For the record: Parentadvocates opposes discrimination against and/or harassment of anyone. All students in New York City schools must be treated with respect, no matter what his or her ethnic, religious, or sexual orientation is. We protest the lack of preventive actions taken by either Mayor Bloomberg or Mr. Joel Klein as children are continuously beaten up in our public schools for being gay, not having white skin, or whatever.

New York's Asian-Pacific origin students regularly harassed
May 24, 2008
LINK

NEW YORK: Nearly 85,000 high school students of Asian-Pacific origin in New York regularly face race-based harassment and the affect of this on their mental health is often overlooked due to the common belief that the community is a model minority group, a survey has found.

The survey of American students of Asian-Pacific origin was conducted in 12 public schools across New York. It was designed by the Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP), a youth leadership project of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF).

More than half of the 260 students who participated in the survey reported being verbally harassed at school or during their commute to school, 69 per cent witnessed harassment at their school, and almost 80 per cent thought that race is a factor in harassment.

The findings of the survey and recommendations on reducing harassment and addressing mental health issues in schools were released at a community briefing Friday by the CACF, a pan-Asian children's advocacy organisation that aims to improve the health and well-being of Asian American children and families in New York.

The survey said the New York City Council's Dignity in All Schools Act on preventing bias-based harassment has not been implemented by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration and the department of education.

The survey report said "students continue to be threatened with mental, emotional, and physical harm", making it difficult for them to learn and grow in an environment that is not safe and supportive.

The CACF has also challenged the popular view that the Asian-Pacific American community - consisting of South Asians, East Asians, Southeast Asians and Pacific islanders - is an overachieving community. They are the fastest growing community in the city, constituting 12 percent of the city's population, but many of them are immigrants struggling with poverty and limited English skills.

Students of Asia-Pacific origin make up over 13 per cent of the city's 1.1 million students. But one in five students learning English is an Asian, one in four Asian-Pacific American students lives below the poverty line, and one in four does not graduate from high school on time or at all.

To reduce harassment in schools, ASAP has recommended mandatory staff training by the education department. This would equip them to address harassment and build a school culture of tolerance, acceptance, and respect for all.

ASAP has also recommended conducting workshops for students on harassment prevention and awareness, and establishing clear and defined procedures in schools for responding to harassment.

The student body found that the mental health concerns of Asian-Pacific American students are often overlooked because of the stereotypical image that they are overachievers.

Confirming that they face barriers to access mental health services, ASAP said they need accessible, approachable, culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services in their schools.

Among ASAP's recommendations are increasing mental health awareness among school staff and students, increasing availability of brochures on mental health services in schools, adding mental health education to the curriculum and building more school-based health clinics within each of the five city boroughs.

City Council's Press Release on the Passing of DASA June 28, 2004

YouTube - Student Discusses the Need for Dignity in All Schools Act
YouTube - NYC Youth Talks About the Need For DASA

NYC Comptroller William Thompson supports DASA:
September 9, 2004 212-669-3747 :
“DASA sends a powerful message of tolerance to youth across New York City. I am hopeful that it will make schools safe havens by preventing hostile conditions from threatening student safety, interfering with learning and precluding students from reaching their full academic potential.”

“Harassment breeds fear, intolerance and even hatred, from which we have a fundamental obligation to protect our City’s children. This measure is one tool we can give teachers, school administrators and students to encourage the best possible education.”

GLSEN Hails New York City Council’s Overwhelming Passage of Dignity In All Schools Act
Lamont, Josh - Media Contact, jlamont@glsen.org (email) 212.727.0135 x136 (office)
Jun 29, 2004
NEW YORK, NY – The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, today hailed the overwhelming passage by the New York City Council of the Dignity In All Schools Act. The bill passed 45-3 and now needs Mayor Bloomberg’s signature to ensure protections for all people from bias-harassment on school property.

“The New York City Council today set a positive example for the rest of the state and indeed the nation,” noted GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings. “The veto-proof passage of this bill sends a clear signal to New Yorkers that the city is committed to ensuring that schools are safe and effective environments for all those who set foot on school property. Since 75% of American students still go to schools in states that do not ensure the safety of all students, we call on the mayor to immediately sign the bill and for the state of New York to follow the city’s lead by passing the statewide Dignity for All Students Act which has been debated without signing for more than four years.”

