This document provides an overview of legal responsibilities and best practices for promoting safe and inclusive schools. It discusses: - Federal and California laws prohibiting discrimination and harassment in schools based on characteristics like gender, disability, and sexual orientation. - Examples of prohibited behaviors like name-calling and threats. - New laws like AB 1266 ensuring transgender students' access to programs and facilities. - The impact of harassment on students and importance of addressing it promptly. - Strategies and exercises for schools to comply with laws and support all students.

1. ACSA’s ECCS:!
iLearn, iGrow, iSucceed
Safe Schools:
It Takes A Village
January 15, 2014!
!
Presented by:!
Cole Dalton, Esq.!
Dalton Law Group, PC!
Topics
• School Districts’ Legal Responsibilities
Under California & Federal Law
• Examples of Prohibited Behavior
• Implementing AB 1266
• Impact of Harassment
• Exercises to Aid Compliance
Video
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Legislative Declarations
• Combat racism, sexism and other forms
of bias
• Prevent & respond to acts of hate
violence and bias-related incidents in an
urgent manner
• Teach & inform students of rights to
increase awareness/understanding &
promote tolerance and sensitivity

2. CA LAW - EQUAL RIGHTS
All pupils have the right to
participate fully in the
educational process, free
from discrimination and
harassment.
(Cal. Ed. Code § 200, 201(a))
California Law
• Equal Protections under CCR:
• Educational environment;
• Extracurricular and club activities;
• Retaliation.
• Dress Code.
(Source: 5 CCR § 4900, et seq.)
APPLIES REGARDLESS OF:
• disability
• gender, gender identity or
gender expression
• nationality
• race or ethnicity
• religion
• sexual orientation
• Sexual Orientation
• Gender Identity
• Gender Expression
• Gender Non-Conforming
Common Language
What Do We Mean By:

3. Gender Identity
• gender "means sex, and includes a
person's gender identity and gender
related appearance and behavior
whether or not stereotypically associated
with the person's assigned sex at birth."
Ed. Code § 210.7
Applies To Heterosexual Students
Prohibits discrimination & harassment based
upon:
•“actual
•sexual
or perceived”
orientation & gender identity.
• (AB 537, California Student Safety & Violence Prevention Act of 2000);
• (AB 777)
• 5 CCR 4910(k)
• Cal. Ed. Code § 210.2, 210.7, 212.5, 212.6
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What Is It?
• “conduct based on protected status
• that is severe or pervasive,
• which unreasonably disrupts one’s
educational or work environment
• or that creates a hostile educational or
work environment.”
(Student Safety & Violence Prevention Act of 2000;
Cal. Ed. Code § 201(c).)
Graphic & Written Statements
Can Include Use Of Cell Phones & Internet
What Does That Mean?
Name Calling
Verbal Acts
Any Conduct That May Be Physically
Threatening, Harmful or Humiliating
(Dear Colleague Letter, 55 IDELR 174 (OCR 2010)

4. Seth’s Law (7/1/12)
New(er) CA Mandate
“If school personnel witness an act of
discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or
bullying, he or she shall take immediate
steps to intervene when safe to do so.”
(Education Code Section 234.1(b)(1))
Affirmative Duties: Personnel
• School personnel are to take
immediate steps to intervene, when
safe to do so,
• If s/he witnesses an act of
discrimination, harassment,
intimidation, or bullying.
(Ed. Code § 234.1)
Affirmative Duties: Policies
• Adopt a policy that prohibits
discrimination, harassment, intimidation
and bullying based on actual or
perceived enumerated characteristics
(Ed. Code § 234, et seq.)
Affirmative Duties: Policies
• Post policies in schools & offices,
staff lounges & rooms that hold
student government meetings
• Publicize policies to parents,
students, employees, agents of the
governing board and the general
public
(Ed. Code § 234, et. seq.)

5. • Locker Rooms: Oh no you don’t
• Clubs: You can not start a club with
those people
• Prom rules
• Hateful slurs addressed inconsistently
• School response gone awry
Discriminatory Policies
• Dress Codes: Go home and take
that off!
Discriminatory Policies
• Displays of affection: YOU can’t do
that here
Affirmative Duties: Complaints
• Adopt & implement a complaint
process
• To receive, investigate and resolve
• Complaints of discrimination,
harassment, intimidation, and bullying
(Ed. Code § 234, et. seq.)
Affirmative Duties: Complaints
• Timeline to investigate and resolve
complaints
• Appeal process
• Maintenance of complaint & resolution
documents
• Protection & confidentiality
• Designation of compliance officer
(Ed. Code § 234, et. seq.)

