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Seth Walsh 2, Roslyn 2, Ruslyn 2, Newsom 2, California 2, Anecdotes 1, U.s. 1, South Philly 1, Oakland 1, Washington 1, United States 1, Gach Newsom 1, United States Senate 1, Tom 1, Pal 1, San Diego 1, Gary 1, Underutilized 1, Maine 1, Gavin Newsom 1,
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  SFGTV2    [untitled]  

    January 17, 2013
    1:00 - 1:30am PST  

in 100 years when he was elected 10 years ago and he has remained an effective and visionary leader for everyone. mayor newsom gained worldwide recognition when he granted marriage licenses to same sex couples in 2004. we all remember those moving pictures of smiling couples on the steps of city hall, some of them their children watching on. his actions in 2004 thrust this civil rights issue into the national spotlight and cemented his reputation as a fearless public officials who does what he thinks is right. under mayor newsom's energetic leadership the economy grew and the city became an economic center for biotech and clean tech. gach newsom has been a trail blaitzer on combating homelessness and protecting the
often as a rite of passage. we certainly are seeing evidence in ways that i don't recall, the levels of violence, the vitriolic violence, it's not just coming from the back of the school, it's coming at home, social media, you are inundated with it, the effects of it. we also certainly there's been an evolution of what we should tolerate. for me, for example, very early on in the administration i had the privilege of meeting with carl hoover walker's mother. he would have been 11 years old on the day that we were meeting. this was in the spring of 2009. and as she was leaving and she was talking about his death and
had under title 6 for race color or title 9 for sex or 504, the ada for students with disabilities. but sex discrimination had been long since seen and recognized by the courts as also gender stereotyping. so carl might not have known that he was gay and he might not have been bullied and harassed because he was gay. perhaps it wasn't about his sexual orientation, it was about the fact he wasn't acting like a boy enough or girls aren't acting like a girl enough, in other words, it's gender stereotyping. that's a violation of title 9 and we made it clear, right? so that kind of training and recognition and help the superintendents and school officials so that what happened to seth walsh here in
tehachipe where for years he was subject to bullying and harassment makes the leaders in schools realize they have a responsibility and also gives them tools in ways they haven't known they had before to do something about it. it is also, though, not just about civil rights enforcement. when we talk about bullying and harassment there is no federal definition of bullying. in fact, one of the things we're working on is getting a common definition so we know what that means. and tom and i have an enormous amount of jurisdiction and team support to help ensure that when it comes to race, when it comes to color and national origin and sex and disability that there is some real teeth behind that, but it also is about students that are bullied and harassed because they are short, because they might act differently or unique. that's where we have to provide the kinds of tools and supports and
training to superintendents, like -- i see another one over there, tony smith from oakland, the sort of heroes that are deeply trying to transform their communities and recognize that this is also a community issue, that it is not just a school issue. >> tom, why don't we have a federal definition? >> well, we're working on it. i mean, i think there's a, when we had the white house conference there was a conversation about what is the federal role and there continues to be i think a robust debate in this country about whether education issues are local issues, whether they are federal issues, and what should be done. and there are a number of people --. >> tom, let me jump in. bullying is hardly unique to school day. >> uh-huh. >> so why in the broadier
sense is there not a federal definition of bullying that transcends local jurisdiction on schools? meaning, we know what bullying is when we see it. everyone may have a variation, about why isn't there a broad definition? >> certainly in the south philly case, a number of those kids were dealt with in the local criminal justice system because they committed an assault, a pretty serious assault. so that's -- bullying has a continuum. that's the extreme end of the continuum. but then you see what happens on twitter and facebook and the things that occur there and that becomes a lot more challenging to come up with a definition that is sufficiently clear so that it can give guidance to local authorities and also respectful of
constitutional first amendment issues of that nature. so it's a very good question to ask. it's a very challenging question to answer given the continuum of abuses that we see that we would put in the broad rubric of bullying. >> do you see, are there trend lines in terms of bullying? obviously cyber bullying and you talked about tweets, we have roughly 7.5 million people on facebook under the age of 13, there's no delete button for those images we post online. are you seeing those trend lines, are you seeing broader trend lines or are we just starting to measure these things because our consciousness is expanding with regard to bullying. >> that's another challenging question to answer. there are a lot of data gaps. i was a local elected official and we worked very hard to get schools to collect data on incidents of
violence in the school and, frankly, there's a lot of data integrity issues involved. you don't want to be the school that has the highest number of incidents in your district. and so there's a built-in perverse incentive to sweep things under the rug. and so part of the challenge moving forward and i have had many conversations with superintendents and law enforcement officials as well about how we can address this data integrity issue and how a school won't be hoisted by their own petard because they had the courage to collect the data when other schools kind of look the other way. so, again, it's a hard question to answer in ways that are other than anecdote. there have been survey data and things of that nature, but i feel uncomfortable saying unequivocally this is what we know, these are the trends. i like to be evidence based and i'm not sure the evidence
