[EDEQUITY] Re: copy of letter to Detroit Free Press reporter

From: Linda Purrington (lpurring@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Oct 13 2000 - 12:00:31 EDT


Dear Mr. Niemiec:
Your story about the mother who got a restraining order to keep the
school principal away from her daughter Lisa is full of intriguing
holes. Why does no one know what the boy's punishment was? Why does no
one mention that this is a Title IX issue? Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972 forbid schools to discriminate against either sex in
discipline as well as in academics and athletics. Why isn't the Office
for Civil Rights involved in the case? The OCR is supposed to administer
Title IX cases. Is the girl suffering the educational consequences of
the incident, rather than the boy? The mother deserves kudos for such a
creative use of a restraining order, but really she should also insist
that the principal be removed immediately from the school, in the same
way that it is inappropriate to deprive the less powerful person of
educational consequences to keep them separate.
        Please feel free to publish this letter to the editor.
Regards,
Linda Purrington
Title IX Advocates

----------------------------------------------
Sharon Hushka wrote:
>
> In today's Detroit Free Press, Dennis Niemiec reports an incident where
> allegedly an 11-year girl, Lisa, was in a fight with a boy at school.
> The mother was awarded a "court-ordered personal protection order that
> prohibits the principal from going near the girl. Lynn Matney said the
> principal grabbed her daughter and swung her into a wall 25 minutes
> after the fisticuffs."
>
> "Lisa, who receives A's and B's, was suspended for three days for
> punching the boy. School officials declined to say what punishment the
> boy received."
>
> Does someone have more information on this incident other than what is
> reported in the paper? On the surface, it appears this is an example
> where the girl who isn't "ladylike" is strongly reprimanded, but the boy
> is treated stereotypically "boys will be boys."
> http://www.freep.com/news/locway/taylor11_20001011.htm
>
> Sharon Hushka
> sharynh@earthlink.net



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