Safe Schools Coalition Meeting
MINUTES: 4-19-2011, 3-5 p.m. PDT
Facilitating: Beth Reis; Recording: Penny Palmer
Attending: Beth Reis, SSC Co-Chair, Public Health – Seattle & King County; Penny Palmer, SSC Co-Sec.; Frank Couch, SSC Co-Sec., Science and Management of Addictions Foundation
Via Phone: Gabi Clayton, SSC Webspinner, Families United Against Hate, youth Guardian Services, PFLAG Olympia; Michelle Munro, SSC Treasurer; Garry Bevel, American Bar Association’s Center on children and the Law
- AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION’S OPENING DOORS MEDIA CAMPAIGN – Garry Bevel
ABA is launching a new video and web campaign, "the Kids Are Listening." This campaign on behalf of LGBTQ youth in foster is the first of its kind in the nation and offers free online resources and support to
legal and social services professionals - from judges to children's attorneys and social services personnel - who are involved in the foster care community.
A growing coalition of support is coming from major organizations across the nation including the Anti-Defamation League, Cartoon Network, the Child Welfare League of America, the It Gets Better Project (created
by syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage), the Safe Schools Coalition, Healthy Teens Network, the National Association of Counsel for Children, the National Association of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the American Humane Association, the National
Black Justice Coalition, Stop Bullying Now! (a federal program run by the Health Resources and Services Administration), and many others.
"The Kids are Listening" campaign is part of the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law's Opening Doors Project, which was created in 2005 to increase the legal community's awareness of LGBTQ
youth in foster care and the unique issues they face and to provide the legal community with advocacy tools to successfully represent these youth.
We hope you will take a moment to view the website and video and share this with others committed to improving the lives of LGBTQ and ALL young people in foster care and in our communities.
Together we can Stop Bullying, Stop Discrimination and Make It Better Today!
Garry I. Bevel
Staff Attorney - ABA Center on Children and the Law
Opening Doors for LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care
740 15th ST NW. Washington, DC. 20009
(office) 202.662.1749 (fax) 202.662.1755
Garry.Bevel@americanbar.org
thekidsarelistening.org
(2) FRIEDA’S LEAVE OF ABSENCE – Frieda is taking a much deserved, short 3-month break from her SSC duties. Beth will be handling SSC questions until Frieda returns.
(3) SHARING TIME – postponed until May’s meeting
(4) FISCAL REPORT & INVESTMENT DISCUSSION – Michelle
a) Thanks to the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Senior Youth Group for donating over $1,000 from your Laramie Project fundraiser. You’re awesome!!!
b) It was suggested and agreed we will put $10,000 in a CD to try to earn some short-term interest.
c) Michelle thanks Rosehedge who has been great to work with.
d) Michelle is also working on a contribution envelope to put in with thank you letters to donors.
e) Thanks also, from our hearts, to these recent individual and family donors:
Jean Buskin
Pamela Jensen
Penny Palmer
Joyce & Ted Lilljeholm
Eric Hatzenbuehler
Eve Adams & Betsy Cahill
Anonymous in Sacramento
Arlene and Ron Prater
Kim Westheimer and Maddy Klyne
Mark L. Anderson
Joyful Freeman
In honor of Mark Anderson
Heidi Rettke Bischoff
Lonnie Lusardo
In honor of Frieda Takamura and Mark Anderson
Teri Tomatich and Bryan Habeck
David & Karen Aoyama
A Toutonghi and B Oberg
(5) AD IN SEATTLE GAY NEWS FOR PRIDE? –
SSC has been asked if they want to put an ad in Seattle Gay News for the Pride issues.
It was decided to put in one ad for no more than $100. Beth will check on cost for non-
profits.
(6) NATIONAL SAFE SCHOOLS ROUNDTABLE NEWS –
1. 2011 Steering Committee
Thank you to everyone who applied to be a member of the 2011 NSSR Steering Committee! The SC is pleased to let you that Alan-Michael Graves, board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, David Fischer, Program Manager at the Illinois Safe Schools
Alliance, and Heidi Wallace, Coordinator of the Montana Safe, have joined the Steering Committee for 2011.
There was significant interest in joining the Steering Committee from the NSSR membership and the Committee based its decisions on striking a balance in the group of diversity of geography, experience, and organizational
size and type. There are a number of ways to take leadership in the NSSR, such as leading a committee, helping to develop the convening, planning webinars, fundraising, etc. We hope that you will consider such work.
2. 2011 Committee Work
The following committees have gotten underway with their work, webinar plans, and thinking about presentations for the convening, and most can use additional members willing to roll up sleeves and pitch in. Please contact the committee leaders ASAP to
join. Each committee will always have at least one Steering Committee member so that the Steering Committee can keep up to date.
Education Justice Committee
Leader: David Fischer (IL Safe Schools Alliance - david@illinoissafeschools.org<mailto:david@illinoissafeschools.org>)
Liaison to the SC: David Fischer
The Committee has met three times and is focusing on educational justice with a goal of looking at real examples of where "educational justice" is actually playing out on the ground. .... The committee wants to videotape people who are actually involved in
this work. Ultimately, the committee wants to do a webinar that will include clips from their interviews and statistics and cover the problem of school "push out” policies and frameworks for school reform.
