13, there's no delete button for those images we post online. are you seeing those trend lines, are you seeing broader trend lines or are we just starting to measure these things because our consciousness is expanding with regard to bullying. >> that's another challenging question to answer. there are a lot of data gaps. i was a local elected official and we worked very hard to get schools to collect data on incidents of violence in the school and, frankly, there's a lot of data integrity issues involved. you don't want to be the school that has the highest number of incidents in your district. and so there's a built-in perverse incentive to sweep things under the rug. and so part of the challenge moving forward and i have had many conversations with superintendents and law enforcement officials as well about how we can address this data integrity issue and how a school won't be hoisted by

their own petard because they had the courage to collect the data when other schools kind of look the other way. so, again, it's a hard question to answer in ways that are other than anecdote. there have been survey data and things of that nature, but i feel uncomfortable saying unequivocally this is what we know, these are the trends. i like to be evidence based and i'm not sure the evidence allows that. >> roslyn, challenges to you and secretary duncan. >> for the first time you can see data for the first time about the -- discipline and students referred to law enforcement, suspensions more than once. on the bullying and harassment we are also collecting for the first time

ever data on the number of incidents of students disciplined for bullying and harassment. they are not exactly reliable. lots of folks aren't collecting this. our collection is at the school level so you could go and see all this data that pop out in nice graphs for the first time ever and look at schools in your community. there were in the sample, it covers about 85 percent of the nation's schools this year we're in store for a universal sample, you're looking at over 60,000 students that were reported, records, right, these aren't the anecdotes, these aren't the things in the hallway that don't get reported, sex, over 35,000, on the basis of national origin and over 10,000 on the basis of

disability. one of the ways we are at least able to dig into some of the trends to look at the kind of complaints that come into our office, we have received more complaints than ever before under this administration. part of that is in answer a little bit to your first question, governor, it's not -- as i go in the field and we ask why is it we're receiving 30 percent, we're receiving 30 percent more complaints under this administration than in 2008. that was your question, is it that it's getting worse? what i'm hearing is that people trust that we are doing something about it and can help, that we are doing the kinds of outreach that the attorney general and the u.s. attorney talk about, as arnie says as well, get out there and teach in the communities, it can't happen from washington. over the last year alone,

we've seen a 34 percent increase just between 2010 and 2011 on bullying and harassment cases. 32 percent of those are about sexual or gender based stereotyping and harassment, 41 percent on disability and 40 percent on race and national origin. we've just started monitoring those trends since 2009 we've been collecting those data. so it appears that while historically we were doing a lot more on things like disability harassment, it's actually a kind of racial harassment that in fact might be getting worse and certainly getting a lot more obvious. one of the ways that we have partnered, department of education and department of justice was right here at the university of california in san diego where you might have heard about the compton cookout and the alleged noose in the library and we have heard

similar instances in california and elsewhere, things like (inaudible) the kinds of resolutions and remedies we seek are not just about ensuring that those that were responsible for these activities that caused a hostile environment that adults knew of, should have known of and knew of and done something about it, is about ensuring that the culture that gives rise to that is eradicated. so our resolutions are about mining the data in detail so that you know not just what's happening but who feels comfortable saying it and how they are going about trying to remediate it. it is about doing climate checks because unless adults consistently talk to their student body and understand you don't know whether it's getting better. in lots of instances in our resolutions it's also been about ensuring that there was a

community school leader committee on campus to help deal with some of these issues, to do things like peer to peer orientation because, for example, we know sexual harassment and sexual violence happens most frequently in the early days of the school year during things like orientation week. and it's also about ensuring that we realize the school day doesn't just end at 3:00. extra can urricular activities, partnerships between local law enforcement. >> tom, back to the question i posed about a federal definition, do you even have consistency within federal agencies of a definition as you partner with various agencies? >> well, our biggest partner is the department of education. we've done a number of cases together and we really start with the stools that we have which is title 9, title 6, and we have, those laws do have definition. so we work off

those common definitions. and we have done, we have been able to do a lot more work in the lgbt context. ruslyn is correct, if you look under title 9 you won't see the words sexual orientation or gender identity but you will see sexual discrimination. there is a pretty robust body of case law that states that gender nonconformity, in other words, you're acting gay, you're a boy, you need to dress like a boy, that harassment is a form of sex harassment that if it happened in the workplace you could file a case under sexual discrimination. we've been able to use those tools to make a lot of progress. the seth