The Dignity In All School Act covers all people, including students, faculty, volunteers and visitors, from bias-harassment on school property based on factors including religion, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin, disability, academic performance, or any other physical characteristic. The bill covers all public schools along with private non-parochial schools and includes training for principals on how to address bullying and harassment in their schools. Each school will compile an annual report to the Department of Education, which will document the number of bullying incidents, the type of bullying and how it was addressed. This will provide an annual snapshot of what sort of bullying is taking place in NYC schools.

GLSEN’s 2004 State of the States report recently noted that 42 states, including New York State, receive failing grades when it comes to ensuring safe and effective school environments for all students, particularly lesbian, bay, bisexual and transgender students. The New York City Dignity In All Schools Act sets an example for the New York State legislature to emulate to join the growing roster of states that have taken steps to protect all students from bias and harassment.

GLSEN’s 2003 National School Climate Survey found that LGBT students who did not have (or did not know of) a policy protecting them from violence and harassment were 40% more likely to report skipping school out of fear for their personal safety. 4 out of 5 LGBT students report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation – while 83% of LGBT students note that faculty and staff never or only rarely intervene when they are present and homophobic remarks are made.

About GLSEN
GLSEN, or the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Established nationally in 1995, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. For more information on GLSEN’s educational resources, public policy agenda, student organizing programs or development initiatives, visit the online library at www.glsen.org.

07/01/2004
Council Passes School Anti-Bullying Bill
No word on whether Bloomberg will challenge decisive majority on Dignity measure
By NICHOLAS BOSTON, Gay City News
LINK

On Monday, June 28, the New York City Council passed the Dignity in All Schools Act (DASA) by a 45-3 vote.
The legislation, authored by Councilmember Alan Gerson and strongly backed by Eva Moskowitz, chair of the Council’s Education Committee, and a lesbian, Christine Quinn, all Manhattan Democrats, covers all people on school property, students and non-students alike, from bullying and harassment based on race, disability, and sexual orientation, among other specified categories. The inclusion of gender identity, encompassing transgendered expression, among the protected categories is notable.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has 30 days to either sign or veto the bill. The mayor has not yet stated whether his intentions, but given his administration’s reluctance to cooperate during committee hearings on the bill, a veto is not unexpected, despite several weeks of negotiations Moskowitz and Gerson held with Department of Education officials prior to bringing the measure to a final vote.
Council leaders have stated clearly that they would override a mayoral veto.
“I am so proud of the Council for stepping up to the plate and passing this important legislation,” said Gerson. “Through establishing anti-harassment policies and procedures, we will send the message that bullying is unacceptable in our schools... and ensure that all students are given the chance to reach their full potential.”
Through two Council hearings and subsequent rounds of negotiations, the Department of Education consistently sought to convince councilmembers that the aims of the legislation were already part of city policy and that a bill mandating the same procedures was unnecessary. However, after repeated requests, the Department remained unable to supply the Council with proof of its assertions.
One point of particular contention was the section of the legislation that compels the Department of Education to systematically track individual incidents of harassment. School administrators will be required to keep records on the reporting and nature of complaints and the department will be responsible for maintaining a “centralized, statistical summary of cases.” During hearings on the bill, councilmembers expressed disappointment about how little persuasive data the city had on incidents of harassment.
“We all know that keeping statistics on a problem is the first step in solving the problem,” said Gerson. “It’s not the keeping of the information per se that’s important, but what follows from it that is important.”
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department issued a court order requiring the city is Department of Education to adopt and follow specific procedures to monitor and address harassment in a Queens high school where students’ reports of racial harassment had been virtually ignored.
City Council insiders said they believed the scandal brought the Department of Education to the bargaining table with greater attention to the matter than it had formerly shown. In the end, though, negotiations do not seem to have satisfied the measure’s proponents on the Council.
“The congratulations lie with the community,” said Gerson
The Dignity Coalition, an advisory body to the sponsors of DASA, comprised representatives from local and national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organizations, including the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, led by Kevin Jennings.
“Since 75 percent of American students still go to schools in states that do not ensure the safety of all students, we call on the mayor to immediately sign the bill and for the state of New York to follow the city’s lead by passing the statewide Dignity for All Students Act, which has been debated without signing for more than four years,” Jennings said.
On the same day that DASA was passed, GLSEN released its 2004 “State of the States” report, summarizing state laws that affect school environments and school safety for LGBT students and others. The report found that the vast majority of students do not have legal protections against anti-LGBT bullying and harassment; only eight states and the District of Columbia currently have statewide legal protections for students, based on sexual orientation; and only California, Minnesota, and New Jersey, include protections based on gender identity and expression.
“Bias-related violence in schools is a national epidemic—that’s what I think we have to stress,” said Alice Leeds, communications director of PFLAG, or Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, a national group whose New York chapter was part of the Dignity Coalition. “How could somebody not vote for something called the ‘Dignity in All Schools Act’?”
Pauline Park, co-chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, a Dignity Coalition member, said, “This is the first bill that the New York City Council has passed since passing [the transgender rights bill] two years ago that extends the definition of gender... In that regard, the City DASA bill represents a significant victory for the transgender community.”
“DASA fulfills our responsibility to our kids to provide them with safe schools where they can learn without being bullied or intimidated,” said Moskowitz.
Asked her opinion of the possibility that Bloomberg will veto the bill, Quinn said, “Considering that his administration is existing under a court order to enforce anti-harassment procedures in schools, this is not the time for the Bloomberg administration to be stepping away from a piece of legislation like this.”

