Subscribe to Breaking NewsRuby-Sachs: Supporting “separate but equal” when it comes to gay teens
There was a public hearing last night on whether an LGBT high school should be created in Chicago. As of today, the Chicago Schools CEO, Arne Duncan, is behind the move, but the LGBT community is deeply divided.
As a lawyer, I’ve been trained that separate but equal is a bad idea. As a person who remembers high school at all, how can I deny these kids the chance to escape?
Public schools in Chicago are a monstrosity. They barely make it out of the 35th percentile in national testing and they are de facto segregated in many districts.
As a gay teenager, especially one who fits any kind of visible stereotype, high school can be day after day of harassment, violence and isolation.
It is no wonder that one in three gay teens attempt suicide.
Legally, in American, we don’t allow “heckler’s vetoes”: where the majority of students harass someone for being different so we remove the victim rather than punishing the bullies.
It is a tradition started in the Vietnam war-era and has been essential to the protection of minority rights since. Recently, this legal principle has been used in many states to protect gay-straight alliances.
Undermining it now, will only hurt the LGBT community.
As well, tolerance of difference comes only through experience. If we take homophobic kids and tell them they don’t have to see gay students anymore, don’t have to change with them before gym class or have them in their small group sessions, how will they learn to accept those LGBT people when they grow up?
Similarly, how will gay kids, taken from the diversity of normal life, adjust to adulthood in a world where homophobia is ever present?
Still, there is no question that the public schools are not equipped to shut down the very real torture gay students endure from their classmates.
Because of the schools’ failures, many cities, including Toronto, New York and Milwaukee, have established special gay-friendly high schools.
They are often small, not the first choice for the majority of gay students, but they do have some openly gay teachers and social workers and encourage a separate safe environment for those teens that choose to escape.
As far as I’m concerned, this is one area where law and logic don’t apply.
We failed gay teens. As a country, we don’t protect them, we don’t provide them with adequate support systems in schools and they are often without that support at home.
If setting up a gay school will save even one kid from suicide, then it is the right choice.
It doesn’t let us off the hook. We must still promote diversity and tolerance in the classroom, if not for the gay kids that remain, then for the rest of the class that we, as a society, are responsible for. But taking steps to create safe environments now is necessary.
For all of us who escape disapproving parents, co-workers and friends by heading to the local gay bar, strip or just spending time with people like us , we should step up and offer the same safe space for the most vulnerable members of our community.
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I don’t know what I think about this idea
On the one hand, we have to be socialized, regardless of sexuality. We have to learn to live in the world and interact with other who will not always agree with us.
On the other hand, if a teenager has been traumatized by the treatment they’ve received, it may be a good idea to separate them from that atmosphere but not forever.
Replymy experience comes from faith schools which i attended for 5 years. faith schools seem only to divide people and not prepare them for the real world. i think a lgbt school would do that too! schools that are selective breed ignorance and fear so whether they are public or not they are probably a bad idea.
ReplyWhile it’s best, IMO, to enforce a ‘no tolerance’ policy against homophobia (meaning cracking down on discrimination in schools), I think the school’s a good idea.
It will, in a lot of ways, be equal. It won’t necessarily stop the progress of creating a more equal environment in schools. I’m fairly certain that, by law, a public gay-only school would have to admit straight students, as well. At least that’s what I think, given that the gay-only school in NY allows straight students, as well.
I actually think that, while I dislike ’separate but equal’, creating a gay school would help out a lot of gay kids. Rather than be victim of the harassment, fear coming to school, and all of the other things shown in statistics that are truly terrible, some students can attend a school with kids who understand supported by understanding teachers. (sorry, long sentence)
I’m all for it. I’m also all for working on sensitivity training or whatever can be done to overall help the gay population of students in schools throughout Chicago. But I think this school could be progress, too.
ReplyI don’t see any harm.
But what do the kids want?
ReplyI think a better idea is for this school superintendent to generate funds to put counseling departments in high schools in Chicago. All schools need an on site program with fully trained psychologists and therapists to deal with this issue and any other social issue. There should be a program where students can visit at will and be anonymous if they choose to report abuse and just to recieve free counseling. There should also be mandatory seminars to help teach the bigots how not to be bigots. That type of proactive, hands on approach to teaching tolerance is what children need.
The idea of a Gay only school would be better served as a private school. and it shouldn’t be gay only, but open to anyone who can afford it and who may become a victim of a specific type of harrasment, like for being gay, non White, handicapped, or even straight kids who just have social interaction problems. Like a safehaven for all the so called weirdos where they have the normal curiculum and special classes that help teach them how to integrate with society.
ReplyYes, there does seem to be a wide range of opinions on this subject. I think that there should be the option of an “all LGTB” high school.
ReplyYes, some good would come from leaving the LGTB kids in a mixed school system, and if they have the strength of charcator & the support of family, friends, & school administrators; then they should feel free to stay.
However,what I feel is missing from the discussions is the view of someone who almost didn’t survive that period of their lives.
The GLBT youth doesn’t contemplate/consider/attempt suicide simply because he/she has been bullied; that is only a contributing factor. The suicide attempt materializes with the tragic confluence of several factors. The bullying, the feelng of fear that their parents/family will not love them, the frustration born of the over whelming feeling of being alone in the world, and the anger over the alienation.
I understand the feeling that “segregating” the teen could lead to a false feeling of safety, but beleive me, it’s the teen who has the support family and a few feinds who has the “false feeling of security. Even when the teen feels safe in school, he/she knows that that safety ends at the school sidewalk.
If the school system, as a whole, can support a “LGBT” school, then it should “make it so”.
The upside of this would be that, as it is a public school, every LGBT person would know where it is & when it is open, and would be able to make their way there on an as needed basis for camaraderie and couseling. They would know where to go to not feel so alone, and for peer support vs. peer abuse.
The number of gay teens that are both suicide and runaways could be reduced & teens could be better protected from predatory attempts by violent punks, and chicken hawks… it could also provide a safe haven& resource center in the event of abuse by family members.
I’m surprised to see so many apparently well-meaning lgbtq people are willing to sacrifice the safety and well-being of their own youth for a misguided sense of principle. Let the kids grow up healthy and secure, then let them make their own choices as fully-equipped adults. I don’t see how letting some kids be happy and comfortable in their own school means letting our guard down on homophobia in other schools.
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