The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network Website
The GLSEN website has extensive information for diverse audiences: students, parents, educators and the community. I learned a lot about LGBT students and incidences of higher absenteeism and dropout rates due to harassment, discrimination and bullying. Because this website has so much information I focused on two links (on left of home page) to recent legislative developments.
The first, the Student Non-Discrimination Act is a federal law proposed by Senator Al Franken. It should help to ensure that all students are valued in schools free of harassment and discrimination. The article states that nearly 87% of LGBT students experience harassment at school due to sexual orientation and over 60% do not feel safe at school. It makes the point that “harassment clearly affects students’ ability to learn. A third of LGBT students missed a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe, five times higher than a national sample of all students.”
The second item is from Illinois where their House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation that protects kids from bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Illinois is the ninth state to pass an enumerated (spelled out) anti-bullying law that includes a list of characteristics most often targeted by bullies. Research shows that this is more effective than a general anti-bullying law. GLSEN reports that 75% of students at schools without enumerated anti-bullying policies heard homophobic remarks “often or very often” compared to 54% of those kids at schools with enumerated policies. It’s not perfection but it is a step in the right direction.
What struck me, in addition to what I learned about enumerated policy versus general anti-bullying policy (and what ‘enumerated’ meant), was that these legal changes most likely started at a grassroots level, working from the bottom up. The rabble was roused and they found champions for the cause in both Al Franken and members of the Illinois House. Both laws appear to be examples of the usually powerless gaining some bit of power.
What struck me, in addition to what I learned about enumerated policy versus general anti-bullying policy (and what ‘enumerated’ meant), was that these legal changes most likely started at a grassroots level, working from the bottom up. The rabble was roused and they found champions for the cause in both Al Franken and members of the Illinois House. Both laws appear to be examples of the usually powerless gaining some bit of power.
Finally, here are some relate links beginning with local resources:
According to the GLSEN site they have no RI affiliate. However the following site references GLSEN and appears to have numerous resources for students and educators: www.members.tripod.com/~twood/guide.html …It includes “School Shouldn't Hurt: Lifting the Burden from Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth” a comprehensive report by the RI Task Force on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth from March of 1996. Fourteen years later the content still seems necessary. Also worth checking out is “Creating Safe Schools.”
http://www.bullying.us/Rhode-Island-Bullying.html appears to be a hub for local and national resources and news specific to bullying.
Finally, there’s The Southern Poverty Law Center and the link “New Teaching Tolerance Film to Address Anti-Gay Bullying in Schools”. The story featuring bullied teen Jamie Nabozny is moving and educational.
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