Lawsuit: Mississippi school forced ‘pathetic dyke’ to use the boys’ bathroom

[DonViejo]

A civil rights organization filed a lawsuit on Tuesday after a Mississippi school district refused to change its policies that allegedly resulted in a lesbian student being bullied for months.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said on Tuesday that it had met with Mississippi’s Moss Point School District in March to ask officials to change policies because Destin Holmes had been bullied to the point of attempting suicide.

“We are disappointed that the district fails to see the serious harm its deliberate inaction causes its students,” SPLC staff attorney Anjali Nair said on Tuesday. “District officials who are entrusted with the safety and education of all students not only ignored, dismissed and even blamed victims for the abusive behavior of faculty and other students, they also participated in discriminatory acts.”


According to the lawsuit, the anti-LGBT comments started after Holmes enrolled at Magnolia Junior High in 2011. The complaint said that teachers would call her a “he/she” and she was forced to use the boys’ restroom. Students regularly referred to her as “dyke,” “lesbo” and “dyke-ass freak.”

After meeting with Holmes’ father in March 2012, Assistant Principal LaJuna Payton brought the student in for a talk and called her a “pathetic fool,” and said, “I don’t want a dyke in this school.”

Holmes’ father later met with the principal again and realized that the school’s hostility gave him no choice but to homeschool his daughter.

“We’re asking that the district to create policies and procedures that will hold the district accountable for responding and investigating reports of harassment. We’re also seeking financial relief for Destin and her family for the harm that she suffered,” Nair told WLOX.

For her part, Destin said she hoped that school officials would “open up their mind and realize you don’t need to bully somebody just because they want to date girls or they want to be gay, or they want to be lesbian, or bi, or a transgender. I’m hoping it will just stop.”

The district said that it could not comment to the lawsuit, but it placed the “highest priority” on “(p)rotecting our students from acts of bullying, harassment, intimidation and threats by any individual.”

Watch this video from WLOX, broadcast Dec. 17, 2013.

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/18/lawsuit-mississippi-school-forced-pathetic-dyke-to-use-the-boys-bathroom/

Full article posted with permission of Raw Story

[FrodosPet]

1. Helping impoverished African Americans overcome homophobia is a challenge

On the GD thread about this story at http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4194778 there are a number of people calling for the financial destruction of the district and the families attending. The term affluenza was even used as a cause.

But reality check - we are not talking about rich white kids, or even middle class teabagger kids. According to what I could find on the district, it is over 70% African American, with nearly 70% of the students on free or subsidized lunches.

Are people really prepared to A. make these children's life even more miserable by further degrading their educational opportunities and B. further the schism between the LGBT community and the working class and impoverished African American community?

[dbackjon]

3. So we should just excuse it?

Let the poor "dyke" kill her self because we don't want to offend a bunch of ignorant assholes, because they are poor and black?

[FrodosPet]

4. Not quite sure where I said that

My heart goes out for this young lady. I too was a outsider in school - the brainy nerd, playing with his shortwave radios and reading classical literature while my classmates were bullies and creeps.

My point is that people have to tread lightly about who and how this reprehensible situation is handled, so as not to hurt the kids who are innocent, and to perhaps help the young kids who hear this crap in their homes to learn respect for others.

Get rid of the guilty principal and any others who help perpetuate this, perhaps even file charges if a good case can be made. But don't carpet bomb every kid's future, and remove what microscopic chance they may have to better their situation and their attitudes.

[dbackjon]

2. They all need to be fired

Teachers, Principals, every one.

Teaching licences revoked.


Branded as sexual predators, so they can never be around children again.