Creating a Safe School Environment

Facts to Know According to the CDC and the National School Climate Survey, students who described themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (LGTBQ) experience a significant amount of bullying and harassment.

The worst experiences were reported in middle school 80% of LGBTQ students reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year. When compared to peers, this group was more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the past years as their heterosexual peers. 30% of LGBTQ students skipped a day of school in the last month because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable.

Defining Harassment/Bullying and Being an Ally Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional (not accidental or done in fun)and involves an imbalance of power or strength. Often bullying is repeated over time. Bullying can take many forms, such as hitting or punching, teasing or name-calling, intimidation through gestures, social exclusion, and sending insulting messages or pictures by phone or the Internet.

Bystander: A bystander is a person who is present when bullying occurs who does not take part directly in the bullying but also does nothing to stop the bullying. Ally: An ally is a person who stands up for the rights and safety of others.

Agree/Disagree page 15 of your Get Real workbook Clarifying values around bullying There are no right or wrong answers, only people’s opinions and feelings.

Process Questions Why do you think people bully or harass other people even though they’re not supposed to? Why do you think we’re discussing harassment and bullying in a sex education class? How do homophobia and bullying relate to social awareness? To relationship skills? Homophobia: dislike or prejudice of homosexual people.