walsh case in tehachipe is an example of that. so those are the tools we have. we have a lot of discussion, senator franken and others have introduced bills in the united states senate to address precisely the questions that you are asking, governor, and we have supported them and we continue to look forward -- as a prosecutor i always want more tools. you know, i see a problem out there and i want to have the tools to fix it. we passed a hate crimes law in 2009 that enables us to work with local law enforcement in much more effective ways to combat hate crimes including but not limited to lgbt motivated violence. so we'd love to have more tools. but, you know, with the tools that we currently have, we're doing as much as we can and i think ruslyn's point about the uptick in the number of complaints we're both receiving, i'm not sure that

necessarily reflects, as ruslyn correctly pointed out, that there's an uptick in violence. the doctrine of futility often resulted in less complaints being seen. i think there's a commitment in the federal level to doing our level best on these issues. >> tom, you talk about tools. ruslyn, what kind of tools, part of this is raising awareness, looking at best practices, sharing those best practices. what kind of tools is your agency offering, what kind of tools is the federal government providing municipalities, community leaders, advocates and the like? >> i can talk about some. we need more. this is why these kind of conversations are so helpful and we no doubt learn more from you than we could ever impact. that is because there is no one size fits all to this. this is about, it is what gives rise to cultures that

promote a bullying and harassment on a regular -- are about community and it's about what feeds into community. now, some of those tools, as tom mentioned, as we've been talking about, are very much the civil rights laws. in my mind, having had the privilege of working on education issues for a very long time, i have come to realize that the civil rights laws are the most, have been historically the most sorely underutilized tools for change. it is in the context of civil rights as we talked about with the lgbt community. we have also, as tom mentioned, seen and we were reading about all too frequently a kind of bullying and harassment for students of certain religious groups. in our guidance we also made it clear while we don't have jurisdiction over religion in the same way we don't over sexual orientation, what we're

seeing in all of these -- and all of these are case by case, you can't just broad sweep the laws -- when students are bullied and harassed in this world because of religion, in most instances a lot of that is not about race or religion, it's because. perception that students that share certain religious traits also share certain ethnicities and that is discrimination and that falls under title 6. it is not just about enforcing the laws that make it clear how the laws apply. it is, though, as we said, you can't get at this through enforcement alone. this is a culture that tolerates this and in too many ways promotes it. as tom mentioned we have an unprecedented partnership not just between our agencies but agencies across the federal government that the president has convened to bring our best resources and minds to bear to do something about it. there is now a web site,

stopbullying.gov where a tool kit is being developed and these kinds of best practices are being promoted. the center for disease control, the division of violence prevention, an effort to use good data in research, they have released a come pend yum of common bullying tools. that's also available online. we are doing these conversations with community and the president has convened now two bullying summits where we bring the best practices to bear and learn locally. we've been doing webinar series across the country, you can find the dates for those on the web site. tom also mentioned about school busses and we realize, right, because this is not just about teachers, this is not just about forward-looking superintendents or guidance councilors or mental health professionals in schools, i

don't need to tell anyone in this room about what's been happening on school busses. we are in partnership with the nea and companies helping train bus drivers so they know what to do better. you've seen the ad council campaign on bullying, it's really about the civic will to deal with this, encouraging conversations at home, that kind of social campaign is important to do that, and to encourage young people not to stand by in silence. so much of this, if you are not the perpetrator, if you are the victim but you see it, empowering young people to do something about it when they spot it. lastly, the partners recently announced a stop bullying video challenge where we are bringing together psa's that highlight what's happening by young people and want to give awards

and celebrate that. and, as i mentioned earlier, the grants, the money, the department of education has issued 11 grants to schools. we need more, we will see as budget proposals the president's and the secretary's real commitment to this to ensure that we have some resources for innovative programs that are happening across the country for those local programs that are really changing the way their schools function and their communities see their schools and promoting those and scaling them up. >> very quickly because i know we want to move on, the attorney general launched a defending childhood initiative, i know there's a lot of philanthropy in the room, we want to work in partnership to find those innovative programs. there was a jurisdiction in north dakota that got a grant to implement some of the

