The principal and an administrator of a high school in Oregon will be removed from their jobs after a state investigation into anti-gay discrimination at the school.
The North Bend School District reached an agreement with the ACLU of Oregon after an Oregon Department of Education (ODE) investigation found evidence of systemic discrimination against LGBTQ students.
Professor Warren Binford of Willamette College said that it was “one of the worst cases of discrimination at a school that she had ever seen in Oregon.”
The state investigation started when students Liz Funk and Hailey Smith, who are now seniors, filed a complaint. “People would turn their backs to me and fake-cough while saying ‘faggot,'” she wrote on the ACLU of Oregon’s website. In another incident, a girl pinned her to the bathroom wall and called her “dyke.” When she got beaten up for being gay, the school police officer said that she was going to hell.
The students filed a complaint with the ODE and got help from the ACLU. The ODE investigated and administrators even admitted to using the Bible as a form of punishment before the school district denied that the incidents occurred.
In a letter sent to the school district in March, the ODE said that the school was possibly in violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws and told the school district to reach an agreement with the students.
But the school district didn’t take any action until a local newspaper obtained a copy of the ODE letter earlier this month.