In August of 2003, Tad LeGrand, a gay, ninth-grade math teacher at Fallbrook Union High School, was placed on paid administrative lead after he complained to school officials about anti-gay slurs he heard directed at him in his classroom. Now, eight months later, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is addressing his complaints against the school district.

“They didn’t know I was gay, but there were accusations of it and I denied it,” LeGrand said of his experiences during his first three years at Fallbrook Union. “I didn’t want to be outed in that conservative community. I didn’t want parents threatening to take their kids out of my class. Or worse yet, one of the things I feared was that some kid would come up with a reason to say that I had molested him and I didn’t want to deal with that so I kept it under wraps.”

LeGrand, who moved to San Diego from Colorado four years ago, did not know much about the rural community when he took the teaching job. The town is home to noted white supremacist Tom Metzger and home to an annual haunted house that includes photos of late-term abortions and AIDS patients in its repertoire of items used to scare children.

“I moved to San Diego, feeling like at least this is southern California, at least there are protections in place for sexual orientation,” LeGrand said, noting that there were no such protections in Colorado. “But what’s amazing to me is I have never seen such a hostile employer as right here in California where there are sexual orientation protections for students, teachers and employees in general. It totally blows my mind.”

During his first two years at Fallbrook Union, LeGrand had two gay insults directed at him, but being new to the school he choose not to take a stand. After hearing three more such remarks during his third year at the school, and once he had reached tenure, LeGrand decided to file a complaint.

“Kids shouldn’t be allowed to say ‘You fuckin’ faggot’ to a teacher and get away with it, and that’s what they were doing,” LeGrand said. “Also, I became aware of students who were being harassed and administrators and teachers in this particular community were looking the other way. They just didn’t care.”

In an interview conducted with the Gay & Lesbian Times in October 2003 about the environment at Fallbrook Union, Superintendent Thomas Anthony and Director of Student Services Peter Fellios said they were not aware of any harassment on campus in regards to sexual orientation, other than the case of a male student who wore makeup to school and was shouted at by students. (Both declined to characterize the comments as taunting or harassment, though Fellios said he thought the student had gender identity issues.) Anthony said students brought the incident to the administration’s notice and it was dealt with that day.

“They conveniently don’t talk about the kids that are mentally on the edge and could go off the deep end because it would make the school look bad,” LeGrand said about the school’s silence. “It would make them look bad and it would jeopardize their careers.”

The school responded to LeGrand’s complaint by placing him on administrative leave and removing him from his classroom. After reaching an agreement with the school, LeGrand remained on administrative leave awaiting his medical provider’s approval to return to work. However, the school forced him back to work in early February, he said, shortly after he filed a complaint against the school regarding how they handled the situation with the State Board of Education.

LeGrand was placed in an office position at Ivy High School, a satellite campus of Fallbrook Union, and had to make multiple requests to be provided with keys that would allow him access to faculty restrooms on the campus. Additionally, the district failed to provide him with keys for the main high school campus, even though he attended training sessions on the campus and the main teachers resource center was located there.

Since the complaint was filed, the case has been passed back and forth between the State Board of Education and the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). The State Board says that complaints about harassment in the work environment should be handled by the DFEH, while the DFEH has contended that it can only represent LeGrand if the harassment is coming from another teacher, not a student.

At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) does not provide protections for discrimination based on sexual orientation, but in a letter dated April 15, they informed LeGrand that they would be investigating two of his complaints: specifically, the district’s decision forcing him to return to work despite his agreement with them to the contrary, and the limited access to faculty lounge and restroom facilities on campus. The OCR chose not to look into a complaint made by LeGrand over the school’s attempt to place him on long-term disability prior to his filing the complaint with the State Board of Education – a move that was in conflict with his agreement to return to work upon his physician’s approval.

Since the OCR took on LeGrand’s complaints, the school board has begun negotiations to offer the teacher a settlement of sorts.

“They’ve made it clear, they don’t want me back in the classroom again,” LeGrand said, adding, “I don’t want to return there because the administration is so dishonest and crooked. The community, the parents and the students basically do what they want to do and they don’t have any regard for who they hurt in the process. I’m not talking about just what happened to me, I am talking about other students, the way they treat people who may or may not be gay.”

If he does reach an agreement with the school district, LeGrand, who taught at the high school level for six years in Colorado prior to his tenure at Fallbrook Union, said he plans to remain in the education field and will most likely take courses this summer to update his teaching credential.

“I’m looking at either teaching overseas, or in another school district that at least has a GSA [Gay Straight Alliance] there,” he said. “Someplace where I know I can be a positive impact for gay students.”