restoretive justice programs, the superintendent mentioned those. those have shown real potential for doing good things in terms of preventing recidivism in the bullying context. a grant to boston for statewide bullying intervention, so there's a number of different places, portland, maine and elsewhere. if you have ideas you should never hesitate to call us. we're not a grant making arm in our division but we have the auspices of the department of justice so if it's not mean i'll make sure to funnel you to the right place so you can have that conversation. >> tom, what else, are there other best practices, other communities that stand out as you have traveled that resonate with you. >> like so many things, governor, it starts with leadership. the programs i look to and i say, i'd like my kid to go to this school, it starts out with clear leadership at the top. it then

starts out with clear policy direction so that the rules are set out in a very clear and transparent way. it continues with partnerships so that there is, you know, there are community-based partners, a recognition that this isn't just a teacher responsibility, it's really a community responsibility. and it's like so many things, it's about culture development. you know, what is your institutional culture? i work with a lot of police departments in a different world where we're dealing with serious issues that have occurred and we're trying to develop a culture that ensures effective policing and constitutional policing which go hand in hand. and we talk a lot about how do you change the culture? this is what it's about. i think this is an area where the bay area has a leg up. 20 years ago or 21 years ago i spent a year here, basically, i was

doing a federal trial involving some bad things that happened, okay? i usually come in after bad things have happened. and we were picking the jury and i'll never forget it, it was about a 6 or 7-week trial, 1992 or something like that, 91, and it was remarkable to me because we did a questionnaire because the case had a lot of publicity. and i'd say 99 percent of the people noted, the potential jurors noted they have daily and meaningful contact with a person of another race or religion. and then i had another trial after this was done in another jurisdiction that shall go unnamed, and i would say there were maybe 5 percent of the jurors, potential jurors, who had had meaningful contact with

a person of a different race or ethnicity and that's really what this is about. one of my least favorite words is the word tolerance because, you know, i tolerate brussel sprouts but if you simply tolerate the diversity that is america, you are going to, you are aspiring for mediocrity. when we have, and this gets back to your question, when we have leaders that embrace diversity and that build a culture that says, you know what, if you want to compete in the global economy tomorrow, pal, you've got to embrace diversity. why does coca-cola write a brief to the united states supreme court and general motors and microsoft on issues of diversity and higher education? because they know if they want to get ahead, they've got to embrace that diversity. if they want to continue to be a fortunes 50 company, there's got to embrace diversity.

similarly if we want to get down to the local level and address this issue, we've got to teach our kids that the sooner that you embrace difference and understand that your muslim classmate or your seat classmate or your gay classmate or your limited english professor classmate might be tomorrow's ceo or today's best friend of yours, the better off we will be. you have a leg up, having done about 30 jury trials across this country and seen interactions between people of diverse backgrounds. >> and here we try to celebrate, not just embrace, our diversity. celebrate all our interesting diversity but also celebrate the things that bind us together.

ruslyn, does can urriculum need to change or is that not yet where you are. >> the federal government can't -- 10th amendment. >> change it. >> that would be federal overreach. >> well stated. >> no, but, but, so we are not funding or digging into can urriculum in that way. but you certainly have seen superintendent caranza happened about what happens with the kinds of conversations that happen with the movie bully and there are can urriculum packages being developed. i had visions, gary, to think about how if folks decided -- and we don't play in this -- but if folks decided there could be a class on this, how you teach, life skills class, right? if we try to make a

one-size fits all click approach that doesn't really take people from where they are and get them to where they need to go. i have seen life skills work well and i have seen students literally filling out mcdonald's applications in their life skills class. so you can't just quickly eradicate and we can't just think about this in an isolated silo the link, for example, that has been alluded to between discipline and bullying, they go hand in hand, how zero tolerance policies often can hurt the victim of bullyings and harassment as they react. you heard tom mention restoretive justice, right here, again, right here in this city across the bridge, and i know as superintendent talked about, you are doing amazing stuff in san francisco. tony smith in oakland has an

