Minn. District Settles Lawsuit Over Bullying
Minnesota's largest school district has agreed to provide significant new protections to prevent the harassment of students who are or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The
plan
settles a lawsuit brought by victims of bullying and brings an end to investigations of the district by the U.S. departments of Education and Justice.
The 40,000-student Anoka-Hennepin school system drew national attention after a string of suicides from 2009 to 2011 by students, some of whom were gay or bisexual, in the district. Families of some of the students said their deaths had been spurred by bullying they had endured in school. The district also had a controversial policy requiring teachers to remain neutral if issues of sexual identity came up in class, which the Anoka-Hennepin school board voted to end earlier this year in response to complaints.
The Atlanta-based Southern Poverty Law Center and the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights sued the district in federal court last summer on behalf of six former and current students who said they had been bullied at school because of their real...
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