there were in the sample, it covers about 85 percent of the nation's schools this year we're in store for a universal sample, you're looking at over 60,000 students that were reported, records, right, these aren't the anecdotes, these aren't the things in the hallway that don't get reported, sex, over 35,000, on the basis of national origin and over 10,000 on the basis of disability. one of the ways we are at least able to dig into some of the trends to look at the kind of complaints that come into our office, we have received more complaints than ever before under this administration. part of that is in answer a little bit to your first question, governor, it's not -- as i go in the field and we ask why is it we're receiving 30 percent, we're receiving 30 percent more
complaints under this administration than in 2008. that was your question, is it that it's getting worse? what i'm hearing is that people trust that we are doing something about it and can help, that we are doing the kinds of outreach that the attorney general and the u.s. attorney talk about, as arnie says as well, get out there and teach in the communities, it can't happen from washington. over the last year alone, we've seen a 34 percent increase just between 2010 and 2011 on bullying and harassment cases. 32 percent of those are about sexual or gender based stereotyping and harassment, 41 percent on disability and 40 percent on race and national origin. we've just started monitoring those trends since 2009 we've been collecting those data. so it appears that while historically we were doing a lot more on things like
disability harassment, it's actually a kind of racial harassment that in fact might be getting worse and certainly getting a lot more obvious. one of the ways that we have partnered, department of education and department of justice was right here at the university of california in san diego where you might have heard about the compton cookout and the alleged noose in the library and we have heard similar instances in california and elsewhere, things like (inaudible) the kinds of resolutions and remedies we seek are not just about ensuring that those that were responsible for these activities that caused a hostile environment that adults knew of, should have known of and knew of and done something about it, is about ensuring that the culture that gives rise to that is eradicated. so our resolutions are about
mining the data in detail so that you know not just what's happening but who feels comfortable saying it and how they are going about trying to remediate it. it is about doing climate checks because unless adults consistently talk to their student body and understand you don't know whether it's getting better. in lots of instances in our resolutions it's also been about ensuring that there was a community school leader committee on campus to help deal with some of these issues, to do things like peer to peer orientation because, for example, we know sexual harassment and sexual violence happens most frequently in the early days of the school year during things like orientation week. and it's also about ensuring that we realize the school day doesn't just end at 3:00. extra can urricular activities, partnerships
between local law enforcement. >> tom, back to the question i posed about a federal definition, do you even have consistency within federal agencies of a definition as you partner with various agencies? >> well, our biggest partner is the department of education. we've done a number of cases together and we really start with the stools that we have which is title 9, title 6, and we have, those laws do have definition. so we work off those common definitions. and we have done, we have been able to do a lot more work in the lgbt context. ruslyn is correct, if you look under title 9 you won't see the words sexual orientation or gender identity but you will see sexual discrimination. there is a pretty robust body of case law that states that gender
nonconformity, in other words, you're acting gay, you're a boy, you need to dress like a boy, that harassment is a form of sex harassment that if it happened in the workplace you could file a case under sexual discrimination. we've been able to use those tools to make a lot of progress. the seth walsh case in tehachipe is an example of that. so those are the tools we have. we have a lot of discussion, senator franken and others have introduced bills in the united states senate to address precisely the questions that you are asking, governor, and we have supported them and we continue to look forward -- as a prosecutor i always want more tools. you know, i see a
problem out there and i want to have the tools to fix it. we passed a hate crimes law in 2009 that enables us to work with local law enforcement in much more effective ways to combat hate crimes including but not limited to lgbt motivated violence. so we'd love to have more tools. but, you know, with the tools that we currently have, we're doing as much as we can and i think ruslyn's point about the uptick in the number of complaints we're both receiving, i'm not sure that necessarily reflects, as ruslyn correctly pointed out, that there's an uptick in violence. the doctrine of futility often resulted in less complaints being seen. i think there's a commitment in the federal level to doing our level best on these issues. >> tom, you talk about tools. ruslyn, what kind of tools, part of this is raising
awareness, looking at best practices, sharing those best practices. what kind of tools is your agency offering, what kind of tools is the federal government providing municipalities, community leaders, advocates and the like? >> i can talk about some. we need more. this is why these kind of conversations are so helpful and we no doubt learn more from you than we could ever impact. that is because there is no one size fits all to this. this is about, it is what gives rise to cultures that promote a bullying and harassment on a regular -- are about community and it's about what feeds into community. now, some of those tools, as tom mentioned, as we've been talking about, are very much the civil rights laws. in my mind, having had the privilege of working on education issues for a very long time, i have come to realize that the civil rights laws are the most, have been historically the most
