In West Virginia: School Board take action to Protect LGBT Students

The West Virginia Board of Education passed a new bullying policy to protect LGBT students.

Metro Weekly has the story:

As Fairness West Virginia announced on Facebook, "Policy 4373 passes! LGBT students expressly protected from bullying under WV state board[.] The decision was unanimous." The group says the move constitutes the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity were included in the state's anti-bullying policies.


Fairness West Virginia executive director Bradley Milam told Metro Weekly, "We put our whole weight behind this policy, we supported it through and through. We met with the Department of Education ... and had recommended enumation very similar to the kind that's in Policy 4373 that was approved today."

In the new policy's definitions of "Harassment/Bullying/Intimidation," which the policy prohibits, it specifies, "Acts of harassment, intimidation, or bullying that are reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics, shall be reported using the following list: race; color; religion; ancestry; national origin; gender; socioeconomic status; academic status; gender identity or expression; physical appearance; sexual orientation; mental/physical/developmental/ sensory disability; or other characteristic."

This is very good and a little surprising coming from the WV.