-Caveat Lector- Source: http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/35129_lawsuit14.shtml White woman settles school reverse-bias suit Apology, staff training, $40,000 won by Rainier Beach graduate Tuesday, August 14, 2001 By REBEKAH DENN SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER The insults and threats started practically the day Rebecca Porcaro walked into Rainier Beach High School in 1995: Rebecca Porcaro's settlement includes an apology for any harassment she may have received. "White slut. Stupid white girl. White bitch, go back to Bellevue. This is our school." The problem soon escalated to a daily gantlet of merciless harassment both inside and outside class, the 1999 graduate said yesterday. She said she faced constant threats of violence; humiliating and lewd propositions; and insults from fellow students, most aimed at her race. Porcaro filed an unusual reverse-discrimination lawsuit against the Seattle Public Schools shortly after graduation, claiming that African American students at the school had targeted her because she was one of a minority of Caucasian students, leaving lasting scars on her education and her life. The lawsuit claimed the district and former principal had allowed a hostile environment where Porcaro was subject to race and gender discrimination, violating state and federal laws. Graduation day was long ago, but Porcaro is finally feeling some vindication. She reached a settlement agreement with the district July 30 in which the district will train all high school teachers and administrators on peer harassment, including race and gender harassment. Porcaro also received an apology for any harassment she may have sustained. The district also paid her $40,000 as part of the settlement, but Porcaro, now 20, said money was never the issue. She had rejected an earlier $20,000 settlement offer that did not include the training. And she didn't think of suing, she said, until every other avenue was exhausted. "I just felt something needed to be done ... A lot of people go, 'Well, teasing is normal,'" she said. "This was not teasing." Porcaro's mother, Patty, said she hoped no other child would have to go through the same torment, and that she didn't believe the problem would have dragged on if the races of the students had been reversed. "(Racism) is a two-way street," she said. District spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said the complaint was the only one of its kind the district's deputy general counsel can remember in her 10 years with the district. "We have a strong anti-harassment policy in place. We do not and will not tolerate harassment, and our goal is to communicate that very clearly both to students and the staff," Steinberg said. School staff members were trained in recognizing harassment and dealing with complaints when the district adopted an anti-harassment policy a few years ago, she said, but "there are always, despite the virtue of going through training, things we can be reminded of." The added training from Porcaro's settlement will take place over the coming school year at all high schools, Steinberg said. Eighteen percent of Rainier Beach's 912 students were white in Porcaro's freshman year, according to district records, though Porcaro said it was rare to see other white faces in the halls. Last year, the number had dropped to 7.8 percent of 683 students, the smallest percentage in the district's high schools. Fifty-two percent were African American, 30.5 percent Asian American, 8.1 percent Latino, and 1.6 percent Native American. The school was embroiled in other troubles when Porcaro attended, with heavy criticisms aimed at then-principal Marta Cano-Hinz and questions about the school's poor academic performance. The district bought out Cano-Hinz's contract last year. Donna Marshall is the new principal, in what's been seen as a positive step for the school. "There is new leadership at the school," Steinberg said. "It's time to move forward, to concentrate on what comes next as opposed to battling over what may or may not have taken place in the past." The settlement also comes in the wake of a national debate about the lasting harm caused by school bullying, with several states passing anti-bullying legislation. An attempt to pass an anti-bullying bill in Washington's Legislature failed, but state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, who pushed the measure, said that there was substantial new funding in the state budget for teacher training on the issue, and that the state was developing a model policy for schools. In Porcaro's case, racial issues were never a problem when she was younger. She grew up in the multicultural Rainier Beach neighborhood, attending private schools with a diverse student body, before following her best friend, who was Asian American, to Rainier Beach High. She doesn't know of other white students who faced similar problems, and doesn't know why she was targeted. Her mother wonders if it was her fair skin and blonde hair, and a fashionable sense of dress that was seen as "rich" -- and extra white. The harassment first kept her from participating in high school activities, such as trying out for sports teams, she said, then reached a point where she would skip class rather than face her many tormenters. She and her parents said they consistently tried to make school staff address the issue, without success. "There was no place she was safe," her mother said. Her junior year, she was encouraged to take college classes full-time through the Running Start program, which would keep her away from Rainier Beach most days. She said she knew she wasn't prepared for that level of schoolwork, but made the change anyway to spend less time on the high school campus. In one case, court papers said, she feared for her safety enough to run to the principal's office, but was told she couldn't see her. She said she went to a security guard next, who told her to ignore the problem, that she was "better than" the bullies and would soon graduate anyway. At a time when teenagers are discovering their own identity, Porcaro said, it was hard to face the message every day that "I'm a whore, I'm trash, I'm white." She ignored it as much as possible, "building a wall" around herself, but it still hurt, and she said it leached off any motivation to succeed in school. Her grades, once solid, had badly slipped. She said she faced other problems after graduation, including dabbling in drugs at one point. She's now living with her parents, and expecting a baby girl this fall. She doesn't blame high school for everything, but says she has to wonder how her life might have been different if her Rainier Beach experiences were less miserable. "I feel I was really destroyed in who I was and who I wanted to be," she said. She wants to go back to school some day, perhaps studying graphic arts, pledging that "I'm going to go up from here." She appreciated an invitation to speak first-hand about her experiences for the district's upcoming training. And she'd like for things to be different in the years to come, when her own daughter is old enough to go to school. "I don't want her to experience that," she said. Edward ><+> "The desire to rule is the mother of heresies." ~ St. John Chrysostom http://www.global-connector.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reality_pump/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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