07/29/2004
Mayor Vetoes Bullying Measure
By NICHOLAS BOSTON, Gay City News
LINK

Council sponsor Alan Gerson vows an override on August 12
The mayor’s letter asserted that the proposed legislation, named the Dignity in All Schools Act, or DASA, is “inconsistent with State law that authorizes and directs the [Schools] Chancellor [Joel Klein] to adopt and implement policies to prevent harassment.”
The Bloomberg administration maintains that the State Education Law, the Department of Education’s Discipline Code and the DOE’s Chancellor’s Regulations all address the terms and procedures laid out in DASA.
“Providing a safe school environment is a high priority for this Administration and a goal that the Chancellor and I share with the Council,” wrote the mayor.
But Council backers of the bill, which received lopsided support of 45-3 when it was voted on June 28, say that the provisions of the bill are either not present in existing citywide statutes or not adequately enforced by the Department of Education. In addition, no current legislation pertaining to bullying and harassment in schools mentions the category of “gender identity or expression,” leaving transgendered students and staff out in the cold, the measure’s advocates argue.
DASA, which has transgender-inclusive language, would, among its key provisions, develop rules to specifically prohibit bullying and harassment; train school officials and staff to systematically address the problem; develop mechanisms for the tracking and reporting of such incidences and, incorporate discrimination awareness and sensitivity into education materials and presentations.
In negotiations between the Council and the Department of Education leading up to the Council’s passage of DASA, the DOE did not fulfill promises to produce satisfying evidence that it monitors bullying and harassment in schools. Ironically, late last month, the federal Justice Department issued a court order requiring the city to follow virtually all the procedures set forth in DASA to correct a case of racial harassment in a Queens high school which had gone unaddressed for months.
The Bloomberg administration has said that it supports a state-level harassment bill. The Democratic-controlled Assembly and the Republican led Senate have been deadlocked for several years over the appropriate approach to this issue, with their differences in part revolving around the issue of protecting gender-variant youth. Gay City News recently reported that a compromise may be in the offing in Albany, though no action was taken when the Legislature reconvened briefly last week. Bloomberg has suggested to the Council that approval of a statewide bill would render a city bill redundant.
“It is an outrage that Mayor Bloomberg can support nearly identical language in legislation pending in Albany while vetoing this very necessary bill,” said Councilmember Alan Gerson (D-Lower Manhattan), the bill’s prime sponsor. “The hypocrisy and unwillingness of his administration to take the problem of bullying seriously is very troubling. Not only was his Department of Education only able to point to seven recorded incidents of bullying in all of last year, but they are unable, or unwilling, to enforce their own, inadequate policies to prevent harassment of students. Clearly, policies need to be spelled out more explicitly, chains of command and responsibility must be created and reporting mechanisms established. I continually reached out to the mayor and Chancellor Klein only to be met with promises to get back to me, and now he has vetoed the bill instead of taking proactive actions. I am very disappointed in his lack of leadership on this issue and look forward to Speaker [Gifford] Miller leading the Council in an override.”
Members of the Dignity Coalition, an ad-hoc committee composed of gay, lesbian and transgendered organizations as well as other youth advocates, which advised the Council on drafting of the bill, met with lawyers to discuss legal strategies to address the veto.
“We want to make sure that if we override the veto, and the mayor then files a lawsuit, do we have a good footing to stand on?” said Scott Melvin, gay liaison in Miller’s office.
Dirk McCall, Gerson’s chief of staff, was more definitive.
“We are overriding on August 12,” he said.
The City Council is currently on recess until September, but will meet on that day to decide on a land use issue.
According to regulation, the Council has 30 days within which to override a mayoral veto.
Many observers agree that in the event of a Council override, the Bloomberg administration will likely file a lawsuit challenging the law on the grounds that the Council overstepped its jurisdiction in passing legislation on this matter.
“The governing body of the New York City School District for this purpose is the Chancellor, not the City Council,” reads one passage from the mayor’s letter.
Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for the mayor, said that “it’s premature” for the mayor to consider “any court action on this,” but that “many components of this bill are preempted by state law and are illegal.”
“It is disappointing that the mayor chose to veto the Dignity for All Students Act, which responds to the very serious and real problem of unsafe schools that children and teachers face every day,” said Councilmember Eva Moskowitz (D-Upper East Side), who is currently on maternity leave from her position as chair of the Council’s committee on education. “The culture of our schools needs to change from the bottom up, so that we can deal effectively with the intolerance and bullying that could lead to violence and criminal conduct when kids grow up.”
“Unfortunately today the mayor used his ‘bully pulpit’ to empower bullies,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of GLSEN—the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, a member of the Dignity Coalition. “Where the data show that bullying, harassment, and discrimination are the rule of the land, this was a real missed opportunity to support and protect the students of New York City.”

