Springfield Diversity Plan

June 7, 2005
By Dana Rebik
KVAL-TV, Oregon

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Springfield - After a rising number of harassment complaints in
the Springfield School District, members of the community have
come together to rewrite a diversity plan.

Last year there were 127 harassment complaints filed by students
and staff in the district.  Tuesday night, the Safety and
Respect for All Committee met to go over the language in the new
diversity plan.

There is some disagreement over a section on protecting students
and staff based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
One board member thinks the protection we have under the 14th
Amendment in the Constitution is enough.

"I think that's sufficient.  I think that's worked in the
constitution since the 1860's and I think that's the language we
should use in our program today," says Reis Kash.

Other members of the committee disagree and think more specific
terms should be spelled out in the diversity plan.

"All staff students visitors needed to be treated with dignity
and respect in all the buildings all the time and the only
contention left is what language do we use to describe that,"
says Dennis Murphy.

The committee also reviewed results of the Oregon Healthy Teens
Survey.  Surveys were passed out to students between 8th and
11th grade, and the results showed that harassment is increasing
at all those grade levels in the Springfield School District.

The committee will present the final draft of the diversity plan
to the school board next week.

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