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Loading ...Education Secretary pledges safe schools for LGBT students
03.24.2009 3:55pm EDT
(Washington) Education Secretary Arne Duncan has told a gay student advocacy group that he intends to make schools safe for every student, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
Duncan made the pledge during a meeting with representatives of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and a delegation of students and teachers.It is the first time that a Secretary of Education has met with LGBT advocates. The Bush administration rejected calls to meet.
“It was moving to witness these students and teachers sharing their personal stories of pain, rejection, resilience and hope with the nation’s top education official,” said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard who attended the meeting.
“Secretary Duncan showed great compassion for their experiences, respect for their perseverance and dedication to identifying effective responses to school climate issues. I am confident that we will see growing engagement with these issues at the Department of Education and truly positive change.”
Duncan also expressed an interest in finding ways to highlight the problem of bullying and harassment in national discussions about education, and requested further data on a number of proposed interventions.
GLSEN’s biennial National School Climate Survey has repeatedly shown that LGBT students experience extreme harassment.
Forty-seven percent of junior/middle high school students identified bullying, name-calling or harassment as somewhat serious or very serious problems at their school.
Additionally, 69 percent of junior/middle high school students reported being assaulted or harassed in the previous year and only 41 percent said they felt very safe at school.
Monday’s meeting with Duncan occurred a day before today’s Safe Schools Lobby Day, where participants are asking their legislators to support the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would establish a federal anti-bullying policy.
The act would enumerate categories often targeted for bullying, including sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.
This is a nice statement and one that is important for the movement towards stopping discrimination, but the next step is to get all the homophobic administrators and faculty to stop their bullying and their practice of ignoring their LGBT student population.
I can hardly wait for the comments from the christians, claiming this is advancing the “gay agenda”; (whatever that is!)This is what they say about anti-bullying programmes.
Talk, Talk, Talk. Enough is enough! Its time for action.
Although it is fruitless to try to change the minds of those who hate–irrationally, stubbornly hate–there can only be the second best strategy: make it painful for those haters to inflict pain on others.
Good. Now act! Schools are not safe and caring for anybody unless they are safe and caring for everybody!
Yay! This is great. Let’s hope it works out.
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When I was in middle/jr. high school, I was bullied everyday. When I brought it to the administrarions attention, they asked me why I was being a drama kid. My highschool counselor was the same way, when I told him I was gay, he refused to provide me any future services or help. I knew I wasn’t the only gay student in school, and felt like it was my fault for being gay. I’ve grown since then, but I do want to see equality for everyone, including the glbt community.
Unlike some posters here I didn’t experience the taunts – or very rarely – in Jr. High or High School. That doesn’t make me better or more privileged. It only means that I had become a more accomplished liar.
I was in school in the ’60’s and I did learn to lie well – both to myself and to those around me. And, in the long run, it did not serve me well.
I can only applaud those who have found their voice in the middle schools and high schools. I have to stand in awe of those who have accomplished more than I dared to dream. Thank you.
Now, on to the article . . . the words are nice. They are very similar to the words we all heard Obama speak in his campaign. I hope the words of Duncan are more than the President’s words on ‘DADT’ or ‘DOMA’. Time will tell. The words are nice to hear. The action will prove their worth.
Neil