09/16/2004
Council Overrides Very Glib Bloomberg
By NICHOLAS BOSTON , Gay City News
LINK

Adding insult to injury, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, having vetoed a bill passed by the City Council to protect students from harassment in city schools, called the measure a “silly law” that “doesn’t make sense,” just one day after the Council voted to override his veto.
The comment was made in an interview on the WKRS (98.7) radio program “Wakeup Club,” on Friday, September 10.
The previous day, the Council voted 44 to 3 to override Republican Bloomberg’s veto of the Dignity for All Schools Act (DASA), the second time in recent months that the Democratic-controlled body passed a measure of concern to the gay community over the mayor’s objection.
The legislation, authored by Councilmember Alan Gerson and strongly backed by Eva Moskowitz, chair of the Council’s Education Committee, and Christine Quinn, three Manhattan Democrats, covers all people on school property, students and staff, from bullying and harassment based on race, disability, and sexual orientation, among other specified categories. The inclusion of gender identity, encompassing transgendered expression, among the protected categories is notable.
The measure was backed by a broad coalition of community organizations interested in education and in protecting the rights and safety of sexual, racial and religious minorities.
The measure was originally passed by the Council, on a 45 to 3 vote, on June 28.
In early July, the mayor withheld his signature from the Council’s Equal Benefits Bill (EBB), which mandates that private sector companies with city contracts offer domestic partner benefits to employees on the same basis that spousal benefits are given. That veto was also overridden by a wide margin.
Concerns now center on the Bloomberg administration’s willingness to enforce the measure. The law establishes policies prohibiting harassment and creating a system for reporting such incidents.
During Moskowitz’s hearing on the bill during the past year, administration officials were generally cool to the concept, arguing that harassment policies are already in place, and that appropriate jurisdiction over such matters rests with the mayor and the state legislature, which has been considering, without result, similar legislation for several years.
But the administration, throughout the hearings process, was consistently unable to produce evidence that the schools are already effectively monitoring bullying and violent behavior.
One point of particular contention was the section of the legislation that compels the Department of Education to systematically track individual incidents of harassment. School administrators will be required to keep records on the reporting and nature of complaints and the department will be responsible for maintaining a “centralized, statistical summary of cases.” During hearings on the bill, councilmembers expressed disappointment about how little persuasive data the city had on incidents of harassment.
“We all know that keeping statistics on a problem is the first step in solving the problem,” said Gerson. “It’s not the keeping of the information per se that’s important, but what follows from it that is important.”
In the month prior to DASA’s passage, the U.S. Justice Department issued a court order requiring the city’s Department of Education to adopt and follow specific procedures to monitor and address harassment in a Queens high school where students’ reports of racial harassment had been virtually ignored.
City Council insiders said they believed the scandal brought the Department of Education to the bargaining table to preempt the effort at legislation by showing greater interest in the underlying issues than it had formerly demonstrated. In the end, though, negotiations did not satisfy the measure’s Council proponents and the legislation was voted on.
In the last week’s radio comments, Bloomberg said it is the job of teachers and principals “to judge when the horseplay gets out of hand.”
“Having a law to do it doesn’t make sense,” the mayor said.
Political analysts familiar with Bloomberg’s record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) issues say his actions are inconsistent with his progressive public image, particularly in the national media. Most recently, during the Republican National Convention, Bloomberg held a widely publicized reception at the Bryant Grill on 40th Street behind the Public Library for members of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization.
“Bloomberg politically has the good fortune of not being Rudolph Giuliani, who went after the Rainbow Coalition and who rode horses into [the] Mathew Shepard [protest]” said Ken Sherrill, a professor of political science at Hunter College, referring to the former mayor’s often contentious relationship with gay leaders. “Bloomberg looks good on most [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] issues compared to his predecessor. But how does he look compared to a Democratic opponent?”

