Out Spotlight

Today's Out Spotlight is an educator, author, activist, founder, crusader and administrator, they have spent their entire career making sure schools are safe for all students. Today's Out Spotlight is Kevin Jennings.

Kevin Jennings was born May 8, 1963, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida youngest of five children of Chester Henry, an itinerant Southern Baptist preacher, and Alice Verna (Johnson) Jennings. Jennings experienced a childhood deeply rooted in conservative ideology. Poor and in a continual state of transition, his family moved so often that Jennings attended 11 schools in four states.

His father died when Kevin was eight and the family was living in a Lewisville, North Carolina trailer park. From then on he grew up in a rural atmosphere that was intolerant of African Americans and gay people; several of his cousins and uncles were in the Ku Klux Klan. He was constantly taunted and bullied. "The first day of 10th grade I actually refused to go back to school because I simply wasn't going to go back to a place where I was bullied every day."

While he displayed impressive academic aptitude, he suffered daily from mental and physical abuse by classmates. “School was a place I both loved and hated,” recalls Jennings. “I loved it because I loved learning. I hated it because I was targeted at a pretty young age for bullying and harassment.”

He attended Paisley Magnet School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where he did well academically, but was beaten by classmates for what they saw as effeminate behavior and attempted suicide after realizing he was gay. After he and his mother moved to Hawaii he graduated from Radford High School in Honolulu.

In 1985, Jennings earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Harvard University, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college. Later, he earned master's degrees from both Columbia University and New York University.

Following his graduation from Harvard, Jennings pursued a career in education. In 1988, while he was a history teacher at Concord Academy, a Massachusetts high school, Jennings spearheaded the country's first Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), a coalition of students fighting against harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Two years later, he expanded the movement to encompass parents, teachers and community members, creating GLSEN. Beginning as a grassroots volunteers group, GLSEN has grown into a national organization with more than 40 chapters and over 4,500 schools nationwide.

Jennings served as the co-chair of the Education Committee of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and challenged the State Board of Education to adopt new policies protecting GLBT students. In 1993, his efforts led to the country's first state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public schools.

He was named by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 100 people likely to make a difference in the 21st century.

He has authored six books and received a Lambda Literary Award for his book, "Telling Tales Out of School." He also co-wrote and produced the documentary "Out of the Past," which won the 1998 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Jennings stepped down as head of GLSEN in of August 2008. On May 19, 2009, President Barack Obama's administration Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Jennings' appointment as an Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

He started July 6, of that year as the third director of the office, which was established in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration pursuant to the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Social conservatives campaigned against Jennings' appointment because they alleged he condoned child molestation based on the 2004 incident over a teen's story he related in his book "One teacher in 10 : LGBT educators share their stories." The allegations were proven to be false when it was shown the student was above the age of consent and no sex had occurred. 53 Republican members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to the Obama administration that called for Jennings' dismissal. Education Secretary Duncan, the White House, the NEA, and the National Association of Secondary School Principals have supported Jennings' appointment, with Duncan saying Jennings was “uniquely qualified for his job.”

As an Assistant Deputy Secretary, Jennings focused on matters relating to teacher safety, classroom discipline and bullying and his office has awarded millions in safety grants to school around the country.

In August 2010 his office hosted the first-ever National Bullying Summit which he helped organize. In September 2010 Jennings became one of the notable members of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP), a public-private partnership designed to advance and update the 2001 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and an outgrowth of the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. The NAASP will initially focus on three high-risk populations; LGBT Youth, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Military/Veterans.

On May 19, 2011, the Boston-based nonprofit organization Be the Change, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced that Jennings would be resigning his position with the Obama administration to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization.

"We know that students learn best in a school where they feel truly safe. I am here to make that happen for more kids."

"The process of change is like a relay race. My job is to ensure that we're further ahead in the race and, like a good relay team member, ready to pass that baton to the next person with a lead toward the end goal of a safe school for every child.”