Florida Agenda

HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA – The Milton Hershey School announced last week that it had settled out of court with a 14-yearold boy and his mother in the AIDS discrimination lawsuit brought against the private school after it refused to enroll him because he is HIV-positive.

The school will pay $700,000, as well as $15,000 in civil penalties, and has agreed to provide HIV training for its staff and students. The Milton Hershey School is funded by the Milton Hershey School Trust, which owns controlling interest in The Hershey Company.

According to court documents, the school refused to enroll the Philadelphia-area boy last year, despite his being an honor roll student.

Officials cited his HIV status, arguing that he would be a threat to the health and safety of other students.

“In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others,” the school announced in December, after the case was filed.

Last month, officials reversed the policy, and said the school will consider all applicants with the same criteria, and offered to enroll the teen—who was identified in the suit under the pseudonym “Abraham Smith”—but that offer was declined. Candy maker Milton Hershey founded the school in 1909, to educate disadvantaged students at no cost.

The school is financed by the Milton Hershey School Trust and educates poor and socially disadvantaged students for free.

With over six billion dollars in assets, it is one of the wealthiest schools in the world, serving 1,818 students from Pre-K through 12th grade. It also is the largest residential education.

P H I L A D E L P H I A , PENNSYLVANIA – The nonprofit Equality Forum announced its 31 Icons for LGBT History Month 2012, which commences in October, in addition to 186 other iconic figures of LGBT history from the past decade. “The 217 Icons, including the 31 Icons for 2012, demonstrate the impressive and diverse international impact of the LGBT community,” said Malcolm Lazin, founder of LGBT History Month, and Executive Director of Equality Forum.

Icons named for LGBT History Month 2012 include U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Roberta Achtenberg, novelist Truman Capote, songwriter Katherine Lee Bates (“America the Beautiful”), actors Chris Colfer, Jodie Foster, and Marlene Dietrich, athlete Glenn Burke, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Transgender pioneer Christine Jorgensen, entertainer Rupaul, and Holocaust hero Pierre Seel.X

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan launched LGBT History Month in 2010. Each day in October, an Icon is featured with a video, biography, bibliography, downloadable images and other educational resources. These resources are available without charge at lgbthistorymonth.com.

PHILADELPHIA , PENNSYLVANIA — On Friday, Monsignor William Lynn became the first senior Roman Catholic official in the U.S. to be convicted of concealing sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

Lynn, 61, from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was found guilty of endangering children, a conviction hailed by victims’ advocates, who have called for accountability on the part of senior church officials who covered up misdeeds, and transferred predatory priests to unsuspecting parishes.

Lynn faces a prison term of three-and-a-half to seven years when he is sentenced on August 13. Lynn served the 1.5 million-member archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, where he recommended priest assignments and investigated abuse complaints.

Prosecutors showed that Lynn neither kept suspected molesters away from children, nor reported sexual assaults to authorities.

BELLEFONTE , PENNSYLVANIA —On Friday, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys—all of them children reared in disadvantaged homes whom Sandusky, 68, befriended and then repeatedly molested.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for two days on 48 counts against him. Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of them, including multiple charges of rape and sodomy. It is likely that he will spend the rest of his life in prison. During the two week trial, prosecutors said that Sandusky, who served as the university’s defensive coordinator from 1969 to 1999, used a charity he founded to scout for potential abuse victims, whom he showered with gifts and money, and invitations to Penn State football games.

Sandusky also showered with the victims—some as young as 10 years old—and slept with them in hotel rooms. Testimony was heard from eight victims, who offered graphic accounts of repeated abuse by Sandusky, including in places on the Penn State campus and in the basement of his home. One of Sandusky’s own adopted children, Matt, came forward with his own horrifying account of sexual assault by the coach.