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WHY DON'T YOU DRESS LIKE A GIRL?
"You're ungodly and you are going to hell." These were the words that were said to a student from Ms. Clark, a teacher at Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo, California who is in charge of the education testing at the school. Jesse Bethel High sits at the top of Vallejo and has a digital sign in the front of the school, scrolling back and forth dates of sports games and holidays. As much as the school looks good from the outside, what goes on inside is a completely different. The student, 15-year-old Rochelle, has attracted a certain animosity from a number of Jesse Bethel staff. Is it because she is a female? Maybe because she's African-American? Maybe because she's gay? Maybe because of her sagging pants? Rochelle and her mother have been fighting for the answer over the last few months only to be told to keep their mouth shut from the principal. Literally. On one of the initial conversations the family had with the school, they were told to "zip it" and to let the school handle it. Rochelle's struggle though represents a larger hidden one happening all over the country. To be gay and have a style that doesn't fit the standard gender paradigm in school still carries a tremendous discrimination. When I meet Rochelle at her home, she sits nervously on her living room piano stool with her cornrows perfectly braided, wearing baggy clothes waiting to be interviewed. Her freckles are from her mother who sits across from me, an older woman wearing a tie-dye shirt who shares the same smile as her daughter. Rochelle recalls the first confrontation which occurred on September 25, 2007 that has sparked her and her mother's indignation. She tells the story of an incident in her biology class. After her teacher, Ms.Cayme, mistakenly accused Rochelle of letting another student into the classroom that did not belong there, Ms. Cayme let her true feelings show. ÒAfter calling me a fool and being ignorant, she said, 'You don't know what you are. You don't know if you're a man or a woman,'" says Rochelle. With every action comes a reaction, and Rochelle began to argue, which gets her sent to the office, kicking the trash can on the way out. The outcome: Rochelle received a three day suspension that soon was reversed after Rochelle's mother met with the principal and questioned their authority. Rochelle says, "Even before that happened, I had a clue about where she stood, because I was the only student she'd mess with. One day she just walked up to me while I was talking to a friend and said, ÔYou're so pretty. Why did you do this? Your mom let you be this way?'" I asked Rochelle if this has happened to any of the other gay students on campus. "Another teacher, Mr. Brooks, told my girlfriend that she was going to get AIDS if she messed with females, and also told me on a different occasion, ÔPut girl clothes on. You are a lady; it's not right to be that way.'" Rochelle's mother is stunned by the school's discriminatory practice. ÒThe principal, Mr. Ramos, gave a three day suspension to Rochelle without really looking into the matter. So my child sat in the office in a corner without any support from the school -- while this teacher is still teaching other students as if this is ok. Teachers are here to teach not to judge,Ó says Cheri Hamilton, Rochelle's mother. She tells me how it has been hard to also deal with the effect of her daughter's emotional well-being. ÒShe would come home hitting my hallway walls and telling me how mad and angry she is because of the way the teachers keep talking to her. When I look in my child eyes and I see the hurt that this has caused her, it hurts me.Ó Mrs. Hamilton says the school is trying to keep their case quiet. In a letter in which she noted numerous discriminatory comments made by various teachers towards her daughter, Mrs. Hamilton writes, ÒI send Rochelle to school to receive an education not to be the talk of the school or to be the staff's free outlet to make judgments.Ó Rochelle says she has not even been able to get support from the traditional avenues. ÒEven the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) counselor, Ms. Finley, who is in charge with the anger management, told me it was immature to challenge the school, and that discrimination was just something that I'd have to deal with through life.Ó I called the school who didn't seem pleased to be speaking to me by the tone of their voice, and the principal told me she couldn't comment on the situation. Now if teachers feel justified to judge youth, if counselors say to get used to it, and principals refuse to speak publicly about such hate, who can stop this? As of now, it looks like a mother and daughter team from Vallejo.
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