initiative that is dealing with not just things like restoretive justice alone but positive behavioral interventions and supports. couple that with response to intervention, whole school reform strategies that work on transforming the way the school is functioning and in so doing making it a more positive culture for everybody. it brings in parental engagement in families and it has the very tough conversations, in the case of oakland i know for sure, around things like race with an african american male focus in that community because it's appropriate for that community, and the way all these things link together. so certainly bullying and harassment is an avenue into transforming the way schools work. just like discipline is an avenue into transforming the way schools work, as is standards and good assessments, it is how all these things fit

together to ensure that students feel safe to learn but that what they are learning are the rigorous courses and skills and they are challenged enough to stay in school, graduate, and meet our president's goal we're going to lead the world when it comes to college graduates again. >> in our remaining 6 1/2 but i'll say 8 minutes, i want to recognize tom ammiano who walked in, tony, i'm going to put you on the spot first just because i was so upset you left us when i was mayor and we tried to keep you, but i'm so happy for oakland. but, tony, you have any comments or questions for our two esteemed panelists, particularly ruslyn who has been saying so many nice things about you. you should reciprocate. >> we also have a really big investigation going in oakland. i'm not sure -- tony is right. be nice. >> thank you, yeah, good

morning, everybody. thank you very much. so we are pretty deep in an investigation about the disproportionate suspension of african american males and the reason we have been able to engage so deeply is because of the understanding that unless we take a really deep healing approach, unless we look at the root issue, bullying will persist. so we said you need to have a universal goal that you can eliminate bullying but it's really about creating a caring school community. what i would ask, this question of definition, can you, though, ask for communities to come forward with what it would look like to be, what's the vision for youth in our cities across the country, to be more articulate about the kinds of conditions we should have in our cities and the kinds of role that the elected officials have in working cross jurisdiction to say young people should feel these ways and have these kinds of opportunities in our cities.

what would that look like? >> we have some models. we have some models. i do think the kind of youth voice in this conversation is remarkable and it's a place -- but it ought not be the exception, right, these are the consumers of everything we do and far too often their voices are not heard enough. in those practices, in those places that are really getting at the root cause of this, it is coming from youth, as all movements do, right, and it is ensuring that those community groups become partners with the school site to take what folks like you are trying to do and ensure that its tentacles reverberate far outside the school building. while we don't have things like a common definition we have seen, over the last 3 years, finally all

states developing some state policy against bullying and harassment. three years ago we didn't have anything close to that. and it is about state leadership, not just looking at the civil rights laws for protection, but -- and it certainly is our job to vigorously enforce them -- but it is your job as superintendent to (inaudible) even where the federal civil rights laws don't protect you. so it's a case of taking what you are doing, what folks are doing across the country and putting those on places like stopbullying dwofl .org so we can scale those up around the country. >> recognizable face. >> (inaudible) and i'm also

head of the san francisco commission on women and the lieutenant governor asked about data. actually we do have data on bullying in san francisco high schools, particularly bullying among lgbt girls. so for the first time this year we've incorporated data that kevin coggin and ilsa (inaudible) provided and their suicide rates are off the charts, lesbian girls in our district. it's actually from the cdy youth risk survey. i want to offer that as a resource to folks in this room and encourage you in this pursuit of data. >> thank you. >> my question centers around the point of view of a parent. four years ago my son shot

himself at school. he was a victim of bullying in sacramento, california. these kinds of summits are interesting it me because i'm boots on the ground. i am in the trenches every single day and i live in sacramento so i'm at the capitol and we use the word bullying which softens the behavior. this is abuse. it is peer abuse. and our children are crying for help. and the adults who are charged with their well-being turn a blind and deaf ear to it and here's my comment. there are no consequences for failure to comply. nothing with teeth. and i have a dead child who broke under horrendous circumstances where in one of the best schools in sacramento, meraloma, breaks every record going. it is the

best. and my son was perceived to be gay and the idea that you could scream out every horrendous word in front of god and everyone and no one did anything, and michael followed policy to a t tomorrow is his birthday. i should be celebrating his 21st birthday. instead, my husband and i, we mourn 4 years. we are no further along. none of our laws, they are not working. this is great. but as a parent who runs around and goes to these things to be able to say, okay, we are the most progressive state in the country and our children are dying and they are floundering. how you get it from this