Eric Mohat

Eric Mohat

An Ohio family is suing its local high school after their son, 17-year-old Eric Mohat, took his own life. The family says that the school ignored Eric’s pleas for help as his fellow students ridiculed him with homophobic taunts even though he didn’t identify as gay. But they are not suing for money. Eric’s parents are suing to force the school to institute a comprehensive anti-bullying program, exactly the type of program that faces an upcoming vote in the Minnesota House and Senate.

“On the day Eric committed suicide, one of the students who had been harassing him said to Eric, in front of other students and, by information and belief, in front of defendant Horvath, ‘Why don’t you go home and shoot yourself? No one would miss you,’” said the court documents.

Thomas Horvath was Eric’s math teacher. “The defendants knew or should have known about this constant harassment,” the lawsuit claims. “Defendant Horvath knew about the harassment because most of the verbal harassment and some of the physical harassment took place in his classroom during a math class that he taught and because Eric complained to him about the harassment.”

HF1198 and SF971 would put Minnesota’s anti-bullying programs in line with the Minnesota Human Rights Act to include race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and age. Currently, 93 percent of schools do not have anti-bullying programs that include provisions for those categories, according to the Family Equality Council.

“In small towns, it can all depend on one teacher or a principal who makes it their mission” to make the school welcoming, Leigh Combs told the Minnesota Independent earlier this year. Combs is the LGBT Kids Abuse and Prevention coordinator at Minneapolis-based Family and Children’s Service.

Because the bill includes sexual orientation and gender identity, the Minnesota Family Council opposes it. “Frustration among parents, students and teachers will increase as they see indoctrination of homosexuality under the pretext of anti-bullying curriculum,” says the Council. “We’ve seen this escalate to bullying by school administrators of parents who object to the school’s undermining of parental values and authority.”

The group also says the bill will result in “indoctrination and intimidation of students and school officials who object to homosexuality.” The council’s number one argument against it is that it is “unnecessary.”

But to Andy Berlin, who faced bullying similar that experienced by Eric Mohat, the bill is crucial. “When I was in sixth grade, students began to tease and bully me, calling me homophobic names,” he told members of a Senate committee. “I began to skip school at least one day a week. … My grades were deeply affected. Instead of focusing on my school work, I focused on just getting through the day.”

Berlin said he talked to the assistant principal at the school. “He implied I’d made the choice to be a homosexual.” The harassment and lack of support from some school staff took its toll. “By the time I was 13, I was hospitalized due to the trauma I experienced.”

The bills have both had a second reading in both houses of the Legislature and could be voted on soon.