Embracing Diversity in American Education: Understanding Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Issues in the Classroom

A critical issue faced by educational institutions in the twenty-first century is that of the ever-growing diversity of the student population. The concept of hegemony, created by a euro-centric view of the white heterosexual male dominated society of early America, is no longer practical in the modern world. So-called minority groups are outnumbering the preconceived majority in many large urban school districts, and the idea of inclusion is permeating the classroom, encompassing students of various learning and physical disabilities and facilitating their entrance into the mainstream world of education.

As a result, many of the traditional theories and practices of educational pedagogy are insufficient to cope with the increasing demands for diversified instruction. Areas of diversity are not limited to racial and ethnic characterization, but also include religious preference, disability status and, in recent years, sexual orientation. In order to provide a fully inclusive environment, educators must first be aware of the issue and also make a true commitment to open and unbiased acceptance.

The issue of the right of non-heterosexual students to receive an education in an environment that is free from harmful emotional and physical threats has come increasingly to the forefront. Bettina Boxall and Duane Noriyuki, staff writers for the Los Angeles Times, expose the serious nature of this issue in an article in the May 28, 1999 issue of the paper titled Harassment: Victims, once silent or ignored, now strike out against a favorite form of campus torment. He cites a student's own remembrances of her time in high school: “…the halls of the local high school, the words "faggot" and "dyke" were routinely uttered, about as often, Alana Flores remembers, as hello and goodbye".

These insulting words, along with death threats which included the pornographic image of a woman, bound and gagged, with her throat slit, were common occurrences for Flores and her fellow gay and lesbian classmates at Live Oak High School in San Jose, California. With regards to the specific incident surrounding the photo, which had been placed in Flores' locker, when she took the matter to the assistant principal, she was openly asked to identify herself as a lesbian and told that she was not to bring "bring me this trash anymore". The assistant principal later denied this remark.

To fight back against the torment that they were forced to endure, she and other students from the school, all now graduated, are suing the Morgan Hill School District for the role that they played by ignoring the fact that administrators and teachers at the school did nothing to stop the abuse. The suit was filed in 1998 in U.S. District Court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and San Jose attorney Diane Ritchie and mentions this as well as numerous other incidents of taunting in the classroom in which the teacher present did nothing to end the remarks. Ultimately, Torres, who was active in both dance and drama during her high school years, was so affected by the increasingly hostile nature of these threats that she turned down a scholarship to the California Institute for the Arts out of fear of leaving the safety of her supportive family.

Boxall and Noriyuki go on to state in the article that this case is only one of an ever increasing number of similar lawsuits being filed in the years between 1995 and 1999 against school districts around the country, noting that “…the lawsuit represents the latest frontier in school harassment issues--a legal front that gained ground this week when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school districts can be held liable in similar cases involving extensive sexual harassment of students by one another”. The article notes: “In the past decade a growing number of lawsuits have sought to hold schools accountable for student sexual harassment, arguing that it violates Title IX, the federal law barring sex discrimination in schools and colleges”.

Tamar Levin of the New York Times exposes another lawsuit in the making in the article Openly Gay Student's Lawsuit Over Privacy Will Proceed published on December 2, 2005. At issue in this case is Charlene Nguon, whose right to privacy was violated when the principal of Santiago High School in California disclosed Nguon's sexual orientation to Nguon's mother. An academically excellent honors student, Nguon was targeted by Principal Ben Wolf for the fact that she openly chose to hold hands with her girlfriend on the school grounds.

Although Nguon's parents proved to be supportive of her, Judge James V Selna of the Central District Court of California ruled that the defendant had a sufficient premise from which to assert that her rights to privacy had been violated. Christine Sun, ACLU attorney involved in the case, noted the significance of this ruling from the standpoint that the issue of Charlene's parents as supportive of their daughter id not the case. Coming out is a difficult choice for a person to make, and that choice should never be taken away from the individual involved.