Parents launch fresh suit to quash Lesson 9
Updated 6:00 a.m. Friday, February 19
A pair of Alameda parents is suing the school district and school board, claiming the board violated the Brown Act by voting to readopt the anti-gay bullying Lesson 9 and to adopt accompanying literature that they said wasn’t included in staff’s original recommendation.
Kerry Cook and Serena Dietrich filed a suit [...]
PARENTS LAUNCH FRESH SUIT TO QUASH LESSON 9
A pair of Alameda parents is suing the school district and school board, claiming the board violated the Brown Act by voting to readopt the anti-gay bullying Lesson 9 and to adopt accompanying literature that wasn’t included in staff’s original recommendation.
Kerry Cook and Serena Dietrich filed a suit in Alameda County Superior Court today that [...]
Eve Pearlman: Public schools and diversity
As a Jewish person, or a person of Jewish ancestry, or a non-religious, Jewish-identified person – or however you like to describe me (and you would think I would have adopted an appropriate phrase after 39 years of life, but I have not) – I am not always, nor is my family’s life always, in [...]
SCHOOL BOARD OKAYS NEW ANTI-BULLYING LESSONS, RETAINS LESSON 9
The School Board decided Tuesday night to adopt new anti-bullying lessons for the district’s elementary schools and to retain a lesson intended to halt anti-gay bullying until new ones that specifically address bullying on the basis of race and ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, religion and disability can be put into place.
The board first voted, [...]
Judge upholds opt out denial
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch on Tuesday affirmed a tentative ruling denying a group of parents’ request to be allowed to opt their children out of elementary school lessons intended to curtail anti-gay bullying.
Judge Roesch said the lessons did not constitute health education, as the plaintiffs had contended. State law allows parents to [...]
JUDGE TENTATIVELY DENIES LESSON 9 OPT OUT REQUEST
An Alameda County Superior Court judge has tentatively denied a request by some local parents to require the school district to allow their children to opt out of lessons designed to halt anti-gay bullying.
Judge Frank Roesch issued a temporary ruling on November 25 saying the lessons don’t constitute health education, as the parents are arguing. [...]
UPDATED PARENTS SUE OVER LESSON 9
Updated 9:24 a.m. Thursday, August 13
A group of 20 Alameda parents have filed a lawsuit against the school district in Alameda County Superior Court because the district has denied their requests to opt out of anti-gay bullying lessons.
The Pacific Justice Institute, a Sacramento group involved in a separate lawsuit against school administrators in Castro Valley [...]
School board denies LGBT lesson complaint appeal
The school board voted 4-1 Monday night not to hear an appeal of a complaint filed by a parent who opposes the anti-gay bullying lessons the board approved in May.
Kerry Cook, a parent who has been a vocal critic of the lessons, filed a complaint with the district in June alleging that district staff discriminated [...]
GROUP MOUNTS RECALL EFFORT AGAINST SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES
A group of local residents has mounted a recall effort against three school board trustees who voted to approve anti-gay bullying lessons that are set to become part of the school district’s elementary school curriculum this fall.
The group, which is calling itself S.E.R.V.E. Alameda, said trustees Tracy Jensen, Ron Mooney and Nielsen Tam passed the [...]
GROUP SEEKS RECALL OF SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS
We’re getting word that a group of folks who are angry over the school board’s approval of classroom lessons intended to halt anti-gay bullying have served the three school board members who said yes to the lessons with notice that they intend to mount a recall effort.
Word of the recall effort has been circulating on [...]
LA Times comments on Lesson 9
The Los Angeles Times just published an editorial about the anti-gay bullying curriculum passed by Alameda Unified’s school board on May 27 by a 3-2 vote. To quote:
The Alameda school board deserves praise for its willingness to reckon with the subject and for its commitment to protecting gay and lesbian students. But it went too [...]
