HBT bullying and disabled young people and those with special educational needs “It’s a double whammy”

The background The Anti-Bullying Alliance conducted: A consultation with young disabled people A literature search and review Talk a bit about what ABA did. Consultation with 33 disabled young people from around the country. Some of whom identified as LGBTQI and a few were heterosexual. Throughout the presentation when we refer to disabled young people or young people we mean disabled young people and young people with special educational needs. All quotes were taken directly from our young people consultation and are direct quotes.

What does the research tell us? Disabled children are: more likely experience bullying in school don’t get as much Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) as others more vulnerable to HBT bullying as likely as their non-disabled peers to be LGBT+ more vulnerable to experience sexual abuse of adults and their peers This shows the key points from the literature review. All references are in the guide.

Why is this? This could be a question introducing the next section or you could give them five minutes to discuss between themselves why they think this is.

“It’s like people think you can be disabled or LGBT+ – but not both” Powerful illustrative quote. This represented a lot about what the young people said to us.

What young people told us They were not believed Teachers lacked understanding about disability and LGBT+ issues They had to come out twice They felt unable to report HBT bullying That they were made to feel bullying was their own fault They had to hide their impairment and/or not come out Information slide. More information can be found in the guide. Could be an opportunity for open plenary. The 5th bullet – that young people said they were made to feel bullying was their own fault has a very negative impact on the way people are made to feel about themselves and can greatly effect people’s self esteem. This is something that disabled young people are told a lot about bullying – that they need to change so they aren’t bullied. You could ask a reflective question here about their own practice in school if you have time.

“They say ‘You don’t look or sound gay’ “They say ‘You don’t look or sound gay’. Then I talk to someone who is gay and they say ‘you don’t look disabled’.” You don’t look or sound gay You don’t look disabled Activity – 15-20 minutes Give each table/group a different quote from the ‘quote resource’ – there are three so some tables/groups will do the same quote. Ask them to spend 5-10 minutes discussing what they think the potential impact that this situation has on: The young disabled person who says it The school as a whole. For example – does this mean that children feel scared to be who they are, does the school have a potential problem with language etc. Feedback as a whole and discuss each case. We will look at solutions later.

“They say ‘You bring it on yourself’ because you look or act different “They say ‘You bring it on yourself’ because you look or act different. Instead of doing something to stop it, they just said I needed to fit in.”

“It’s like people think you can be disabled or LGBT+ – but not both”

Preventing and responding to HBT bullying of disabled young people Understand levels of all forms of bullying including HBT and disablist bullying Provide accessible information Support all students Make sure responses challenge and change bullying behaviour – not the behaviour of the person being bullied Challenge all forms of discriminatory language including HBT and disablist language Celebrate difference in all people This slide came directly from suggestions from young disabled people. You can find out more about each one in the shorter guide. You could ask whether anyone in the room has examples of doing this well or feels they need to implement anything.

Preventing and responding to HBT bullying of disabled young people – staff training Support school staff to understand: Disabled YP can be LGBT+ too What the issues are for LGBT+ disabled young people How to support all young people who are bullied How to challenge all forms of discriminatory language including HBT and disablist language The Anti-Bullying Alliance has resources which can help you do this including guides on challenging disablist language: www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/ resources This slide is about staff training and support. This is important. Do the people in the room feel they have the skills to do this? Do they know where to get them? Please let them know about ABA’s resources to help challenge disablist language.

“Challenge young people when they say things like ‘That’s so gay’ or ‘That’s so retarded’. It hurts to hear that. If someone challenges it, it shows you they care about it and it makes you feel more confident.” This is an additional illustrative slide about disabled young people’s experiences. ABA conducted a survey last year about disablist language. We ask teachers experience of hearing disablist language in school. 70% of teachers said they heard this language from children in school. You can read more of the results here: http://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/send-resources/use-of-language/ ABA has lots of teacher resources for reducing the use of disabled language on our website.

Disabled young people – access to Sex and relationships education Young people told us they: received little or no SRE at school were often withdrawn from SRE lessons to have additional learning/support were assumed to be asexual – which affected their self-esteem and confidence Never heard about disabled LGBT+ people so they felt invisible Information slide. More information can be found in the guide. Could be an opportunity for open plenary.

“People think disabled people are asexual as it is, so they don’t talk to you about any relationships, let alone about being or acknowledging that you are LGBT” Illustrative slide but could be used to start a discussion. The interesting point is that disabled young people (particularly young women with learning disabilities) are more likely to experience sexual abuse and violence. So there is a contradiction in these two thoughts. It’s why it is so important that young disabled people receive good quality SRE.

Inclusive sex and relationships education Make sure: all disabled young people have access to SRE information about being LGBT+ advice and support available for all young people – in an accessible way local youth, LGBT+ or disabled people organisations used to facilitate SRE SRE covers issues that are important to disabled young people This slide came directly from suggestions from young disabled people. You can find out more about each one in the shorter guide. You could ask whether anyone in the room has examples of doing this well or feels they need to implement anything.

Task 20-30 minutes: Ask the tables/groups to go back to their quotes from earlier in the presentation. Based on their learning from the day can they spend 10-15 mins coming up with some solutions to: Respond to this scenario Prevent the young person feeling like that in the first place Feedback and open plenary – 10-15 mins Let’s go back …

We are here to help! Anti-Bullying Alliance have lots of resources to support you: Free online training for professionals Guidance about HBT bullying and SEN/disability Guidance about challenging disablism and disablist language Lots of resources relating to reducing bullying of disabled children and those with SEN