LGBT+Students



** Heading ** ** for assignment due 10/30/12. ** **Your name** **Topic: LGBT Students/Bullying** **Date** **Tutoring Site** **# of hours tutored this week and total tutored so far**

**When answering each of the questions, please type the question above your response to it.**
 * BEFORE viewing the assignment, please read the assignment questions **
 * to consider them as you view the 47 minute video from the MTV series. **

1. If you have been in **a school which has deliberately created safe, positive learning environments for ALL students**, describe how the school made it clear to students, staff, and visitors that this learning environment is the norm for the school. Was anything tried like what you viewed in the film?

2. Is there a policy that you think might be effective in ridding a school of the put-down language common in the lives of students? (Use of the words gay, fag, les, as pejoratives, words "h aving a disparaging, derogatory, or belittling effect or [|force] __").__

3. Are there some experiences that you viewed in the film that you think would be helpful if they were done in high schools across the country? What experiences are they and why do you think these ought to be done?

**View this 47 minute episode of MTV's series,** **//If You Really Knew Me//:**



[|http://www.mtv.com/videos/if-you-really-knew-me-ep-110-granite-falls-high-school/1648409/playlist.jhtml#series=2211&seriesId=30697&channelId=1]

= THESE RESOURCES ARE NOT THE ASSIGNMENT: =

**GLS E N** **GAY, LESBIAN, STRAIGHT EDUCATION ** **NETWORK** http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html

** [|It Gets Better Project] ** A website that includes videos to help speak out against hate and intolerance for the LGBTQA community, it is predominately for teens.

__//** Coming Out: Stories from youth and young adults **//__
In this interactive website, youth and young adults tell their stories of being gay and transgender and knowing they were different. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/23/us/20110523-coming-out.html


 * Click here for 2011 [|research on bullying and cyberbullying in Massachusetts schools]**

__//Hostile Hallways//__
Click here for a 2012 overview of the [|issue of sexual harassment] as part of hostile hallways.

In a report, Hostile Hallways: Bullying, Teasing, and Sexual Harassment in School (2001), ** four of five students-boys and girls-report that they have experienced some type of sexual harassment in school, despite a greater awareness of school policies dealing with the issue **. According to the students surveyed, ** sexual harassment-words and actions-in school happens often, occurs under teachers’ noses, can begin in elementary school, and is very upsetting to both girls and boys **.

According to the report, based on a national survey of 2,064 public school students in 8th through 11th grades conducted by Harris Interactive:

o 83% of girls and 79% of boys report "ever" having experienced harassment.

o The **number of boys reporting experiences with harassment often or occasionally has increased since 1993** (56% vs. 49%), although girls are still somewhat more likely to experience it.

o For many students **sexual harassment is an ongoing experience: over 1 in 4 students experience it “often** .”

o These **numbers do not differ by whether the school is urban or suburban or rural**. **76% of students have experienced non-physical harassment while 58% have experienced physical harassment**. Non-physical harassment includes taunting, rumors, graffiti, jokes or gestures. **One-third of all students report experiencing physical harassment “often or occasionally**.”

**Actions hurt-but so do words**. When given 14 examples of non-physical and physical harassment, students say they would be very upset if someone did the following: o Spread sexual rumors about them (75%) o Pulled off or down their clothing in a sexual way (74%) o Said that they were gay or lesbian (73%) o Forced them to do something sexual other than kissing (72%) o Spied on them as they dressed or showered at school (69%)

**Although large groups of both boys and girls report experiencing harassment, girls are more likely to report being negatively affected by it**. o **Girls are far more likely than boys to feel “self conscious” (44% to 19%), “embarrassed” (53% to 32%), and “less confident” (32% to 16%) because of an incident of harassment**. o **Girls are more likely than boys to change behaviors in school and at home because of the experience, including not talking as much in class (30% to 18%) and avoiding the person who harassed them (56% to 24%)** **.** o **Girls were consistently more likely to say they would be “very upset” by all 14 incidents of sexual harassment,** **with the exception of being called gay or lesbian (boys – 74 %, girls – 73 %**).

**S tudents fear being sexually harassed or hurt in school **. o A substantial number of students-both boys and girls-fear being hurt by someone in their school life. **Eighteen percent (18%) are afraid some or most of the time, and less than half (46%) are “never” afraid in school**. o **One-third of students fear being sexually harassed in school**. **Hispanic boys and girls are more likely than African American students to feel afraid.** []

**__//2009 National School Climate Survey//__ **
According to the 2009 National School Climate Survey, nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment. To read the full report, please visit the GLSEN website, you can browse key findings or download the full PDF report. []

=**Strategies for Overcoming Bullying**=


 * [|Stand Up Against Bullying video]**

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 * __ Pace: National Bullying Prevention Center __**
 * Pace: Stories from Kids **

According to the National Mental Health Information Center, "Bullying involves repeated acts of physical, emotional, or social behavior that are intentional, controlling, and hurtful."

For more, read [|Obama Administration Speaks Out Against Bullying Gay Youth]

Click here to see strategies for students, teachers and parents: [|What Can You Do To Take Action Against Bullying]

For anti-bullying strategies to use at school, see the September 2009 edition of the newsletter [|//School Climate Matters// (Volume 3, Issue 2)].

**Equality Forum** "Equality Forum coordinates **GLBT History Month**, produces **documentary films**, undertakes **high-impact** **initiatives** and presents the largest annual national and international **GLBT civil rights forum**." -website of Equality Forum [] []

__//If Gay Marriage is Allowed, Will Schools Promote It?//__
Prop. 8 in California passed in the November election. This means that marriage between same sex individuals are not allowed, although the judicial decision this past summer had allowed for marriage between gay and lesbians to be legalized. Now the definition of marriage in the state is a union between one man and one woman. The issue became one of education as well as religious belief. []