A father of two filed a lawsuit last week claiming that East Hawaii public schools have failed to protect his boys from bullies who targeted them because of their dad’s sexual orientation.
A father of two filed a lawsuit last week claiming that East Hawaii public schools have failed to protect his boys from bullies who targeted them because of their dad’s sexual orientation.
Joshua Alameda Franklin, who is openly gay, and his boys, Alea Stevens-Alameda, 10, and Poha Stevens-Alameda, 9, named the Department of Education and multiple individuals, including state schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi and Deputy Superintendent Stephen Schatz, as defendants in the suit filed Aug. 7 in Hilo’s Third Circuit Court.
Franklin, a car salesman at Big Island Honda, filed the suit himself, but says he has been talking with various attorneys about representing his family.
“Both children have been subjected to ongoing pervasive, egregious and overwhelming student-on-student harassment as well as several incidents of teacher-on-student harassment directly resulting from the action and inaction of Department of Education officials,” the lawsuit reads.
The boys told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Tuesday that fellow students at Hilo Union Elementary, Waiakeawaena Elementary and other schools assaulted them and called them names like “fag,” “queer,” and more.
“It makes me sad. And mad,” Alea said of such incidents.
Franklin said that his boys, whose mother no longer lives with them, have been picked on for years because of his sexuality, and he has repeatedly brought up the issue with school administrators, but to no avail.
In fact, he claims, some teachers have contributed to the problem.
After Alea’s physical altercation with another boy, Franklin said he talked with his sons and together they decided to go public with their problems.
“You know, this altercation had happened, and (Alea) tells me that he doesn’t want to go to school any more,” Franklin said. “He’s scared no one’s paying attention. ‘They’re not going to help me. The teachers aren’t listening to me.’ I thought about it for a little while, and I was like, you know what? The only way they ever do anything is if I post it on Facebook. So I’m going to post it so that the community knows.”
In late March, the family recorded an approximately eight-minute YouTube video in which they described the bullying they had experienced, and the video quickly caught fire. As of Wednesday, it has garnered nearly 57,000 views.
In the video, Alea explains that often he has had to defend his father’s sexuality to bullies.
“I was bullied because people would ask me about my father, if he was gay, and I would say, ‘Yeah. There’s nothing wrong with that,’” he said. “They would tease me about it. I tried to walk away from this kid. He jumped on me, and he slammed my face into the pole and gave me a black eye.”
On April 6, then Hilo-Waiakea Complex Area Superintendent Valerie Takata responded to the video by sending a letter home to parents.
“We are addressing the claims raised in that video and realize the issue of bullying goes beyond our schools,” she wrote.
She said schools can “make every effort” to address bullying, but said that the issue should also be addressed by the community.
“School staff can do a great deal to prevent bullying and protect students, but they can’t do it alone,” Takata wrote. “Families, the community and students also have a role to play in preventing bullying at school.”
She included a number of tips on how parents can talk to their children about bullying and respecting diversity.
However, Franklin said, that simply wasn’t enough to address the problem.
“I want to see them doing training for all employees (of the DOE) every year about anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) discrimination and bullying,” he said.
Franklin says he did not state in the civil filing how much money he thinks the DOE should pay, he’d rather let a jury figure that out. But, he said, he would like to be compensated for lost wages, because he has had to take time off from work and stay home with his sons, who don’t feel safe at school anymore.
“I can’t send them to school,” he said.
The DOE’s policy is to not to comment on pending lawsuits, but spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz confirmed Wednesday that the DOE received a copy of the complaint on Tuesday.
“The department is committed to providing a safe and enjoyable learning atmosphere for students, families and educators,” she wrote in an email response to questions. “We work to reduce all inappropriate and improper student behavior by emphasizing a culture of respect, responsibility and resiliency, using a framework of prevention, response and follow-up. We work with communities to promote understanding, and investigate incidents to ensure student safety.”
Dela Cruz said that the DOE does not differentiate acts of bullying depending on whether they target students for sexual orientation, racial background, and other reasons. Instead, “for all inappropriate and improper behaviors, faculty and staff are trained in the context of zero-tolerance,” she wrote.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.