After debate among parents, teachers, and other community members, the Alameda Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 Tuesday, May 26 to adopt safe schools curriculum that addresses sexual orientation and gender identity.

The curriculum, which covers kindergarten through fifth grade, includes lesson plans on stereotypes, different kinds of families, name-calling, and being an ally.

Sean Cahill and his partner have two children in the district, one fifth grader and one second grader.

Cahill said he's been involved with developing the curriculum from the beginning, when he brought to the district's attention that derogatory language was being used in the schoolyard in reference to the gay community.

The problem "needed to be addressed by the school district," he said. Besides schoolyard remarks, "there was no reflection of our family construction within the district's curriculum," said Cahill.

Barry Chersky, the consultant who helped develop the curriculum and a gay father himself, said it's important.

"Every child needs to have his or her experience reflected in order to thrive, to grow, to feel safe, and to achieve in school and for the most part children who are gender non-conforming, who are different in any way, or who might have LGBT parents are invisible," Chersky said.

Before the vote on the curriculum, Kirsten M. Vital, superintendent of the Alameda Unified School District, wrote in an e-mail that, "No matter what the outcome is – we need to do some work as a community to come together around issues of diversity, acceptance, and understanding of one another."

Criticism of the curriculum has included that discussion of LGBT issues should be up to parents.

Other school news

Several parents are suing the Castro Valley School District to try to get more information about a talk by Reverend Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, the out lesbian senior minister of the Eden United Church of Christ in Hayward.

Nehring said this was the third year she's participated in Castro Valley High School's "Days of Diversity" program.

An anonymous e-mail claimed she gave step-by-step instructions on becoming gay and transsexual, according to news reports.

"Step-by-step instructions? Could a heterosexual write step-by-step how to be heterosexual? I doubt it," Nehring said. She said that topics she discussed included her coming out process and nationally known hate crimes involving LGBT victims.

"There are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the Castro Valley district, and some of those people are teenagers who are just beginning to sense who they are," said Nehring.

In another part of the Bay Area, the American Civil Liberties Union announced recently that it has reached a settlement agreement with the Vallejo City Unified School District on behalf of a high school student who faced anti-gay harassment and discrimination from teachers and school staff and had to participate in a group designed to discourage students from being LGBT. The settlement includes district-wide anti-harassment training for students and staff, according to the ACLU.

Rochelle Hamilton, who's 16 and a lesbian, is now completing her junior year at another high school in the district.

Cheri Hamilton, her mother, wrote in an e-mail that Rochelle hopes to help start a gay-straight alliance next year.

"Currently Rochelle has an ongoing challenge of trusting teachers. ...Thankfully she has a wonderful teacher at her new school who has taken her under her wing to help nurture the process so Rochelle can believe again," wrote Hamilton.

Jason Hodge, chief spokesman for the school district, said, "There's been no admission of guilt" in the settlement. "However, we did find there was policy that needed to be updated. There was language around anti-discrimination of gay students that should have been there and wasn't there, and we certainly feel for the young lady and anything that she had to go through as a student here in the district."