The Safe Schools Coalition Is A Nationwide Program

[The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) organization at my high school, which meets twice per month, generated a list of concerns that they shared with school administration. The focus was specifically about gender identity, the lack of support from school staff, and the daily scrutiny they face as a result of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Through collaboration with my colleagues it was evident that there had been an increase in teacher and student referrals surrounding gender identity. The feedback from GSA clearly identified that as a school we are not meeting the needs of our LGBT students and those struggling with sexual orientation. Members of the GSA clearly feel that teachers ignore negative comments like “gay” and “faggot” when they hear them in class, that teachers may not clearly understand gender neutral language, and that our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students do not feel safe and protected in school. Students needed support advocating for their right to use a restroom, correct pronoun, etc., requiring district, community, parent, and colleague

gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students; part-time and full-time students; students with and without disabilities; and students of different races and national origins," it says. The guidance goes on to say that schools are obligated to "respond appropriately" to complaints of

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

My goal since beginning high school has been to create a safer school environment for LGBTQ students. Although the climate has become much more tolerant, bullying and discrimination are still rampant in the hallways, the classrooms and the Facebook statuses of students at my school.

He uses a tone of disbelief, labelling them as “paranoid”, and that their idea that the Safe Schools Coalition program could “turn” children into being “lesbian, gay, or gender diverse” is ridiculous, stating that there is “no evidence that inclusive sex education turns people gay”. Jones additionally uses sarcasm, stating that “it is as if everyone has a latent homosexual or trans potential that is just waiting to be activated”, and that this idea is “ludicrous”, further appealing to logic and common sense. This positions Australian parents to recognise the Christian Right’s opinions as illegitimate, as the audience now could perceive the Christian Right, and others opposing the Safe Schools Coalition program, as lacking common sense and judgement. Likewise, the photograph accompanying the opinion piece supports Jones’ point of view, illustrating how sexually diverse people do exist. This is displayed with the three individuals in the foreground, likely sexually diverse, have facial expressions of happiness and joyfulness. This indicates to the viewers that sexual diversity is not something to be fearful of, contradicting the Christian Right’s view that sexual diversity is illegitimate, swaying them to support the sexually diverse, and oppose conservatives against the Safe Schools Coalition program. Jones, along

In “We must celebrate gender and sexual diversity in our schools” published in The Conversation, February 16 2016, Lucy Nicholas argues that the current commentary on the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) community against schools and the SSC (Safe Schools Coalition) is extremely out of touch. Many of youths already understand their sexuality, whether it be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.

Within the past few years, Woodlynde has been working to make the school safer and more inclusive for everyone who doesn’t identify as heterosexual.

Most LGBT youth become happy with who they are which gives them room to thrive during their adolescent years. Attending a school that has a safe and comfortable environment for every student is especially important. Positive environments can help all youth achieve good grades and maintain good mental and physical health. However, some youths are more likely than their straight peers to experience bad health and life outcomes. Experiences with violence, compared to other students, come easy to LGBT individuals that can cause increased risks for unfortunate circumstances.‘Violence’ includes behaviors such as teasing, harassment, and physical assault. It is important that students at risk have access to resources and support to deal with any questions or challenges they may have or face as they mature. Surveyed LGBT students reported 10% were threatened or injured, 34% were bullied, and 28% were bullied electronically.

The Bullying Policy has been introduced around the world which, according to the 2014 observations , rates of bullying vary across studies from 9% to 98%. An observation of 80 studies analyzing bullying involvement rates for both bullying others and being bullied for 12-18 year old students reported an estimate rate of 35% for traditional bullying involvement and 15% for cyberbullying involvement (Modecki, Minchin, Harbaugh, Guerra, & Runions, 2014). This means the Bullying Prevention Policy affects million of students nationwide due to the programs created. More specifically, females face a higher indication of bullying victimization than males do. To explain, high percentages of each gender are faced with the aggressive acts of violence, making it extremely hard to perform well in the school environment. Furthermore, as many as 93 percent of students hear derogatory words about sexual orientation at least once every day at school or in their community (violencepreventionworks). Negative name calling and harassment about sexual orientation can be disrespectful to all students. For an example, 3 out of 4 students who are bullied/harassed with such remarks are not identified as lesbian, gay,

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

Sexual orientation and gender identity are two things that members of the LGBTQ community often fear opening up about. They fear that they will be rejected or harmed because of who they are, and it is important that we make all aspects of our society a safe place for every human being, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. As School-based risk and protective factors for gender diverse and sexual minority children and youth: Improving school climate explained, “64% of students feel unsafe at school because of sexual orientation prejudice, and 44% feel unsafe at school because of gender expression” (American Psychological Association). Therefore, schools in America should be making a conscious effort to make their buildings a safe, comfortable place for members of the LGBTQ community. Schools can do several things to promote the

Even so, a lot more remains to be done. The first phase of my research aims at identification of the LGBT issue at hand. Change has to start with educators before it can realistically begin to take place with students. The central aim of the second phase of the work is building educators' cultural competence—their ability to form authentic and effective relationships across differences. In this phase, schools assess and, where necessary, transform the way they carry out instruction to become more responsive to diversity. For teachers, this means examining pedagogy and curriculum, as well as expectations and interaction patterns with students. It means looking honestly at outcome data and creating new strategies designed to serve the students whom current instruction is not reaching. For school leaders, this often means facing the limits of their own knowledge and skills and becoming co-learners with teachers to find ways to transform classroom

Many students may feel hesitant to speak out against anti-gay slurs out of fear of being persecuted themselves. In the U.K. a series of surveys commissioned by Stonewall reported that as many as 93 percent of young gay, lesbian and bisexual people who are ‘‘out’’ at school suffer verbal abuse (Thurlow, 2001). It is evident that it is not a coincidence the LGBTQ youth face the most harassment of any minority at school.

During this essay I have learnt a range of new things relating to safeguarding through online research, reading different textbooks and listening to my teacher in class. I have learnt about brain development and how interactions at a young age build a basic structure for future learning unless the interactions are negative then the structure will be damaged. I have discovered that all children are different and that some may need more support than others in order to develop and reach their full potential. Something that I have learnt and found interesting is supporting transgender in schools. “The high rate of bullying among transgender pupils is leading to poor attendance rates and an inability to learn effectively, but many schools lack the guidance to best address the issue, a major new report has revealed.

The topic on the advocacy for LGBT community in schools among the student community is very important. In most cases the advocates of LGBTs have tried to persuade schools to improve their environment. Usually the school environment significantly determines whether the climate in the school is healthy and appropriate for LGBT students to learn in (Goldberg and Allen, 2013). Advocating for this community therefore means that school administrators are likely to adopt ignored programs that may concern the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Such initiatives improve the schooling environment for the diverse population of all the students regardless of their sexual orientation.