Maryland schools ban harassment of gays

Students who call each other names or joke about someone’s sexuality face suspension under a regulation passed this week by the Maryland State Board of Education.

The board voted 8-3 Tuesday to include language in its student-safety standards that specifically protects homosexual students from harassment in school settings. However, school officials would not specify yesterday what would constitute verbal harassment.

Maryland is the ninth state to ban discrimination against students based on their sexual orientation.

The vote ended a four-year battle on the issue. Those who opposed specific protections for groups such as homosexuals said the current student-safety regulations covered all groups, and that it would be inappropriate to introduce discussions of sexual orientation to classrooms.

“Somewhere along the way we’re going to find out that this is a door-opener to a larger-scale involvement in sexual orientation in a school setting,” said Clarence A. Hawkins, one of the three state board members who voted against the new language.

“If we say we want safety in all schools for all children, then it should mean all, and I don’t think you need to separate them out by category,” he said.

Board President Marilyn D. Maultsby, who voted for the proposal, said homosexual students are targeted more than most other groups of students. She also said it is more serious to harass students for their homosexuality than it is to harass them for other reasons.

“Harassment because of their sexual orientation is more egregious than for an issue such as acne,” Mrs. Maultsby said.

Proponents of the specification said the language ensures that disciplinary action will be taken when homosexual students are targeted by either verbal or physical assaults.

Patty Caplan, spokeswoman for Howard County public schools, said some students may not realize that their actions and words are hurtful, but that other students may interpret them as insults.

“We have to help them to live and learn with one another,” Ms. Caplan said.

County school boards will determine what constitutes such harassment and how it will be punished, and each case will be handled individually by school administrators. Howard, Montgomery and Anne Arundel county schools have adopted in their codes of conduct language against harassment because of sexual orientation.

Disciplinary actions that result from violations of the new guidelines can be appealed all the way to the state board.

Board member Philip S. Benzil, a retired dentist from Westminster who served 15 years on the Carroll County Board of Education, introduced in 1999 the idea of language protecting homosexuals. Mr. Benzil did not return phone calls yesterday, but last year, he told The Washington Times that intolerable behavior against homosexual students included “mocking, isolation and exclusion from social groups.”

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