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The Edutopia Poll
by Sara Ring
Though bullying is a problem for many kids in school, students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), or perceived as such, can face a particularly hard road. They are frequently the targets of teasing, ostracism, and even violence, and the consequences go well beyond hurt feelings.
A survey by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network found that harassed LGBT students are more likely to cut class and have lower GPAs than LGBT students who feel safe at school. Some schools have successfully created gay-straight alliances to promote tolerance, but others are reluctant to tackle the issue, or have been stymied by legislation meant to discourage such programs. Are LGBT students harassed about their sexual orientation at your school? We want to know!
Harassment also happens in online schools
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 22, 2008 - 06:13.
I teach at an entirely online school, where students have zero contact with one another. So while this spares students from any LGBT harassment, it also allows stereotypes from students' homes to go undiscovered and unchallenged. I love online education, but this lack of guided socialization is a real drawback.
Guided socialization, aka molding of young minds
Submitted by RustyBadger (not verified) on February 24, 2008 - 21:39.
I love your use of the term "guided socialization"; understanding of course, that it is Newspeak for "making kids think the way WE want them to think". Our jobs as educators is not to challenge learners' "stereotypes", nor is it to conform them to what we may perceive as the "societal norm". Our job is to help them learn; to teach them how to learn. If someone grows up with bigoted attitudes, we haven't failed as teachers. If they grow up not being able to read or write or know how to do research, we have.
Harassment
Submitted by ChemMom (not verified) on February 21, 2008 - 09:50.
At our school, the students in the GSA have reported being harrassed by other students in the GSA! They leave hurtful messages on MySpace, Facebook and sometimes even in person. If they are not accepted in their own peer groups, how can we expect society as a whole to accept them? Something has to change, these kids are already aware of the tough times they might face after high school. What do they have to look forward to?
LGBT
Submitted by Mitch Ward (not verified) on February 20, 2008 - 17:58.
We are an all girl high school. It's pretty much a live and let live attitude here. The all boy school next door is not as tolerant. Aside from gender our demographics are the same.
Just another example of how girls and boys are different.
GLBT Youth...
Submitted by Joyfulwrites (not verified) on February 20, 2008 - 13:58.
I can't think of a place where young GLBTs are not harassed or abused by their classmates!
No matter how much support they receive in schools/communities, they still receive abuse by ignorant youth and adults.
I believe it might be more productive to educate straights (young and old) with love, tolerance, acceptance, values, community, etc than to teach GLBTs to cope with abuse and hatred.
LGBT harassment
Submitted by jim kilkenny (not verified) on February 20, 2008 - 13:52.
When I saw this poll come up, I had no idea as to how to vote. I work in an inner-city school. The kids have a lot of problems and I thought that the majority of harassment would be from gang activity. I was right, but the kids started talking about GBLT and all said yah, they get bullied and they talked pretty much the rest of the period. They said a lot about the way those kids are messed with and made fun of and they included masculine women and effeminate boys as automatically being homos or lesbie. It was eye-opening the level of animosity with the lack of a desire for understanding or knowledge.
When asked, how would you know if a kid was not straight, the kids gave stereo typic homosexual features. They were amazed when I told of the ex-football player who came out of the closet a year or two ago. The kids couldn't believe an athlete could be gay. When asked if they knew if they had gay friends, they all said no. When asked, how do you know? They became uncomfortable. I let it go here as all that I wanted them to do was think. The end result, we have bullying of gay lbt kids at our school. We also have bullying of kids who are not glbt just different acting or looking. What is new? Different people or even forward looking people have been discriminated against in our society for a long time.
LGBT students are harassed at school
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on February 20, 2008 - 05:47.
Wow! The 17% who do not think LGBT kids are harassed at their school need to pull their heads out of the sand. Our school is actively working hard to reduce/prevent bullying; however, the kids -- esp. guys -- who are perceived as gay by the other males are still suffering this harassment. It happens both covertly and overtly. We educators must impact this behavior.
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