6. AB 1156
(amends 32261, 32282, 32283, 46600 and 48900)
• encourages inclusion of policies
aimed at prevention of bullying
& cyberbullying in school safety
plan
• victims given priority to transfer
to new school district
FAIR Education Act
• Signed into law on July 14, 2011
• Compels inclusion of political, economic &
social contributions of LGBT people in
textbooks & social studies curricula in CA
public schools
• Prohibits schools from sponsoring negative
activities about sexual orientation or
teaching students about it in an adverse way
Another New Law:
AB 1266
•Enacted August 12, 2013
•Requires that transgender students be
permitted to participate in sex-segregated
school programs and activities, and use
facilities consistent with their gender
identity, irrespective of the gender listed on
the pupil’s records
(Amendment to Ed. Code § 221.5)
Colorado School Board Member:
“Not In This District”
“I don’t have a
problem if some
boys think they are
girls, I’m just saying
as long as they can
impregnate a
woman, they’re not
going to go in the
girls’ locker room.”

7. Brain Storming
Federal Law
•
U.S. Constitution • First Amendment
• Fourteenth Amendment
•
Equal Access Act
•
Title IX of Education
Amendments of 1972
(2003)
Congress shall make no law...abridging the
freedom of speech...or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble
First Amendment
and to petition the government for a
redress of grievances.
• No state shall make or enforce any
law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States;
• nor shall any state...deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.
(see Flores v. Morgan Hill Unified School District, 2003; Montgomery v. Independent
School District, 2000; Nabozny v. Podlesny, 1996)
Fourteenth Amendment, Art. 1
(Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 506
(1969); Doe v. Yunits, 2000; Fricke v. Lynch,1980; Henkle v. Gregory, 2001)

8. Title IX
Prohibits discrimination based on sex
But has been held to apply to sexual
harassment, regardless of gender
And gender based harassment
Applies regardless of the actual or perceived
sexual orientation or gender identity of the
harasser or target
•School official with authority to
address discrimination
•acts with deliberate indifference to
Title IX
Lawsuit
sexual harassment
•of which he/she has actual notice
and
•the sexual harassment is so severe,
pervasive, and objectively offensive
that it deprives the victim of access
to educational opportunities or
benefits.
(Ray v. Antioch Unified School District (N.D. Cal. 2000) 107 F.Supp.2d 1165; Davis v. Monroe
(1999) 526 US 629.)
Title IX Lawsuit - deliberate
indifference
• conscious disregard for a risk
• response to known peer harassment in
a manner that is clearly unreasonable.
(Flores v. Morgan Hill Unified School District, F.3d 1130 (9th Cir. 2003).)
Title IX Lawsuit
School officials may be
personally liable for
another’s harassment if
they are “aware of
specific risk of harm”
and they fail to take
reasonable steps.
(Flores v. Morgan Hill.)

9. Qualified Immunity
•Government officials
•Performing discretionary functions
•Entitled to qualified immunity from liability
for civil damages
•where “their conduct does not violate
clearly established statutory or constitutional
rights of which a reasonable person would
have known.”
(Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982) 457 U.S. 800, 818, Citing, Procunier v.
Navarette, 434 U.S. 555, 565 (1978); Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S., at 322.)
Almost half (38.3%) of students had been physically
harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual
orientation. (2011 National School Climate Survey)
Incidents of Harassment
Three in ten students (27.1%) were physically harassed
because of their gender expression.
(GLSEN 2011 National School Climate Survey)
1/4 of CA students are harassed because they are
not “as masculine as other guys” or “as feminine as
other girls.”
Stephen Russel et al., California Sade Schools Coalition Research Brief
Impact of Harassment
• 3 times more likely to miss
school
• Lower Academic
Achievement
• Significantly Lower grade
point averages
• Depression
About 3.5 suicides in the US per day
11 teen suicides per day
Attempts by gay and lesbian youth account for up
to 30 % of all completed suicides. (www.thetrevorproject.org)
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are up to 4
times more likely to attempt suicide than
their heterosexual peers.
(Massachusetts Youth Risk Survey 2007)

10. Walk The Walk
“Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that
ever has.”
- Margaret Mead
Bystander
Upstander
Perpetrator
Exercises
What’s working?
What isn’t?
Walking the walk
Video - Exercise
Exercise:
5 Steps For Changing Behavior
On Campus
1. Address Immediately
2. Name The Behavior
3. Use/Create Teachable Moment
4. Support Targeted Student
5. Hold Students Accountable

11. Small Group Exercises
• Practice makes perfect!
January 20-24,
2014
October 19 - 25, 2014
http://www.cde.ca.gov
Resources
https://www.aclu.org/
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Good Bye!
Thanks
for
coming
!