OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Bullying

Cyberbullies Target GLBT Youth

March 15th, 2010

Cyberbullying

A new study out of Iowa State University suggests that gay and lesbian teenagers are among the hardest hit by cyberbullying, a phenomenon unique to today’s youth. With the popularity of social networking, bullies have found new venues to harass and ostracize their peers, often without the threat of adult intervention.

The numbers aren’t terrifically encouraging. 54% of gay youth and friends of gay youth reported being cyberbullied within the thirty days prior to the researchers’ survey. The next highest group was females, at 21%.

Less encouraging still, victims of cyberbullying reported feeling helpless, with 55% saying that their parents couldn’t do anything to stop it, and 57% saying they don’t believe school officials could help either.

To help ameliorate the situation, I’ve decided to make an actual cybernetic bully, programmed to protect gay youth against its human counterparts. Any investors?

Gay Youth At Greater Risk Of Bullying

February 1st, 2010

Gay teens are nearly twice as likely to be bullied as straight ones, according to a new study conducted out of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is based on a survey of 7,559 teens and young adults. While the number of out teens in the sample was relatively small, the results still re-confirm that GLBT youth are at a higher risk of being bullied, likely because bullies tend to target anyone perceived as being different.

Bullying is a huge problem—a problem with lasting, negative effects, and one that will not disappear on its own. Schools must train their staff to recognize and put a stop to it, or the problem will only continue.

School Board Protects Gay Students, Meets Opposition

November 30th, 2009

Life before the policy update was rough

Good news coming out of Chilliwack, British Columbia. The Chilliwack Board of Education has voted to update their bullying and harassment policies to directly address the homophobic bullying that has been making life very difficult for gay students there.

Great news, marred only by two trustees that actually opposed the anti-bullying measure: Heather Maahs and Martha Weins.  Maahs explained her opposition to the press:

If you open the policy up for one group, you’d have to open it up for all groups of students. Nobody deserves to be harassed or bullied, but it’s difficult when you take one group of students and write a policy specifically for that group.

I won’t even justify that with an invective. If gay students are being tormented in ways that other students aren’t, it is the school board’s duty to address it with as many specific policies as required.

The school board already had a general bullying and harassment policy, but there was no official denunciation of homophobia, nor any specific training for educators and staff in the old policy. Without these in place, few bullied GLBT students feel comfortable to approach anyone for help. I say this from personal, painful experience—and with that in mind, the new anti-bullying policies get my enthusiastic, prolonged approval.

High School Still Dangerous For Gay Teens

September 25th, 2009

Friendlier than the hall monitors, mind you.

A professor researching harassment of gay teens is calling high school “the land that time forgot,” a place where aggressive anti-gay sentiment pervades student life.

Catherine Taylor, a professor of education and communications at the University of Winnipeg, regrets to have discovered that virtually all gay teens are verbally harassed, with a startling number even being physically abused. Worse, homophobia so ingrained in school culture that very few students step up to condemn the abuse.

This is the same study, incidentally, that was forbidden from being conducted inside several Catholic school boards in Canada. The study is currently in its second phase, and is seeking funding for its third and final phase to take place early next year.

Catholic School Boards Refuse Gay Bullying Study

January 28th, 2008

Iran—no, wait… Catholic Schools…

A nation-wide study on homophobia and bullying in high schools was launched on Friday as a collaborative effort between the University of Winnipeg and Egale Canada. The ambitious study hopes to gauge the social climate in Canadian high schools by surveying 10,000 students before the end of June.

Not all students will have the opportunity to participate, however. Three Catholic school boards in Ontario and Alberta have refused to co-operate with researchers and barred the survey. Helen Kennedy, Egale’s executive director, expressed surprise at the Catholic boards’ decisions:

The study is not about sexual behaviour; it is about social behaviour. It’s about bullying, harassment and taunting in our schools.

A worthwhile effort, and it’s unfortunate that not everyone is sensitive to the cause. Even more strange, though, is the rationale for the research ban. Reverend Dennis Noon of the Wellington Catholic District School Board, who refused his students’ participation in the study, told the media that homophobia was simply “not a big issue” in Catholic schools.

Gee, where have I heard that before?

Having gone through the Catholic school system, I don’t buy it. I’m not alone, either; Ontario’s Minister of Education, Kathleen Wynee, expressed disappointment at the school boards’ dismissal of the research, saying she hopes for more open conversations with the boards.

As for Reverend Noon and the other board representatives, if they don’t think that homophobia is a problem, then why not allow the researchers to conduct their survey? Given the harm caused by bullying, I think the Catholic school boards ought to face the issue for a change and acknowledge when gay students are being harmed in their schools.

Safe Schools For Gays Unimportant, Apparently

September 15th, 2006

MLA Couch Fort

The B.C. provincial government has cancelled the fall legislative session, citing a lack of business to discuss. Premier Gordon Campbell adding that skipping out on parliamentary sessions “is an organized, thoughtful way of proceeding with the public’s business.”

Of course, that’s entirely relative, as there are seven private member’s bills waiting to be discussed—including a “Safe Schools” bill designed to protect gay students from harassment and discrimination.

Steve LeBal and James Chamberlain, of the Gay and Lesbian Educators of B.C. (GALE), were understandably upset:

It’s incomprehensible to have a government that sits once a year. My main concern is that [the Safe Schools bill] will die and won’t be reintroduced. We’ve been waiting 10 years for this. It’s long overdue.

So for all you gay students in B.C. putting up with harassment, rest fully assured! Your government may, eventually, whenever parliament reconvenes—which it will, just not soon—there will, probably, be a discussion of whether or not to further discuss, and possibly vote on—if you’re lucky—a bill to protect you!

Pending a lengthy review process and additional senate discussion, of course.