City Council passes anti-bully law
By MIKE LAVERS,NY BLADE
Sep. 17, 2004
LINK

A bill that activists claimed would help protect gay and transgender students in particular from harassment has become a political football in New York City.
The New York City Council on Sept. 9, in a 44-3 vote, overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto of the Dignity in All Schools Act (known as DASA), which sponsors say would protect public school students from continued harassment and violence based on factors including sexual orientation and gender identity.

Responding to Bloomberg’s veto during a press conference on the steps of City Hall before Thursday’s, lead sponsor Alan Gerson (D-Lower Manhattan), blasted the mayor for not doing enough to protect New York City students. Gerson went even further and labeled Bloomberg a hypocrite for supporting an almost identical bill pending in the New York State Legislature sponsored by Assemblyman Steven Sanders (D-Manhattan) and Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan).

“We are poised to make New York City a leader in combating bias-based bullying and harassment,” he stated. “It is especially outrageous and hypocritical that Mayor Bloomberg vetoed this bill while professing to support nearly identical legislation in Albany.”

Other council members, including Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea) agreed and stated she feels Bloomberg’s veto of DASA is “unacceptable” and said the Mayor failed to “make a positive difference” in the lives of those who attend New York City public schools.

“DASA is an essential part of New York City fulfilling its most sacred responsibility — protecting the health and well being of our children,” she stated during the press conference.

Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Upper East Side) and other DASA supporters on the City Council, including Eva Moskowitz (D-East Side), who chairs the Education Committee, said it acted because both Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have not taken the issue of bias-related harassment and violence in the city’s schools seriously and they have not done enough to solve the problem.

“For schools to be places where every child in New York has the opportunity to learn, they must be places where every child feels safe,” Miller stated.

Despite the City Council’s nearly unanimous vote in favor of DASA in June, Bloomberg, wrote in a July 20 letter that it is “inconsistent with state law” and added the DOE already has policies and procedures in place which adequately address bullying.

In the same letter he said both he and the DOE are committed to protecting the more than one million students who attend public schools in New York City. “Providing a safe school environment is a high priority for this administration and a goal that the Chancellor and I share with the Council,” Bloomberg wrote.

Scott Melvin, the gay liaison to the City Council, disagreed and questioned whether Bloomberg is actually concerned about students’ safety. “The Mayor doesn’t care about kids,” Melvin told the Blade. “It’s unfair we have to override the Mayor’s veto of an exceptional bill that moves to protect kids and people inside DOE buildings from bullying.”

Other local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organizations who support DASA include the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educators Network (GLSEN), the Empire State Pride Agenda, the Bronx Lesbian and Gay Health Resource Consortium and the New York City chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. PFLAG, in a statement, criticized Bloomberg for vetoing the bill and praised the City Council for overriding his veto of the bill.

“DASA puts in place a long-needed plan to combat violence and harassment in schools,” Miriam Yeung of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village said. Yeung described students who are bullied and harassed. They then become depressed, express suicidal tendencies and abuse drugs and alcohol, she added. “The City Council’s override of the Mayor’s veto shows a real commitment to putting the well-being of children first,” Yeung said.

Pauline Park, co-chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, said the mayor, despite singing the New York City transgender rights bill into law in 2002 which banned discrimination based on gender identity and expression, has not done enough to protect transgender students who are not included the current DOE Discipline Code.

“Right now, neither the Department of Education nor the Bloomberg administration are doing anything concrete to address the often vicious harassment and sometimes even violent abuse of transgendered and gender-variant youth in our city’s schools,” she said.

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