Jamie Nabozny Wins
Landmark Decision for Gay Students' Rights
by Joe Ridky, NCSP
On November 20, 1996, Jamie Nabozny,
the student who sued his former Ashland, Wisconsin school district,
won a $900,000 out-of-court settlement in Eau Claire, WI. This
settlement was agreed in a lawsuit claiming school officials
violated a gay student’s rights by not protecting him from
years of harassment by other students. The agreement came a
day after a federal court jury found that three school administrators
violated his rights, although it found the district as a whole
was not guilty of discrimination. The same jury had been scheduled
to begin considering damages before the settlement was announced
by Peg Byron, public education director for
the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Timothy Yanacheck,
an attorney who defended the district on behalf of Wausau Insurance.
Jamie was supported in his efforts by NASP when this association
signed on to an Amici Curiae Brief at the request of Lambda
Legal Defense Fund as a Friend-of-the-Court (see November, 1996
Communique article by Trish Boland).
Jamie’s harassment started in the seventh
grade and lasted four years, despite repeated complaints from
him and his parents. The harassment included physical assaults
like mock rapes, being kicked and continual verbal abuse. After
he quit school in the 11th grade, he moved to Minneapolis. There
he earned an equivalency degree, got to know the homosexual
community in the Twin Cities and worked for a time with District
200, a community center for lesbian and gay teens. Jamie’s
mother, Carol Nabozny, said that of her three
sons, she always felt Jamie would make a difference in the world,
and now he has for other young people who might find themselves
in similar circumstances. Michael Kaplan, director
of District 200, said that characteristic showed through when
Jamie worked at the center. "He’d see something that
needed to be done and he’d do it. He was very self-motivating,"
Kaplan said.
"I was just happy to get out alive,"
Jamie said of leaving school. He said that it took him several
years to work up the courage to file his suit, but he did so
after hearing from friends in Ashland that harassment of others
continued and that students -- including Native Americans --
were being treated differently. "I feel like I have justice
and that this means justice for all the others kids out there
who aren’t sure if they should stay in school or stay alive.
School is a place for learning. All kids need to be treated
alike," Jamie said in a statement. Homosexuals have paid
a high price in abuse, said Lambda attorney Patricia
Logue. "Now the tables have turned, and it is
prejudice that has proved so costly," she said. The Lambda
group took up Jamie’s case after his original attorney
said she could not afford to take the case to appeal after an
initial setback. Lambda legal experts say the case is the first
to extend to homosexuals the same right against sexual harassment
as others have. They also say the case warns school authorities
that they must make sure those rights are enforced.
At the time of original publication,
Joe Ridky, Ph. D., NCSP, was Co-Chair of the NASP Committee
on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues and a Psychological Services
Specialist for the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools.
From Communique, 1997,
vol.25 (5)