-Caveat Lector-
Is this a joke?????? I lousey $40K?? Must be a joke.
On Wed, 15 Aug 2001 11:32:38 -0400 Edward Britton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
> -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/
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