Anti-Racism Committee
Co-Leaders: Mekina Morgan (PFLAG National - mmorgan@pflag.org<mailto:mmorgan@pflag.org>) and Ashley Jackson (MS Safe Schools Coalition - ashley@mssafeschools.org<mailto:ashley@mssafeschools.org>)
Liaison to the SC: Mekina Morgan and Ashley Jackson
the committee has met twice with 4-8 participants on each call. So far, the committee has been sharing stories and talking about areas of work within the safe schools movement and are interested in collecting youth stories. The next meeting will be in mid-May.
Policy Committee
Co-Leaders: Alison Gill (agill@glsen.org) and Heron Greenesmith (hgreenesmith@familyequality.org)
Liaison to the SC: Shawn Gaylord
The Policy Committee has been working on a multi-organizational model policy that covers both bullying and harassment as well as discrimination. The Committee has been meeting monthly and has held a series of conference calls where a range of organizations
have been invited to review the model prior to the call and share their thoughts on the call. The next step will be to incorporate a lot of input received from a variety of groups. The group recently changed its monthly meeting time to the third Wednesday of
each month at 4:30 Eastern.
E-5 Committee
Co-Leaders: Jessi Tebben (Out4Good, Minn Public Schools - Jessi.Tebben@mpls.k12.mn.us) and Lyn Mitchell (aMaze - lynmitch1@msn.com)
Liaison to the SC: Jessi Tebben
The group started meeting fairly recently and is beginning its work with a review of E-5 materials that are already out there and talking about ways that such materials can be shared throughout the safe schools movement. The workgroup will meet April 25 (tentative-please
contact co-leaders for details).
Gender Committee
Co-Leaders: Joel Baum (Gender Spectrum - jbaum@genderspectrum.org) and Danielle Askini (GSA Network - danielle@gsanetwork.org)
Liaison to the SC: Joel Baum
The group has met several times to discuss the work they are already doing and how they might share some best practices with the larger Roundtable. They will be organizing a webinar.
Access Committee
Leader: Nathan Wessel (GLSEN-Cincinnati - wessel.nathan@gmail.com)
Liaison to the SC: Sarah Young
The Committee has been meeting regularly since December, with good participation (meets the first Wednesday of the month at 6pm EST)
* The committee has defined "access" as: the extent to which a group - characterized, but not limited to, geographic, social and economic circumstances - knows about, has contact with, and ultimately makes use of needed resources or services.
* Each committee member has been charged with researching specific areas where access is relevant. This information will form the basis of a webinar AND also potentially resource sheets/best practices to be distributed across the NSSR.
3. Webinars
Sarah has been investigating different options for webinars and we believe we have chosen a system that we'll use for our webinar series. The goal remains to develop and provide a series of webinars, which will be open to all members of the National Safe
Schools Roundtable.
As always, feel free to be in touch if you have any questions or need additional information.
Regards,
Shawn Gaylord
Director of Public Policy
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
Direct: 202.621.5822
Cell: 202.270.2956
(7) SCREENING OF “FISH OUT OF WATER”?
SSC has been requested to endorse a screening of a film which explores 7 bible passages which are used to disparage homosexuality. It was decided SSC needs to see the film before making any decisions regarding
endorsement.
(8) LAW & POLICY WORK GROUP REPORT – Lonnie, Jen
Safe Schools- Anti-Bullying Bill HB 1163
Thanks in large part to the faithful advocacy of the Safe Schools Coalition, the anti-bullying bill introduced by Rep. Liias has passed both houses with broad bi-partisan support and awaits the Governor’s signature.
The bill supports the policy work passed last year and creates a work group on bullying prevention. It also adds mental health and suicide prevention to classroom-based assessments of health and fitness standards. It was introduced on January 10 with 46 co-sponsors,
nearly half the House. Moving testimony given in the Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee prompted a very unusual outburst of out-of order applause, started by seasoned lobbyists. The bill sailed through Education Appropriations and the House floor, passing
76 to 21.
Then it was the Senate’s turn, through the education and fiscal committees, who amended it minimally. A sunset date for the commission was set for
December 2015. The Senate vote was 41-6 on April 4th, and soon afterwards the House soon concurred in the Senate amendments. In addition, both the House and Senate budgets include
the funding necessary for the bill’s implementation. Now it’s waiting for signature on the Governor’s desk.
Thanks especially to Safe School Coalition members Gabi Clayton and Cecila Icenogle for their important testimony along the way. This was a difficulty year to pass any bills that incurred new costs to the state,
and the smooth path of this bill proves that legislators were moved to understand its importance.
