(NAME-MCE) Oregon -- Non-Discrimination Policy for Athletic Events

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Here is an update from Oregon that may be of interest to you.

Anselmo

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alan Brown <alan at rainbowsafaribengals.com>
Date: Apr 13, 2007 1:22 AM
Subject: Non-Discrimination Policy for Athletic Events

With recent events in Grants Pass, Veneta and at MacArthur Court I am
deeply concerned about the systemic level of of discrimination,
harrassment and intimidation in the scholastic sport event culture.

I believe students should feel safe and be safe in school and at
athletic events
I believe coaches and their support staff/volunteers should feel safe
and be safe at athletic events
I believe that community members that attend scholastic sport events
should feel safe and be safe

I believe that the affore mentioned groups do not feel safe and are
not safe at those events and that it is our responsibility as
community members to fix that.

State Senator Vicki Walker submitted a bill to the legislature during
the presession.  This bill is labeled SB 382.  It can be read in it's
current state at:

http://www.leg.state.or.us/07reg/measpdf/sb0300.dir/sb0382.intro.pdf

I have asked for additional language to this bill and it is currently
in the hands of the legal department for amendment to the bill.  My
suggested wording is:

"The State Board of Education will require that the volunteer
organization insure that interscholastic events are safe from
discrimination, intimidation, harassment and assault.  Violations of
this policy will result in punitive action by the volunteer
organization against the offending scholastic team(s).  Cultural
sensitivity training as it pertains to good sportsmanship is
recommended at the beginning of each interscholastic season.  This
should be provided to the entire student body as well as the
individual teams."

The bill is tentatively scheduled for a hearing before the education
committee that Sen. Vicki Walker chairs on April 24th, 2007.  That
could of course change.  It needs to come out of committee before
April 30th to have a chance to pass during the current legislative
session. Phone calls, letters and emails to your legislators on this
issue are important.  Advocacy from our respective PACs and Lobbyists
are also EXTREMELY important.  This measure is more important to
students of color and LGBT students than people may initially realize.

I would deeply appreciate it if folks would get behind this and PUSH
HARD for the sake of students in our state.