LAFAYETTE, LA—After a 7-year-old boy was scolded in front of his classmates and sent to a school behavioral clinic for answering another child’s questions about his lesbian mothers, the American Civil Liberties Union last week demanded that the school expunge the boy’s disciplinary records and stop restricting him from talking about his family with other students.
‘I was concerned when the assistant principal called and told me my son had said a word so bad that he didn’t want to repeat it over the phone,’ said Sharon Huff, the second-grader’s mother.
She added, ‘But that was nothing compared to the shock I felt when my little boy came home and told me that his teacher had told him his family is a dirty word. No child should ever hear that, especially not from a teacher he trusted and respected.’
Marcus McLaurin was waiting in line to go to recess Nov. 11 at Ernest Gallet Elementary School when a classmate asked him about his mother and father.
He responded that he didn’t have a mother and father; instead he has two mothers.
When the other child asked why, Marcus told him that it was because his mother is gay.
The other child then asked what that meant, and Marcus explained, ‘Gay is when a girl likes another girl.’
Upon hearing this, Marcus’s teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, telling him that ‘gay’ is a bad word and he should never say it at school, then sent him to the principal’s office instead of letting him go to recess.
The following week the school required Marcus to attend a special behavioral clinic at 6:45 in the morning, where he was forced to repeatedly write ‘I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again.’
‘To tell a 7-year-old boy that he can’t talk about his family not only makes that child feel confused and hurt—it violates his Constitutional right to free speech and equal treatment,’ said Ken Choe, a staff attorney from the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. ‘At the ACLU we often deal with schools that mistreat gay children and children who have gay parents, but this is beyond the pale.’
On a student behavior contract form that Marcus had to fill out and give to his mother about the incident, Marcus wrote that the thing he did wrong was that he ‘sed bad wurds.’ A handwritten note at the top of the form from Marcus’s teacher further explains: ‘He explained to another child that you are gay and what being gay means.’
On a behavior report form signed by the assistant principal, the teacher wrote, ‘Marcus decided to explain to another child in his group that his mom is gay. He told the other child that gay is when a girl likes a girl. This kind of discussion is not acceptable in my room. I feel that parents should explain things of this nature to their own children in their own way.’
‘Of course we believe that parents should be the ones who talk with small children about things like sex, but Marcus McLaurin’s school seems to think that he was talking about sex when all he was talking about was his two mothers,’ said Joe Cook, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana. ‘The fact is that there are children of lesbian and gay parents in schools throughout Louisiana, and those children have the same right as any other children to talk about their families.’
In its letter to the principal of Ernest Gallet Elementary School, the ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project and the ACLU of Louisiana demand that the school remove all mentions of the incident from Marcus’s disciplinary record and refrain from restricting his speech in the future, and offer apologies to Marcus and his mother.
The Family Pride Coalition condemned the actions. ‘We join with the ACLU in calling for Marcus’s disciplinary records to be expunged and that school officials cease in their effort to restrict him from talking about his family,’ said Aimee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition. ‘We know that children flourish in classrooms and schools where they feel safe and their families are welcome. We offer the Family Pride Coalition as a resource to the administrators at the Ernest Gallet Elementary School to build the resources to better manage these natural occurrences within the school. All children deserve to feel protected and respected in their own schools.’
Appeals Court to Hear Woman’s Case Against Harrah’s Casino
A federal appeals court was expected to hear arguments last week in the case of a Reno woman who was fired from her job of 21 years as a bartender at Harrah’s Casino for not adhering to rigid sex stereotypes in the company’s new dress code.
Lambda Legal, as co-counsel for the woman, is arguing that women and men should be treated equally in the workplace and that employers cannot have policies forcing employees to fit extreme gender stereotypes.
In August 2000, Darlene Jespersen was fired from her position as a bartender at Harrah’s after the company enacted a new dress code, called the ‘Personal Best’ program, requiring all women in the beverage department to wear makeup, specified as foundation or powder, blush, lipstick and mascara, applied precisely the same way every day to match a photograph held by the supervisor. The only requirement for men is that they not wear any makeup of any kind.
Jespersen’s work had been excellent for two full decades, but she was fired once she failed to conform to the company’s rigid and outdated sex stereotypes, Lambda Legal said. ‘This is a classic sex discrimination case. ‘Harrah’s fired Darlene because she wouldn’t adhere to the most extreme stereotypes of women,’ said Jennifer C. Pizer, senior staff attorney in Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office.