Finally, we have been mostly successful in retaining Youth Suicide Prevention Program funding in the budgets. This funding was included in the House budget, and we understand that it was intended for inclusion
in the Senate budget. Unfortunately, due to what may have been a simple error, it was partially cut in the budget that passed the Senate, so advocacy continues during the special legislative session to ensure full funding is included in the final budget that
must be agreed upon and passed by both the House and Senate.
(9) WEB SITE(S) REPORT – Gabi
- In March, 37,736 visitors used the site 49,572 times.
- They came from 112 countries including, for example:
- Cyprus
- Sudan
- Colombia
- Lebanon
- Guam
- Tajikistan
- Mongolia
- Jamaica
- Croatia
- Kenya
- Finland
- India
- Japan
(10) INTERVENTION TEAM REPORT
a) There were 12 calls that came in via the KCSARC crisis line. Penny visited one of their meetings in Feb. and thanked them for their help taking calls for us.
b) One intervention is on-going. The principal of a private school in this area still is refusing to provide documentation on the expulsion of a child who was being bullied. We are working up the chain of command
to assure this child will not be hurt in the future by what is in his permanent file.
c) Two calls were answered from callers from out of state.
(11) MEMBERSHIP REPORT – Gabi
- HRC Membership – It was requested we revisit the decision to add HRC as members of the Coalition due to their continued efforts to support gender identity non-discrimination. It was agreed to invite them back into the Coalition and Beth will ask
for a letter outlining the steps they have taken in the direction of trans-inclusivity, especially in public policy but in other programs as well.
- We also decided we needed to re-evaluate our member ship form to be able to identify those members that do, are working on, or do not have non-discrimination clauses in their policies that include gender identity. Beth has suggested possible wording.
(12) SPEAKERS BUREAU REPORT – Briana
Speakers Bureau & Training Team
Date: |
Location: |
Trainers: |
Audience Total: |
3/19 |
WEA Training |
Tracy |
40 |
3/23 |
Bush School |
Nathan |
7 |
3/23 |
Bush School |
Nathan |
7 |
3/31 |
UW Bothell |
Tracy |
16 |
4/13 |
Garfield High School |
Beth |
312 |
Upcoming: Shoreline training 4/27
Lakeside Middle School 4/28
Bush School 4/29
Evergreen MIT Program 5/4
MLK Vista 5/6
Nathan Hale 5/12
Schools Out WA 5/17 and 5/18
WEA 5/21
Outreach
Upcoming: Edmonds United Methodist Church 5/6 – NEED COVERAGE
Inter GSA Meeting, SPS 5/21
Healthy Schools Summit 5/24
(13) LISTSERV REPORT – Beth
- Welcome to subscribers so far in 2011 from:
- Fremont, NE
- Seattle, WA (9)
- Okemos, MI
- Vancouver, WA
- Washington, DC
- Indianapolis, IN
- New York, NY
- Suwanee, GA
- Bellevue, WA
- Gainesville, FL
- Tallahassee, FL
- Maplewood, MN
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Columbia Heights, MN
- Rochester Hills, MI
- Toronto, ON, Canada
- Petoskey, MI
- West Roxbury, MA
- Tenino, WA
- Milton, WA
- Blair, NE
- Perrysburg, OH
- East Lansing, MI
- Oakland, CA
- Brockton, MA
- We currently have subscribers in:
- 11 countries
- 44 U.S. states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico
- 5 Canadian provinces and
- 27 counties in Washington State
(14) Tabling at Healthy Schools Summit -
PFLAG Seattle Chapter will put SSC flyers on their table at the Healthy Schools Summit May 24th. This saves SSC the fee for the table. Thank you! Barb Clark Elliot commented
“It is truly my pleasure Beth. And it is the least we can do to support what SSC does for our loved ones and friends.”
(15) LEADERSHIP TEAM –
We need to add members to replace leadership team members who can no longer help SSC in this manner. Some possible people were suggested. Beth will check on two and Frank will check on one. A SSC advisory board
was also suggested to help bring present and past leadership team members together when needed.
(16) PFLAG PSA – Seattle chapter has been given a grant to do a PSA on LGBT suicide prevention. Gabi will participate and help. Thanks Gabi!
(17) HELP NEEDED: Do you like the idea of heading a small (maybe 2-3 person) committee to revise or create new brochures for the Coalition? SSC is in need of a redesign and printing
of our current brochures. It was suggested we look into getting help with design and media messaging.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS … contact the chair if you have agenda items to suggest or if you need instructions about attending (in person) or calling in (by conference call). All are welcome - you do NOT need to be a Coalition member to attend.
July 19th, 2-4 pm (NOTE SUMMER HOURS), Pacific Time. Stefanie facilitates and Penny records. NOTE: Beth will miss this
meeting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Safe Schools Coalition
c/o Rosehedge
1401 East Jefferson Street, Suite 401
Seattle, WA 98122
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The Safe Schools Coalition is a public-private partnership of 60+ organizations (government agencies, schools, community agencies, churches, youth/student groups, gay/lesbian groups, human rights
groups) and 100+ individuals working to help schools become safe places where every family can belong, where every educator can teach, and where every child can learn, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
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