Assemblymember Ammiano and LGBT Equality Organizations Co-Sponsor AB 9

Today, California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano will introduce a comprehensive bill that tackles school bullying by providing California schools with specific tools to prevent and address the pervasive problem in order to create a safe school environment for all students.

AB 9, also known as '''Seth's Law,' would ensure that every school in California implements updated anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and programs that include actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, as well as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, disability, and religion. It would also empower students and parents to know what their rights are, and how to advocate for them.

AB 9 is named '''Seth's Law' in memory of Seth Walsh, a 13 year-old gay student from Tehachapi, California, who took his own life in September 2010 after facing years of relentless anti-gay harassment at school that school officials effectively ignored.

Schools often do not have the tools or knowledge to adequately protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and others from bullying, which remains a serious issue across California and the rest of the nation. Students, parents, and school employees often don't know what the rules are or what to do if bullying occurs.

"As a former teacher, I know how important it is for our students to feel safe at school. Each day throughout California, LGBT youth experience harassment. I am proud to introduce this bill in honor of Seth Walsh, which will give schools the necessary tools to prevent any young person from being bullied, harassed or worse because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression,' said Assemblymember Tom Ammiano.

'''Seth was a wonderful, loving child, and I loved him for who he was. I can't bring my son back. But schools can make a difference today by taking bullying seriously when students and parents tell them about it. It's time for change. We have to create better schools for everyone,' said Wendy Walsh.

The bill is co-sponsored by a coalition of organizations advancing LGBT equality and justice ''' including the ACLU's California Affiliates, Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Gay-Straight Alliance Network.

'''Public schools have tremendous power and responsibility to protect students from bullying and harassment,' said James Gilliam, an attorney with the California Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union. '''Better school procedures and policies to prevent and address bullying will make a safer environment for students who are suffering, and can even save lives.'

"Everyday in California, many students go to school fearful of another day of harassment and intimidation with no hope of a better tomorrow," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California. "Seth's Law will give all students the tools to seek the help they need to keep them safe and make sure that educators combat bullying in our schools."

'''Bullying can have serious and tragic consequences, particularly for students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender,' said Carolyn Laub, Executive Director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. '''We must take pro-active steps to ensure that California's schools are safe for every student. Seth's Law will help schools protect students, and prevent and respond to bullying before a tragedy occurs.'

In a recent national survey, nine out of 10 LGBT students reported being harassed at school. The problem persists in California as well, with LGBT students reporting significant harassment. The California Safe Schools Coalition reported in 2010 that 42% of California students who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual and 62% who identify as transgender reported being harassed at least once based on gender non-conformity.

What's more, young people often face bullying and harassment based on what their peers perceive to be their sexual orientation, regardless of whether they identify as being LGBT. According to the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey 12% of 7th graders and 10% of 9th graders reported being harassed based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.

The consequences of bullying and harassment can include falling grades, depression, and risk of suicide. LGBT youth are three times as likely to seriously consider suicide as heterosexual youth.

"No child should fear going to school, and yet that is the daily reality for thousands of California students who face relentless harassment and bullying," said National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell. "It's our responsibility to make sure schools are taking active steps to address this problem and using the tools that we know will work to create true change. It is not enough to punish students who bully. We must create a school-wide culture of inclusion and respect for difference."

Under Seth's Law, every school district in the state would:

• Create strong and clear anti-harassment policies and programs, if they don't have them already.
• Have a system in place to ensure that all reports of harassment are taken seriously, addressed quickly, and that parents and students understand the process of making these complaints.
• Explain the harmful impact of bullying and discrimination to students and staff.
• Provide ongoing professional development for teachers, school counselors and administrators about identifying and stopping harassment and discrimination and creating a school-wide culture of inclusion and respect for difference.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the National ACLU filed a lawsuit today on behalf of Sukhjinder Basra, a Sikh inmate who is being penalized for refusing to trim his beard on religious grounds. Keeping unshorn hair is one of the central tenets of the Sikh faith. Basra is being denied visitation rights and other privileges for not trimming his beard in accordance with the prison’s grooming policy.
“Mr. Basra has been a model prisoner throughout his time in detention. The only purported blemishes on his record are the result of his refusing to shave his beard on religious grounds,” said Peter Eliasberg, Legal Director with the ACLU of Southern California. “The Department of Corrections should respect Mr. Basra’s faith by clearing his record and allowing him to maintain his beard during the remainder of his sentence with no further penalties.”
The grooming policy, which is set forth in a regulation of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, prohibits inmates from growing their facial hair longer than half an inch. Because of his refusal to cut his hair in adherence to his beliefs, Basra has faced disciplinary sanctions and exclusion from prison programs and activities, including extra work duty and confinement to quarters with no bedside visitors.
“The Department of Corrections has not presented any compelling reason for forcing Mr. Basra to violate his faith by cutting his beard,” said Daniel Mach, Director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Mr. Basra’s religious observance poses no threat to the health or safety of the prison staff or his fellow inmates. No one should forfeit the fundamental right to religious freedom at the prison gate.”
Attorneys on the case include Jonathan M. Gordon, Leib M. Lerner and Cassandra Hooks of Alston & Bird LLP; Eliasberg of the ACLU of Southern California; Mach of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief and Harsimran Kaur of the Sikh Coalition.

The ACLU of Southern California, the Council for American-Islamic Relations of Greater Los Angeles, and the law firm Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick LLP today announced they have filed a federal class action law suit against the Federal Bureau of Investigations for infiltrating mainstream mosques in Southern California and targeting Muslim Americans for surveillance solely because of their religion.

For over 14 months between 2006 and 2007, FBI agents planted an informant in the Orange County mosques who posed as a convert to Islam and through whom the FBI collected names, telephone numbers, e-mails, and other information on hundreds of individuals, including Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, Ali Malik, and Yassir Abdel Rahim, plaintiffs in the case and three of the many people who interacted with the FBI’s informant.

The FBI directed the informant, Craig Monteilh, to gather as much information as possible on members of the Muslim community, and to focus on people who were more devout in their religious practice irrespective of whether any particular individual was believed to be involved in criminal activity.

“The FBI gathered information on hundreds of innocent Americans simply because they worship at a mosque. It’s hard to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment’s guarantees against religious discrimination,” said Peter Bibring, staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California.

The First Amendment guarantees that no person should be singled out for different treatment by the government because of his or her religion, which is exactly what the FBI did to the Muslim community in Orange County. There are approximately 120,000 Muslims in Orange County, making the area home to the second largest population of Muslims in the United States.

“Targeting Muslims for surveillance not only destroys community cohesion, it erodes the trust between law enforcement and Muslim communities, which undermines national security,” said Ameena Mirza Qazi, deputy executive director and staff attorney for CAIR-LA.

Montheilh’s role as an FBI informant was not revealed until February 2009, first in court documents where the FBI and local law enforcement revealed his role, and then through his own statements which have been reported widely in the press.

“This practice is an abuse of the Constitution, and this case will force the FBI to destroy its illegally obtained information,” said Josh Piovia-Scott, an attorney with the law firm Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick LLP.

The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief on behalf of all people targeted by the FBI agents and their informant, requiring the FBI to turn over or destroy all information collected through the discriminatory investigation, as well as damages for emotional distress for the three named plaintiffs.

Top photo: Ameena Mirza Qazi, deputy executive director and staff attorney, CAIR-LA, with Imam Yassir Fazaga (left), and Hussam Ayloush, executive director, CAIR-LA.

Bottom photo: Dan Stormer, attorney, of Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick LLP.