[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 108 (Monday, July 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4991-S4992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STUDENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT

  Mr. FRANKEN. Madam President, I rise to speak about the urgency of 
passing the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which takes the same 
protections that children have against discrimination on the basis of 
race and national origin and gender and disability, and it extends 
those protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children--
LGBT children. That is it. It is a simple bill. It stands for the 
principle that LGBT kids have a right not to be bullied just because of 
who they are.
  There are people who will say: What can you do to stop bullying? Kids 
will be kids. Boys will be boys. I don't think that is right. Because 
what we

[[Page S4992]]

are seeing in our schools today is not just teasing; it is not 
playground behavior. What we are seeing is more than just bullying. We 
are seeing discrimination. Let me explain what I mean.
  If a Black child was referred to by a racial slur at school, would we 
say kids will be kids? If a Jewish student got beat up because he wore 
a yarmulke to school, would we wave it off and say boys will be boys? 
If a shop teacher told a female teacher she didn't belong in his class, 
would we be fine if the school just looked the other way?
  No, we would not. In fact, there are Federal civil rights laws that 
are specifically designed to stop this kind of conduct. But if a gay 
child is relentlessly harassed by his classmates, if a principal tells 
a girl she can't go to her senior prom because she wants to bring 
another girl as her date or if a school stands by as teachers, 
students, and other administrators refer to a transgender child not as 
``he'' or ``she'' but as ``it,'' there is no law that was written to 
protect those children. Our laws fail those children, and that is just 
wrong. We can change that.
  The bullying of LGBT children in our schools has reached epidemic 
proportions. More than 30 percent of LGBT kids report missing a day of 
school in the previous month because they felt unsafe. Nearly 75 
percent of LGBT students say they have been verbally harassed at 
school, and more than 35 percent of LGBT students report being 
physically attacked. You cannot learn if you dread going to school. It 
has been estimated that, on average, LGBT kids comprise 40 percent of 
all homeless youth. To be sure, family rejection is a leading factor, 
but LGBT kids' inability to escape verbal harassment and physical 
attacks makes them drop out, which makes them much more likely to be 
homeless. That is unacceptable. Our children should not have to 
experience that kind of hate at school, and, as we have seen all too 
often, some of them just can't endure it.

  A few years ago, I met a wonderful woman named Wendy Walsh, the 
mother of Seth Walsh, whose photo is next to me here. Wendy told me 
that Seth had endured years of anti-gay harassment at school in 
Tehachapi, CA. When he was in the fifth grade, other students started 
calling him gay, and as he got older the harassment became more 
frequent and more abusive. By seventh grade, taunts and verbal abuse 
were a constant part of Seth's day. Students called him faggot and 
queer. He was afraid to use the restroom or to be in the boys' locker 
room before gym class.
  Seth had always been a good student, receiving A's and B's, but as 
the harassment escalated, he started to get failing grades. Friends 
reported that he became depressed and withdrawn. Wendy desperately 
tried to get school district officials to do something, but her pleas 
were brushed aside, and in September of 2010, Seth hanged himself from 
a tree in his family's backyard. He was 13. Seth left a note expressing 
his love for family and friends but also his anger at the school.
  Justin Aaberg was a rising sophomore at high school in Anoka, MN, my 
home State. Justin played the cello. In fact, he composed music for the 
cello. His mother Tammy told people that he was a ``sweet boy who 
seemed to always have a smile on his face.'' Justin came out to his mom 
when he was 13. In July of 2010, Justin hanged himself in his bedroom. 
His mother later learned from Justin's friends and from messages he 
left before his death that he had been the victim of incessant bullying 
at school. Justin was 15 when he died.
  Carl Walker Hoover was a Boy Scout and a football player for his 
school in Springfield, MA. But starting in the sixth grade, the kids at 
Carl's school started to bully and harass him for ``acting gay'' or 
``acting like a girl'' even though he didn't identify as LGBT. When 
Carl's mother, Sirdeaner Walker, learned about the harassment, she 
spoke to his principal, his teacher, and his guidance counselor 
repeatedly, asking the school to intervene. But in April of 2009, 
Sirdeaner found her son hanging by an extension cord on the second 
floor of her home. In the letter Carl left behind, he said he simply 
couldn't take it anymore. Carl was 11 years old.
  Justin, Seth, and Carl's stories are not anomalies. They are just a 
few of the many tragic cases in an epidemic of school bullying against 
LGBT kids or kids who are perceived to be LGBT.
  The bill we are debating this week is an education bill, a bill about 
taking the steps necessary to secure better and brighter futures for 
our children. It is our responsibility not just as Senators but as 
adults to protect children and to help them flourish. Children who are 
afraid to go to school can't get a good education.
  Think about the children in your life--your son or your daughter, 
your grandchild or your niece or nephew--and what it must be like for a 
child in your life to get up and face the school day ahead not with 
excitement but with anxiety and fear, with dread and shame. This 
shouldn't happen in America. In America, we have passed laws that guard 
against harassment in our schools on the basis of race, national 
origin, sex, and disability, but LGBT students face bullying and 
intimidation without recourse.
  This amendment would simply provide LGBT kids with the same legal 
remedies available to other kids under our Federal civil rights laws. 
It says that schools would have to listen when a parent calls and says: 
My child isn't safe, and then the school has to do something about it. 
It would ensure that LGBT kids have the same protections, not some of 
the same protections, as other kids.
  This is not a revolutionary idea. In fact, more than a dozen States 
have already passed laws that protect students from discrimination 
based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and it is working. In 
States that have protections for sexual orientation and gender identity 
in schools, LGBT students report nearly one-third fewer instances of 
physical harassment and nearly half as many instances of physical 
assault as in States lacking these protections.
  We have come incredibly far in our understanding of LGBT people in a 
very short period of time not just as a country but as a body. In 2013, 
by a vote of 64 to 32, the Senate passed ENDA, the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act, which would prohibit job discrimination on the 
basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It would prohibit 
firing someone or harassing them at work for being gay or transgender. 
It would protect adults.
  Now it is time to protect kids and to put in place policies to ensure 
that a child of 11 or 13 or 15 is allowed to live their life and 
discover who they are--to discover that maybe they are a great cellist 
or a first-round NFL draft pick--without facing taunts and intimidation 
and physical violence in the school. It is our responsibility as a 
country and as a body to protect our children. I strongly urge my 
colleagues to do just that by supporting the Student Non-Discrimination 
Act and voting for it as an amendment to this bill.
  I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.

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