Michelle Renee: This month TCLA is looking at how important it is for students to feel that their backgrounds and lifestyles are respected. What role can legislation play in guaranteeing all students receive this respect?

Sheila Kuehl: The first element of respect is to make certain that students are protected from discrimination, harassment, and violence, and we have gone pretty far in California in enacting laws to protect students against [this] unequal treatment. The next step is to celebrate the enormous diversity of our student population as a strength for the state, school district, or particular classroom. Those affirmations are not necessarily embedded in law; but they encourage [learning] about the value of diversity and each other’s cultures, languages, and knowledge.

MR: Do you remember learning about the Brown decision in school?

SK: I started elementary school before Brown v Board of Education. The only thing I think we ever did was to celebrate those Indians who sat down and ate with the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving. That wasn’t knowledge or understanding about Native Americans. With Brown and various Civil Rights legislation in the following decade, the law became important for guaranteeing equal treatment in schools, and diversity came to be seen as positive.

MR: Would you describe some of the changes you have seen that were brought about through legislation?

SK: At first [legislation] was mostly about race. Then there began to be an understanding that there was also a big difference in how boys and girls were treated, so we added protections in terms of gender. Then we understood that ethnicity and language related to people being treated differently, so we added those categories. And just recently, in 1999, we added the category of sexual orientation, having realized that gay students were treated quite differently and were not protected in any way by the schools.

I think legislation is effective, but of course, like with everything else, it relies on the good will and enforcement of the individual administrators and teachers in the school. In some schools teachers won’t tolerate harassing language or violence of any kind against students. In some schools teachers just turn a blind eye. The law is important because it gives you a tool to hold schools accountable, but much depends on whether the school administration and teachers are serious about a safe school environment. A few years ago, there was a law that schools had to have a school safety plan to protect against guns, fires, police coming on campus, etc. But it did not cover keeping students safe from harassment and violence based on discrimination. So we passed a bill requiring school safety plans to include a plan for dealing with harassment and violence based on discrimination. As I indicated, that law is more effective in some schools than others.

MR: What would you suggest to students or parents who want to decrease harassment and violence in schools?

SK: Parents and students should have a zero tolerance policy in their personal lives. [They should] speak up for students who are being harassed—not stand by and let it happen. [They should] feel that it’s their place to speak up when a child is being hurt. Parents who know that their student is being discriminated against or harassed should immediately report it and be very insistent because there are laws in place saying such things are not supposed to happen.

MR: How does a young person be insistent? You and I can say that to each other, but what do you say to a student who might feel that adults don’t care?

SK: I know it’s really scary, but standing up for your rights turns out to be very satisfying, even when it’s very hard. It’s the only thing that makes the law work in America. Sometimes, with gay students for instance, when they get harassed, teachers try to convince them that it’s their own fault for being out. They are afraid to talk to their parents about it. But there has been a real growth on campuses of the Gay-Straight Alliance movement, which includes straight kids who are intolerant of discrimination. Just as White people did during the Civil Rights Movement, [the straight students] decided to stand up for their friends and against discrimination. One student and then two students and then three students, it really helps if you are not all by yourself.

MR: So it’s important to understand people who are different from you, and it’s also important to understand your own, individual actions.

SK: Exactly, that’s right. Sex education is another important aspect of diversity that helps people understand their own actions. So with [SB 71] legislators brought all the different sections relating to sex education and HIV/AIDS education into one part of the code. We tried to set some standards for teaching that would be medically accurate and not exhibit bias prohibited by anti discrimination statutes. For instance, we want to teach medically accurate sex education without gender bias. So you wouldn’t be teaching that boys have no responsibility in terms of sex and that it’s all up to girls. That’s not medically accurate, and it’s not socially accurate. To say that only one half of the world has all the responsibility [is a bias].

MR: You’ve worked to create schools that challenge bias and discrimination. Why does this matter?

SK: When we are talking about an environment free of harassment and discrimination, we are talking about piece of mind. We can’t tolerate a system where students wake up in the morning with the deepest dread about going to school because they know that they are going to be beat up one more time, [that] they are going to be harassed in every class and in between classes everyday. Every student has the right to pursue their education free from intimidation.