Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/office-for-civil-rights/)
At 7 a.m., teenagers are scurrying to dress and head to class. There are no parents or older siblings nearby to push them out of bed and out the door. And the commute isn’t long — just a short walk from prison bed to classroom.
There’s a new campaign that focuses on empowering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students, as well as their supporters, to report incidents of bullying, harassment or discrimination to the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Education Department. Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has partnered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to launch the Claim Your Rights campaign, which revealed some alarming statistics:
Approximately 85 percent of high school students report being harassed in school because of their real or perceived sexual orientation … and only 18 percent of LGBT students report their schools have policies [that] offer comprehensive protections. The campaign provides detailed information on how to file a report, as well as an easy to print fact sheet. To further check out the campaign, click here. To access the fact sheet, click here.