SPLCenter via YouTube
Destin Holmes does not want any more LGBT students at Magnolia Junior High School to go through what she did.
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A lesbian student is speaking out against the homophobic bullying she says she endured on a daily basis — from staff.
Destin Holmes, 17, said her principal called her “a pathetic fool” and said he did not “want a dyke in this school.”
One teacher allegedly forced her to use the boys’ bathroom and another refused to let her participate in a boys vs. girls quiz game — forcing her, instead, to sit in the middle of the room.
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“I actually cried during that class,” Holmes told The Huffington Post. “And what was running through my head was, ‘Why would a professional teacher say that to a student. Why?’ I’m still human. I’m not an alien.”
WLOX 13
“I’m still human. I’m not an alien,” Holmes said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit on Dec. 17 against the Moss Point, Miss. school district on Holmes’ behalf for the hateful comments from teachers, administrators and students.
They accuse the school district, school board, superintendent and high school principal of discriminating against Holmes because of her sexuality and violating her right to equal protection, reported Opposing Views.
“Destin was discriminated against from the moment she entered the Moss Point school district in 2011,” said Anjali Nair, a staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“These district officials that are supposed to be protecting the children are not only ignoring the claims, but they are blaming the students for the behavior and they are participating in the discrimination as well.”
WLOX 13
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Moss Point, Miss. school district on Holmes’ behalf.
Holmes said her grades suffered because it was hard to concentrate when people were calling her “a freak, and a dyke and a lesbian.”
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Her family chose to homeschool her but it proved to be too expensive and she missed her friends.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for Holmes and her family. She hopes it will change the school’s purported anti-gay environment that left her depressed, lonely and hopeless.
“Open up their mind and realize you don’t need to bully somebody just because they want to date girls or they want to be gay, or they want to be lesbian, or bi, or a transgender,” Holmes said to local station WLOX. “I’m hoping it will just stop.”
mwalsh@nydailynews.com
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=19819
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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