regulation are consistent with the law with respect to sexual harassment, the District did not adhere to its own policy in addressing the multiple forms of notice it received with regard to the treatment of the student.”
As a result of this landmark ruling, the District is required to prevent and respond to gender-based harassment at its schools, and undertake district-wide efforts to eliminate the hostile environment resulting from the peer-on-peer harassment of any student. The School District will revise its policies related to sexual or gender-based harassment and will provide mandatory trainings on these types of harassment for all students, teachers, administrators and staff.
“This settlement is a huge and melancholy victory in the on-going fight for safe, supportive schools for all students, and the first closure of any kind in the cases that rocked the nation last fall,” said Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Executive Director Eliza Byard.
GLSEN said the District must also form an advisory committee made up of administrators, students and parents to advise the District on sex-based harassment. Other requirements include filing compliance reports, assessing the school’s harassment climate, continually monitoring for harassment and holding mandatory community and parent meetings.
In April, the Board of Education for the San Diego Unified School District unanimously approved a historic Bullying, Harassment and Intimidation Prohibition policy.
