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New Jersey Supreme Court Rules That Schools Must Protect Students from Bias-Based Bullying (2/21/2007)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Decision a Major
Victory for Gay and Other Students Who Face Harassment
NEWARK, NJ - In a major victory for student rights, the American Civil
Liberties Union of New Jersey praised a decision released today by the New
Jersey Supreme Court that extends anti-discrimination protections to
schoolchildren subjected to bias-based bullying and harassment.
"Bullying can be enormously destructive to students emotionally
and psychologically," said ACLU of New Jersey Executive Director Deborah Jacobs.
"This decision requires schools to take necessary steps to ensure that students
are protected from bias-based harassment and makes clear that schools must
address the entire school environment instead of merely viewing specific
incidents of bullying as isolated events."
The ACLU of New Jersey
and several other child advocacy organizations filed a joint friend-of-the-court
brief supporting a student's claim under the New Jersey Law Against
Discrimination and describing the negative impact that peer harassment and
bullying have on students and the school environment. The New Jersey Supreme
Court sided with the student - who remains anonymous and is known only as "L.W."
-- and firmly stated that schools may be liable under the Law Against
Discrimination for permitting student-on-student biased-based
harassment.
"Students in the classroom are entitled to no less
protection from unlawful discrimination and harassment than their adult
counterparts in the workplace," wrote Chief Justice James R. Zazzali in a
unanimous opinion. "[R]easonable measures are required to protect our youth, a
duty that schools are more than capable of performing. [W]e require school
districts to implement effective preventive and remedial measures to curb severe
or pervasive discriminatory mistreatment. Appropriate and reasonable measures
will reinforce the basic principle that student-on-student sexual harassment is
unacceptable."
As described in the decision, L.W., a student in the
Toms River, New Jersey schools, was subjected to anti-gay peer harassment and
bullying based on his perceived sexual orientation. As he progressed through
school, the harassment increased in frequency and severity and, consequently, he
transferred to another school district. In July 2004, the Director of the New
Jersey Division on Civil Rights issued an order stating that the Law Against
Discrimination protected L.W. from harassment, using the same standard that
applies to employment discrimination. The Toms River school board appealed the
decision to the appellate court, which decided in L.W.'s favor. It then appealed
that decision to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
ACLU of New Jersey
cooperating attorneys Emily Goldberg and Larry Lustberg of Gibbons P.C. filed
the brief on behalf of the ACLU of New Jersey, the Association for Children of
New Jersey, the Education Law Center, the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education
Network of Northern New Jersey, the National Conference for Community and
Justice (NJ), New Jersey Family Voices, Roxbury Parents for Exceptional Children
and Statewide Parents Advocacy Network of New Jersey.
The case is
L.W. v. Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education,
A-111-05.
The New Jersey Supreme Court decision is available at: www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/A-111-05.pdf
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