The New York Times - 30.07.2019

(Brent) #1

A12 TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2019


N

WASHINGTON — Students who said
they were discriminated against be-
cause of their sexual orientation or gen-
der identity were significantly less likely
to get any relief from the Education De-
partment’s Office for Civil Rights under
the Trump administration than they
were under the Obama administration,
according to a report released Monday.
The report, released by the liberal
Center for American Progress and based
on the Education Department’s own
data, provided the first analysis of how
students who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-
sexual, transgender or queer have fared
in the first half of the Trump administra-
tion. The administration has reshaped
policy to exclude civil rights protections
for transgender people in most areas of
government and has scaled back legal
protections for gay people.
The report found that the Trump ad-
ministration was less likely to investi-
gate claims of discrimination filed by the
students — and more likely to dismiss
them. The percentage of complaints that
resulted in a school being required to
take action to remedy the discrimination
under the current administration was
nine times lower than under the Obama
administration, it concluded.
In 2017, just weeks after the new ad-
ministration took office, the Education
and Justice Departments rescinded an
Obama-era guidance document that in-
formed schools that denying students ac-
cess to bathrooms that correspond with
their gender identity was a violation un-
der Title IX, the federal law that prohibits
sex discrimination in institutions that re-
ceive federal funding. The Trump admin-
istration believed, as many conserva-
tives had long argued, that the Obama
administration’s guidance amounted to
overreach and was inconsistent with fed-
eral law.
The Education Department has
adopted the administration’s position, is-
sued in a memo by the Justice Depart-
ment, that gender identity is not covered
under federal civil rights laws.
But Betsy DeVos, the education secre-
tary, who reportedly protested the swift-
ness of the document’s revocation, has
said that while the department would no
longer investigate bathroom complaints,
it would still enforce protections for
L.G.B.T.Q. students who were bullied,
penalized or harassed for failing to con-
form to sex-based stereotypes.
That is not happening, the Center for
American Progress said.
“These data really show that Betsy
DeVos is not doing her job,” said Frank J.
Bewkes, one of the report’s authors. “Her
office just doesn’t seem to care about en-
forcing civil rights for these students.”
Education Department officials re-
leased data this month that showed that
students who have filed civil rights com-
plaints under Ms. DeVos’s leadership
were “served more efficiently and effec-
tively than students who filed civil rights
complaints during the previous adminis-
tration.”
The agency boasted that it has re-
solved, on average, nearly double the
number of civil rights complaints per
year compared with the prior eight fiscal
years, and it noted a 60 percent increase
in the number of complaint resolutions
that required schools to make changes to
protect students’ civil rights.
The department said that its own anal-
ysis of the complaint data for L.G.B.T.Q.
students showed the same trend.
“These data were selectively compiled
by a left-wing interest group to tell an
ideological story,” said Liz Hill, a spokes-
woman for the department. “No one
should mistake this as unbiased. This de-
partment vigorously protects the civil


rights of all students and will continue to
do so to the fullest extent of the law.”
The data obtained by the Center for
American Progress, which has served as
a research center for Democratic inter-
ests, reflected complaints filed by stu-
dents from March 2010 to May 2018 and
cases resolved by the Office for Civil
Rights from November 2010 to June


  1. The organization examined com-
    plaints of discrimination based on gen-
    der identity, sexual orientation and sexu-
    al orientation-related sex stereotyping
    under Title IX, and determined how the
    complaints were handled using resolu-
    tion codes used by the Education Depart-
    ment.
    An overwhelming number of com-
    plaints, 75.9 percent, alleged sexual or
    gender harassment, and transgender
    students were overrepresented in the fil-


ings.
The Office for Civil Rights was at least
54 percent more likely to investigate a
sexual orientation and gender identity
complaint under the Obama administra-
tion than it was under the Trump admin-
istration, according to the report. When
complaints were investigated, 91.5 per-
cent were dismissed or closed with no
finding of wrongdoing, compared with
65.4 percent under the Obama adminis-
tration. Ultimately, the Obama adminis-
tration resolved 22.4 percent of such
cases with a change to policy or practice
that the department believed would ben-
efit the student, compared with 2.4 per-
cent under the Trump administration,
the group concluded.
The Education Department said that
its own analysis of the complaint catego-
ries showed that it was averaging more

resolutions requiring schools to make a
change than the previous administration
— emphasizing the complaints acted on,
not the complaints that went unan-
swered.
It said the current administration av-
erages 11 resolutions that required a
change each year, compared with nine
averaged under the Obama administra-
tion. In fiscal year 2018, the agency ob-
tained more resolutions with change in
these categories than the previous ad-
ministration had achieved in any one
year.
Department officials acknowledged
that the previous administration fared
better when looking broadly at how all
cases were resolved — which is what the
Center for American Progress did — but
noted that the previous administration’s
numbers appear better because it re-
solved fewer cases.
“A parent wants to know, if their child’s
civil rights are being violated, will O.C.R.
provide for a change,” Ms. Hill said, re-
ferring to the department’s Office for
Civil Rights. “Under this administration,
it is more likely that it will. The numbers
speak for themselves if assessed objec-
tively.”
But critics say the department’s met-
ric for success ignores a large volume of
students.
“If you’re just rushing through com-
plaints, it’s not surprising that you would
resolve a large volume,” said Shabab Ah-
med Mirza, an author of the center’s re-
port. “What we’ve found is that more stu-
dents are having cases resolved and not

seeing justice. They’re not talking about
students who see no change at all.”
Ms. Mirza said that one finding in par-
ticular undercut the department’s claim
that the Obama administration’s civil
rights office was pushing a political
agenda.
Of the complaints that were investi-
gated, the Obama administration was
twice as likely to find after an investiga-

tion that a school had not violated stu-
dents’ rights.
Catherine E. Lhamon, who led the Of-
fice for Civil Rights under the Obama ad-
ministration and issued the transgender
guidance, said that was because her ad-
ministration was “investigating the facts
where they lead, and calling balls and
strikes as they were.”
“To receive the signoff that you have
not harmed children, it’s a very signifi-
cant resolution and it means a lot,” Ms.
Lhamon said. “What the Trump adminis-
tration is doing is not even examining
whether anyone’s been harmed. There’s
a benefit to examining whether a student
has been discriminated against, even
when the answer is no.”

