“Why are you putting needles in my back?” he asked the doctor. “The pain is in my leg.”

Pointing to a mirror the doctor replied, “Take a look. All connected.”

I was reminded of this recently when reading a Human Rights Watch report.

The professional staff of this largest U.S. human rights organization tracks atrocities, genocide and torture in over 70 countries. Six of the seven counts against Slobodan Milosevic were documented by Human Rights Watch.

What we often forget is that human rights abuses occur in the United States as well. HRW doesn’t let us forget. It has issued reports about, for example, police brutality, children as migrant workers, and prison conditions.

So what does this have to do with schools?

Of all the world’s human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch has concluded that among the worst are the violations of the international treaty rights of the 2 million gay and lesbian students in our nation’s schools.

It’s report, Hatred in the Hallways, reports that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth are three times more likely than their heterosexual peers to be assaulted. Three times more likely to be threatened or injured with a weapon. Four times more likely to skip school because they feel unsafe.

Sadly, HRW reports, many teachers, coaches and administrators are less sensitive and responsive to verbal and physical attacks on LGBT youth than, say, racial conflicts.

LGBT students have to give considerable attention to self-protection. Safely getting to and from school. Avoiding slurs and shoves in the hallways and beatings in the alleyways. Naturally, grades tend to suffer. School, for them, isn’t much fun. Ultimately, many drop out.

Apparently protection of lesbian and gay rights involves considerably more than a “political agenda,” or advocacy by the “politically correct.”

What some proudly proclaim as their constitutional right to profess homophobia results in what Human Rights Watch considers human rights violations competing for attention with those of third world dictators.

It charges there is a “systematic failure of the public school system in the United States to protect these students.”

School board members and administrators simply have to be concerned about these consequences. Not only as a matter of basic human decency, but as a matter of law and of educational equality for all. A dropout is a dropout regardless of the cause.

“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” we were taught as children.

But words can and do hurt. Suicide is the third leading cause of death of teenagers.

My sense is that even though our school district is far better than most, we still have our problems. We have policies. We have training in elementary schools and sensitive teachers in our junior highs. But homophobia is alive and well, even in Iowa City, and it would be stunning if its toxic poison didn't seep into our schools.

Why do those of us who are heterosexuals need to care about LGBT youth?

Perhaps Martin Niemoller put it best. He was a leader of the German opposition to Hitler who was eventually seized by the Nazis. He's famous for delivering a sermon on the Nazis, one version of which goes something like this:

“They first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.” He continues in this vein and concludes, “Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Why do we have to care about the treatment of gays and lesbians?

Because, when it comes to human rights, as the Chinese acupuncturist and Human Rights Watch so forcefully remind us, “it’s all connected.”

Nicholas Johnson is an Iowa City School Board member. More information is available on his Web site www.nicholasjohnson.org.