By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

The Feb. 12 shooting of California junior high school student Lawrence King, who was shot by a 14-year-old classmate for being gay, has prompted Chicago Public Schools to remind district principals about the district’s anti-discrimination policy.

CPS does not, however, plan on changing its policies that make GLBT-focused sensitivity training available to staff and students only at the discretion of school principals.

According to the 2005 Chicago Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every two years by CPS, 8.8 percent of CPS students identified as GLB and reported same-sex sexual contact and 2.5 percent were unsure of their sexuality. The survey doesn’t include information on transgender students.

The CYRBS was conducted in 22 randomly selected high schools, with 941 students in grades 9-12 participating. Because of the high response rate, the results can be generalized to schools across the city, according to the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance.

Shannon Sullivan, executive director of ISSA, said she sees a willingness at the top levels of CPS’ administration to find out how many GLB students are in the schools and how many have been targeted for violence. By even conducting the survey, Sullivan said, “CPS has been committed to finding out about these students and sending that data along to us.”

Furthermore, according to CPS officials, CEO Arne Duncan has sent a message to school principals in response to the California shooting.

In the message, Duncan cited the CYRBS and said, “I am asking each of you to commit to enforcing the Board’s anti-discrimination policy, amended in January, which calls upon us to provide a learning environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, where students are treated with respect and dignity so that they can pursue academic excellence.”

The message continued, “When you hear homophobic remarks, such as ‘that is so gay,’ or name calling, such as ‘faggot’ or ‘dyke,’ let students know that they are hurtful, that they are prohibited by the Student Code of Conduct, and that you will not tolerate them. If you see a young person struggling with or questioning his/her sexual orientation, be supportive or refer them to someone who will be.”

Duncan’s message was accompanied by an electronic copy of a manual meant to function as a primer on GLBT issues. CPS officials did not say when the undated message went out.

CPS’ anti-discrimination policy protecting gay and lesbian students has been on the books since 1997. Currently gender identity is not a specified category in the policy. Ken Papineau, director of Coordinated Health Services for CPS, said last week that he is not aware of any movement to change the policy in that respect.

While Sullivan praised many of CPS’ efforts, she said that GLBT students are still hindered by the principal’s role as gatekeeper to the curriculum. If a principal does not see the pertinence of training for staff and students, GLBT students in that school are essentially out of luck, no matter the position of the CPS administration, according to Sullivan.

“At the end of the day,” Sullivan said, “80 to 90 percent of our work is getting principals and assistant principals to be reactive and proactive on this.”

Making the final determinations on curriculum is a role that CPS has historically left with principals, who are better attuned, Papineau said, to the wishes of the community and local school boards.

“CPS has adopted the philosophy that the principal is the academic leader within the individual buildings,” Papineau said.

But Sullivan said that principals who ignore GLBT trainings and curriculum for that reason are capitulating to “a vocal minority—a very loud minority, but a minority nonetheless.”

ISSA does approximately 20 to 30 trainings at CPS high schools each year.

“It’s hard to work systematically, school by school,” Sullivan said.

She added that CPS should put into place an institutionalized requirement to educate school staff on GLBT concerns and have GLBT subjects integrated into the curriculum.

CPS has to better “monitor, implement and fund professional development for these policies,” Sullivan said.

Papineau said CPS has, for its part, increased accessibility to curriculum materials and resources that instructors can use.

“What I am seeing take place is a change in practice and a change in response,” he said.

The materials can be downloaded from CPS and are pre-approved by the administration. Similarly, schools can engage pre-approved speakers from community organizations such as Howard Brown Health Center or BEHIV.

Papineau admitted, however, that if a principal has not approved those parts of the curriculum, GLBT students are on their own to access pertinent materials, and will hopefully turn to a sympathetic instructor or guidance counselor.

Thus, CPS has more work to do, according to Sullivan, because that also means there are CPS students who are not being reminded that harassing GLBT classmates is unacceptable.

“There’s a real urgency to these issues,” Sullivan said. “It’s imperative that schools get beyond their hesitancy. It’s not a matter of time and money—we provide professional development for free, and (they) can make time for this.”