L.G.B.T.Q. Students’ Rights Cases Stall Under DeVos, Report Finds


Flags outside the Stonewall Inn in New York in June, marking the 50th anni-


versary of the riots and Pride Month. Left, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.


She has said that while the department would no longer investigate bathroom


complaints, it would still enforce protections for L.G.B.T.Q. students.


BRITTAINY NEWMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

ALEX BRANDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By ERICA L. GREEN

The Trump administration


was found less likely to


investigate claims.


Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old
Swedish climate activist, will cross the
Atlantic Ocean in mid-August on an
open-cockpit racing yacht to attend a
United Nations summit meeting on
global warming.
“Good news! I’ll be joining the U.N.
Climate Action Summit in New York,”
Ms. Thunberg said Monday on Twitter.
“I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft rac-
ing boat Malizia II.”
The trip to New York is expected to
take two weeks. Ms. Thunberg, who is
taking the year off from school to cam-
paign against climate change, also plans
to attend the annual United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate
Change talks, to be held in December in
Santiago, Chile.
She has called the two conferences
“pretty much where our future will be de-
cided” because nations will be pushed to
further reduce emissions of the planet-
warming gasses that come from burning
fossil fuels. “We still have a window of
time when things are in our own hands.
But that window is closing fast. That is
why I have decided to make this trip
now,” Ms. Thunberg said in a statement
Monday.
Ms. Thunberg does not fly because of


the greenhouse gas emissions associ-
ated with air travel. She had been seek-
ing an alternate means of traveling to
New York for the summit meeting.
The boat she plans to take, Malizia II,
is outfitted with solar panels and under-
water turbines to generate electricity.
That should make the entire trip possible
without burning any fossil fuels.
Boris Herrmann, who will skipper the
boat, said the voyage would not be the
luxury cruise that a high-tech yacht
might conjure in the popular imagina-
tion. The Malizia II is built for speed, not
comfort. It has no kitchen, refrigeration
system, air-conditioning or showers.
“There’s really zero comfort on this
boat,” Mr. Herrmann said. He said he had
warned Ms. Thunberg that, for two
weeks, she will mostly eat freeze-dried
and vacuum-packed meals, and that the
crossing is likely to be choppy or worse.
“I asked her if she was scared and she
explained in a very analytical way that
she thinks this voyage is safe, the boat
has a lot of safety systems and is capable
of sailing around the world in a race, and
therefore it’s a strong boat,” Mr. Her-
rmann said. “She seems not to be wor-
ried about her comfort that much.”
Ms. Thunberg will be accompanied on
the trip by a filmmaker; her father,

Svante; and Pierre Casiraghi, the head of
the Malizia II racing team, who is also
the grandson of Prince Rainier III of
Monaco and the American actress Grace
Kelly.
Mr. Casiraghi said there were only a
handful of zero-emissions vessels like
Malizia II in existence. He said the team
developed it after becoming frustrated at

the incongruity of working so hard to
keep the oceans clean while simulta-
neously burning fossil fuels.
Safety rules require that racing boats
like the Malizia II have motors and gen-
erators aboard in case of trouble, like a
broken rudder near the shore, for exam-
ple, but the team keeps them sealed.
“We’re not going to use any fuel unless

we have an emergency,” Mr. Casiraghi
said.
Mr. Hermann said he had connected
with Ms. Thunberg after his girlfriend, a
schoolteacher in Hamburg, Germany,
told him about the impression she had
made during an appearance there in
March. The girlfriend suggested that if
Ms. Thunberg ever needed to make a trip
that was not possible by train, Mr. Her-
rmann should offer his help.
A few weeks later Ms. Thunberg spoke
publicly about the challenges of trav-
eling to the United States and Chile with-
out flying, and Mr. Herrmann and Mr.
Casiraghi offered her a ride.
Ms. Thunberg said in a statement that
she expected to attend a number of
events along the way to the climate con-
ferences, making stops in Canada, Mex-
ico and South America and “meeting
with people most impacted by the cli-
mate and ecological emergency.”
“Together with many other young peo-
ple across the Americas and the world, I
will be there, even if the journey will be
long and challenging,” she said. “We will
make our voices heard. It is our future on
the line, and we must at least have a say
in it.”
The Malizia II will drop Ms. Thunberg
off in New York and go on its way. Mr.
Casiraghi said arrangements for her re-
turn to Sweden had not yet been made.
“She has a long way to go.” he said.
“Her adventure is much bigger than just
this crossing.”

Teenage Swedish Activist Will Travel by Sailboat to New York Climate Talks


Crossing the Atlantic on a Zero-Emission Vessel


By LISA FRIEDMAN

Greta Thunberg, 16, will attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit in


New York before traveling to Chile for another United Nations meeting.


PHILIPPE WOJAZER/REUTERS
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