Schools crack down any behavior that smacks of sex
From bans on hugging to labeling comments as sexual harassment, schools are cracking down any behavior that smacks of sex. Critics say teachers and administrators have become too fearful of lawsuits and have stopped letting kids be kids. Recent precedent-setting lawsuits have made it clear that school officials must respond to complaints of student-on-student sexual harassment or face possible court action. "I think it's the kind of world we live in today, but you would hope that common sense would prevail," said Jeff Horner, a Houston attorney who represents school districts. Archie McAfee, executive director of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, said school principals and administrators are caught in the middle. If a school district punishes a student for what parents say is a minor offense, it faces scrutiny. But if a district doesn't take a complaint seriously, it could be held responsible. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that school districts can be held liable for ignoring complaints of student-on-student harassment or failing to protect students. In that case, Davis vs. Monroe County School Board of Education, the parent of a fifth-grade female student sued the school district for failing to intervene when a fellow fifth-grader harassed the girl for several months. In the court's eyes, the district had been negligent. Jim Walsh, an Austin lawyer who specializes in school law, said the case proved that sexual harassment is a legal concern, not just a moral and educational one.
An earlier case set the precedent for dealing with sexual harassment at the elementary level. In 1993, the U.S. Department of Education ruled against a school district in Eden Prairie, Minn., for not responding in a timely manner to a first-grade girl's complaints that a group of boys, ages 6 to 9, harassed her on the school bus. "The basic lesson learned was that sexual harassment can occur even among elementary-age children," said Mr. Walsh. But districts can also be criticized for taking too tough a stance. In a Duncanville case, a boy who told a girl to fix her bra strap during gym class was accused of sexual harassment, suspended for two days, and temporarily assigned to an alternative school. The district changed the offense to "bullying" after his parents complained that the sex-related charge was inaccurate and severe. Nan Stein, a senior research scientist at the Center for Research on Women at the Wellesley Centers for Women, urges school districts not to rush to judgment in sexual harassment cases. "Part of it is they have a rather loose, flexible concept of what's sexual harassment," she said. "I applaud their attention to the problem, but they need to do something proactively, not in response to."
Some administrators say the criticism of their policies is overblown. David Hadley, the principal at Fossil Hill Middle School in Keller ISD, argues his school's ban on hugging and hand-holding is not unreasonable. Fossil Hill made national headlines recently after a teacher chided eighth-grader Ashley Highberger for holding hands with a male friend. In response, Ashley started a petition drive to force the district to change its rules. "I can understand how a 25-minute hug or making out in the hallway would be PDA, but I don't see how holding hands is," she said. Dr. Hadley says bans on PDAs, public displays of affection, are common in school districts nationwide. And he adds that his district's rule is not as rigid as it seems. If someone is grieving a lost loved one, for example, a hug is acceptable. He said zero-tolerance policies can go too far, and he believes any enforcement should be coupled with good judgment. School administrators in Texas do have more flexibility these days. In 2005, state legislators passed a bill that gives principals and superintendents more latitude in dealing with violations of the student code of conduct. The bill allows districts to consider a student's disciplinary history, or lack of it, when meting out punishment. "I don't know where you draw the line," Mr. McAfee said. "It just has to be done in such a way that people are using common sense. It's a fine line administrators have to walk."
Dallas Morning News By Stella M. Chavez
[Editor’s Note: A California federal district court recently upheld a school district’s disciplining of a student for inappropriate public displays of affection. The district succeeded in convincing the court that the rule, while less categorical than those reported above, was not so "amorphous" that it was not understood by employees and students. See below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Nguon v. Wolf