Safe Schools Oral Paragraphs

Attempting suicide is an epidemic in the United States; especially when 41% of transgender individuals have attempted suicide compared 1.6% of the general population (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Due to this, the question of whether or not transgender youth have a harder, more straining adolescence than their cisgender counterparts rises. Although adolescence can be hard on everyone, experiences such as a school environment, puberty, laws that guarantee protection, family and social acceptance of transgender youth are harder than those of their cisgender counterparts (harder does not necessarily mean correlate with strenuous, the use of harder is aiming more towards different, costly, and possibly more confusing). The revolution for transgender lives is just beginning, change is happening. But in order for change to occur, adequate information on the material needs to be discussed and terminology must be defined and questions must be answered. Questions such as: what do the terms transgender and cisgender actually mean? Why is it important to know the difference between the two terms? What is the difference between transsexual and transgender?

In the documentary, Noah, an 18 year old male to female transgender, many people in school ask question about her gender over and over again. Because of the harassment, many tend to drop out from school. “Harassment and bullying lead almost one-third of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning) students to drop out of high school” (T Salazar). For most of them dropping out from school means working at a lower wage. Or even worse they became homeless. Some people argue that we should create a separate school of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. However critics say that it means of “segregation or shielding the youth from the real world.” Giving a class about LGBT people in schools might be the solution, since students then will be aware of it. Education about LGBT people teaches not only students, but also the whole generation. Therefore, schools should be the primary targets to teach the society about LGBT

Education is an important factor in life in order to thrive, but LGBT students face harassment in school due to their identity. According to a Human Rights report conducted in 2001, two million American students in the LGBT

People often have an inaccurate picture of reality. Most people consider themselves friendly, forgiving, and welcoming human beings. They believe they have a sound sense of morality, adhere to their foolproof policies of right and wrong, and promote righteousness. Unfortunately, through the eyes of transgender students, this is rarely the case. Although The Title IX law is supposed to defend them from discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying (Source A), the success of this vague list of rights is nonexistent.

Recently, the Safe Schools Coalition, a program funded by the federal government to promote the acceptance of LGBTI children, has been questioned by politicians and some members of the community on the appropriateness of the program. Consequently, the issue of whether or not the Safe Schools Coalition should be supported has arisen, and is discussed in the opinion piece “Safe Schools Coalition – what is the Christian Right afraid of?” published on the 26th of February 2016 in The Conversation (Australia). The editor, Timothy W Jones, supports the Safe Schools Coalition program, and uses rational and critical tones to outline to parents how conservatives are misleading when attacking the Safe Schools Coalition.

In addition to social persecution, people who identify on the LGBTQ spectrum are at a higher risk of experiencing violence In 2010, the FBI reported in a hate crime statistics report that 19.3% of hate crimes in that year were motivated by a sexual orientation bias. Based on national statistics, more than 50% of transgendered youth will attempt suicide at least once by the age of 20 “Statistics About Youth Suicide”. These numbers are shocking, and it’s baffling that these youth have to live under the pressure of violence and mental illness all while being barred from the rights they

To expect greatness in any field of life, it all starts from a place of quality education and that's what America has constantly strived for. School is the place where everyone is given equal opportunity to learn and shape himself or herself into contributing members of society. At the same time each individual’s academic success defines what it means to have a good life. Unfortunately, schools face lots of problems trying to do the right thing. Among major challenges that schools face, bullying has a strong attribution to the poor academic experience among student victims. Today, students still risk being bullied everyday. This paper studies bullying in secondary school with

" All students, including LGBTQQIA students, deserve safe, affirming schools. Harassment affects their grades and development, as well as their mental and physical health. Schools specifically for queer students may have a place and fill a need, but our efforts should simultaneously be focused on making sure all LGBTQQIA have positive school environments."

When 11% of Australia’s population as a member of the LGBT community, having 61% of these people facing homophobic abuse is a real issue and it needs to be solved now. Since it’s first appearance in 2010, the safe schools program has helped gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids to feel acceptance and combat against homophobic bullying. Although the ‘Safe Schools’ program has showed extremely positive outcomes when it came to reduction of bullying and overall happiness of students, however, the current Australian Government

“In discouraging the bullying of LGBTI students, it seeks to upend traditional understandings of gender and impose cultural values offensive to most Australians.”

The article, “We must celebrate gender and sexual diversity in our schools”, published by The Conversation in 2016, written by Lucy Nicholas argues that the Safe School’s Coalition is out of touch with the science of sex and gender identity. Essentially, Nicholas claims that the Safe Schools Coalition needs to be updated and modernized to suit young LGBTI students. She explains that the only way to effectively tackle homophobic bullying is to go beyond tolerance and actually change the attitude of the wider school population.

The common thought has been bullying is a normal reaction to school. Studies show that bullying is the result of underlying issues. Traditional bullying was a common thug trying to make a place for themselves, whereas now it has gone to new heights, it now includes physical trauma and even death. We find that bullying affects the bully as well as the victim. The victims tend to have more problems in school with attendance and achievements within the academic world. This is not just about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, it involves all students that don’t fit societies idea of normal then the person gets bullied. The amount of attention given to this issue is a direct result of this escalation in events within the school system from grade schools to universities. The most pressing problem with getting the bullying policies changed is the conservative communities that school boards serve and convincing them that these policies need to be

Educators will face many elements of same sex relationships, intersex and transgender aspects of gender diversity throughout their careers through both students and their families or the community. Taylor (2007) speaks about same sex relationships, homophobia and their effect on Australian society, she says that homophobia appears to be due to assertions of cultural incompatibility rather than a biological superiority (p. 210), she continues to explain that the gay and lesbian cultural beliefs, lifestyles and values are seen as a threat to Australian society and are the primary reason for exclusion (p. 210). It is important for teachers to understand the challenges same sex families may face and support students in same sex, transgender or bisexual families and relationships. Transgender children and

In 2015 the book Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin was banned from several high schools. The reason being that it showed anti-family, Offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and more. This book is about Susan Kuklin, an award-winning author and photographer of thirty books for children and young adults, interviewing six transgender or gender-neutral young adults. She uses their stories about this in her book. It shows how a teenager going threw a situation like that feels like. Some stories are joyful and others are heartbreaking. It also shows that bulling is bad, mainly because many of the students get a lot of hate for being happy in themselves. It teaches students or whoever that reads it that you shouldn’t judge any one because of a choice that they made. It also encourages that people should be more accepting of

The social issue that I chose which affects society today is transgender inequality. These issues are more recently gaining attention and becoming a prevalent topic of inequality within our country. A transgender person is someone whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth. As more and more transgender people share their stories in the media, the social problems that arise from these stories are discrimination within their everyday lives. They suffer from scrutiny and judgment from their peers, and thus many hide their gender identity from family and society. This social injustice can be as simple as a glance or staring, or offensive comments and questions to violent hate crimes. Transgender people are prone to violence and harassment, and often not feeling safe in any aspect of society. They are fired from jobs, denied medical insurance, and being murdered left and right solely for being transgender. “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population, with rates rising for those who lost a job due to bias (55%), were harassed/bullied in school (51%), had low household income, or were the victim of physical assault (61%) or sexual assault (64%)” (National Center for Transgender Equality). The structure of this paper will consist of adding all the research that was gathered over the semester, news articles and peer