Applicability of NY Human Rights Laws To Students Being Challenged

The Ithaca City School District is challenging the applicability of New York's Human Rights Law to public school students. The Ithaca Journal reports on impassioned testimony at yesterday's school board meeting. Parents, students and community members are asking the board to drop its challenge that is pending in an appeal of a case in which the district is charged with failing to protect a student from racial harassment. The Human Rights Law prohibits religious discrimination, as well as discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, genetic characteristics, or military or marital status. The school district is arguing that the law's coverage does not extend to public school students. It claims that the public hearing procedures in discrimination cases heard by the New York Division of Human Rights forces schools to violate federal student privacy laws in order to mount a defense. Civil rights groups are planning to ask the New York legislature to amend the law to make it clear that it does apply to public school students.