My daughter spent her first 6 years of school in a parochial school and all things were fine. In 6th grade we transferred her to a small (I mean SMALL-700 K-12) school in our community. For some reason, somebody got it into their little pea brain that it would be fun to accuse my daughter of being a lesbian. It rolled from there. At least 2-3 times a week, she would come home in tears, because somebody had called her gay, lesbian, etc. being the caring, but stupid parent, I told her to ignore it, that "Sticks and stones, etc.

Finally in eigth grade, I had heard enough. Both her father and I told her to try to go through the correct channels and keep a log of names, times and dates that each occurance happened. The principal and the teachers sat by and did nothing. I then filed a grievance based on sexual harrassment. The damn principal had the audacity to lie and say that he didn't have any record of my daughter's complaints! Well, of course my daughter had her own records. A meeting was held and the offending students were told that if it reocurred, they could face suspension.

Skip to 10th grade. My daughter is extremely intelligent and does not always follow the main steam in their beliefs ( our school is in the heart of the bible belt and if you aren't Christian and "saved", you are going to hell). Given that my daughter came from a Catholic school and one of her friends is Jewish, she has a little problem with this concept and has not failed to let everyone know this, plus she has developed an interest in Wicca and that really causes them to foam at the mouth. So the harrassment has started again by those who want to save her "soul", olus the name calling has started again. At this point, I have told her to document everything, and if and when it comes to my having to intervene, we won't stop with the local school board, I will take it to the state.

By the way, due to problems at home, compounded with the problems at school, she has run away twice and is now on probation. We are all in counseling and will survie this. If it comes down to it, I will sell everything I have to put her in a school where she can be safe and her uniqueness will be appreciated and applauded.