under title 6. it is not just about enforcing the laws that make it clear how the laws apply. it is, though, as we said, you can't get at this through enforcement alone. this is a culture that tolerates this and in too many ways promotes it. as tom mentioned we have an unprecedented partnership not just between our agencies but agencies across the federal government that the president has convened to bring our best resources and minds to bear to do something about it. there is now a web site, where a tool kit is being developed and these kinds of best practices are being promoted. the center for disease control, the division of violence prevention, an effort to use good data in research, they have released a come pend yum of common bullying tools. that's also available online. we are doing these conversations with community and the president has convened
important to do that, and to encourage young people not to stand by in silence. so much of this, if you are not the perpetrator, if you are the victim but you see it, empowering young people to do something about it when they spot it. lastly, the partners recently announced a stop bullying video challenge where we are bringing together psa's that highlight what's happening by young people and want to give awards and celebrate that. and, as i mentioned earlier, the grants, the money, the department of education has issued 11 grants to schools. we need more, we will see as budget proposals the president's and the secretary's real commitment to this to ensure that we have some resources for innovative programs that are happening across the country for those local programs that are really changing the way their schools
function and their communities see their schools and promoting those and scaling them up. >> very quickly because i know we want to move on, the attorney general launched a defending childhood initiative, i know there's a lot of philanthropy in the room, we want to work in partnership to find those innovative programs. there was a jurisdiction in north dakota that got a grant to implement some of the restoretive justice programs, the superintendent mentioned those. those have shown real potential for doing good things in terms of preventing recidivism in the bullying context. a grant to boston for statewide bullying intervention, so there's a number of different places, portland, maine and elsewhere. if you have ideas you should never hesitate to call us. we're not a grant making arm in
our division but we have the auspices of the department of justice so if it's not mean i'll make sure to funnel you to the right place so you can have that conversation. >> tom, what else, are there other best practices, other communities that stand out as you have traveled that resonate with you. >> like so many things, governor, it starts with leadership. the programs i look to and i say, i'd like my kid to go to this school, it starts out with clear leadership at the top. it then starts out with clear policy direction so that the rules are set out in a very clear and transparent way. it continues with partnerships so that there is, you know, there are community-based partners, a recognition that this isn't just a teacher responsibility, it's really a community responsibility. and it's like so many things, it's about culture development. you know, what is your institutional culture? i work with a lot of police
departments in a different world where we're dealing with serious issues that have occurred and we're trying to develop a culture that ensures effective policing and constitutional policing which go hand in hand. and we talk a lot about how do you change the culture? this is what it's about. i think this is an area where the bay area has a leg up. 20 years ago or 21 years ago i spent a year here, basically, i was doing a federal trial involving some bad things that happened, okay? i usually come in after bad things have happened. and we were picking the jury and i'll never forget it, it was about a 6 or 7-week trial, 1992 or something like that, 91, and it was remarkable to me because we did a questionnaire because the case had a lot of
publicity. and i'd say 99 percent of the people noted, the potential jurors noted they have daily and meaningful contact with a person of another race or religion. and then i had another trial after this was done in another jurisdiction that shall go unnamed, and i would say there were maybe 5 percent of the jurors, potential jurors, who had had meaningful contact with a person of a different race or ethnicity and that's really what this is about. one of my least favorite words is the word tolerance because, you know, i tolerate brussel sprouts but if you simply tolerate the diversity that is america, you are going to, you are aspiring for mediocrity. when we have, and this gets back to your question, when we have leaders that embrace diversity and that build a
culture that says, you know what, if you want to compete in the global economy tomorrow, pal, you've got to embrace diversity. why does coca-cola write a brief to the united states supreme court and general motors and microsoft on issues of diversity and higher education? because they know if they want to get ahead, they've got to embrace that diversity. if they want to continue to be a fortunes 50 company, there's got to embrace diversity. similarly if we want to get down to the local level and address this issue, we've got to teach our kids that the sooner that you embrace difference and understand that your muslim classmate or your seat classmate or your gay classmate or your limited english professor classmate might be tomorrow's ceo or today's best friend of yours, the better off we will be. you have a leg up, having done
about 30 jury trials across this country and seen interactions between people of diverse backgrounds. >> and here we try to celebrate, not just embrace, our diversity. celebrate all our interesting diversity but also celebrate the things that bind us together. ruslyn, does can urriculum need to change or is that not yet where you are. >> the federal government can't -- 10th amendment. >> change it. >> that would be federal overreach. >> well stated. >> no, but, but, so we are not funding or digging into can urriculum in that way. but you certainly have seen