How Safe Do You Feel – Part I

How many school shootings have happened this year? How many students were murdered this year?

Do you think students feel safe in the classrooms? How about the teachers and staff, do you think they feel safe at work?

Now add to that fear and anxiety the feelings of students who are LGBTQ, who are being bullied everyday.

Nearly 70% of LGBTQ students feel unsafe at school due to sexual orientation or gender identity: survey

New York Daily News

By Muri Assunção

October 22, 2022

Nearly seven in 10 LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe at school in 2021 because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, according to new data released this week.

Researchers with GLSEN, a national organization that fights to end anti-LGBTQ discrimination in k-12 schools, found an increasingly more hostile environment for LGBTQ students in middle and high schools across the nation.

For its 2021 National School Climate Survey, the group spoke with 22,300 students between the ages of 13 and 21 and found that they’ve experienced an alarming incidence of discrimination — including verbal and physical harassment — from their peers.

Around 68% of LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe because of their LGBTQ identity — 51% of them because of their sexual orientation, and 43% of them because of their gender expression, or the external appearance of a person’s gender identity.

The law says that the schools must provide a safe space for learning, do you think that these students have a safe place for learning?

Bullying and discrimination in the classroom “continue to create a chilling effect that threatens the wellbeing of gay and transgender youth across the country,” said Aaron Ridings, GLSEN deputy executive director for public policy and research.

I found this article on Yahoo News where they allow comments, most of them are condescending and hostile.

But are they really unsafe because of their identity? Many young people say it has become cool and trendy. So I have some doubts about these polls and even doubt those making the claims. I need to see some real evidence because bullying is not at all limited to what has become a privileged and protected class.

***

Feel free to "feel unsafe" someplace else.  We are not catering to mental defects who threaten suicide because they feel sad panda nor are we accepting some nonsensical excuse of "feeling unsafe".

There are over 170 comments like this, do you wonder why the children don’t feel safe and remember children are taught to pick on us by their parents.

Education Week has an article on the GLSEN survey.

Research has shown that when LGBTQ students feel supported in school, they are more engaged in activities and academics. They are also less likely to miss school, more likely to get better grades, and more likely to want to continue their education, Kosciw said.

Students who had access to supportive educators, went to schools with inclusive policies, and had GSAs at their schools were more likely overall to feel better about themselves and not suffer from depression or suicidal ideation, the report says.

“That’s why it’s troubling when the supports have decreased so that fewer students have these things that have such a positive effect on their lives,” Kosciw said.

Yesterday article abut the taking down of the Pride flag in Stonington CT how do you think it makes LGBTQ students feel in school and more important when other see the flag taken down do you feel that it emboldens them to bully?

How do you think the LGBTQ students feel when they see about the laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law?

The EW article goes on to say,

LGBTQ students often avoid bathrooms, school buses, and hallways, where there’s no supervision by educators, in fear of verbal or physical bullying, he said. Because that was no longer a factor for online-only students, school was also safer for them.

Many times when student do report the bullying the administration does nothing!

When I was on the CT Department of Education Safe School Committee so school systems report 0 incidents, that is not a single incident of bullying in their school system. Do you believe that?

This afternoon I write about the bullying of a trans student that is now the subject of a federal investigation in part II.