Extra Credit - LGBT Safe Schools Seminar: LGBT Teachers and Education Issues

I attended the LGBT Safe Schools Seminar on March 13, 2008. During this seminar the speaker, Jay Kaplan from ACLU of Michigan, discussed the issues that arise in schools due to students, teachers, and parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. He described numerous laws that are currently in place and bills that are being presented to Congress, but I learned that there is not nearly enough protection or rights given to people of this culture.

One part of the seminar that caught my attention more than anything were the statistics presented in regards to harassment concerning LGBT issues in the school. Homophobic remarks are so common in school that 90% of students report that they hear comments such as “that’s so gay” or “faggot” on a regular basis. In addition, 67% of students claimed they were harassed because they were thought to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual and 60% claimed they were harassed due to their gender expression. Unfortunately, even with these extremely high statistics the rate of students reporting these incidents is less than 40%. Most students claim that they choose not to tell a school authority because they don’t think adults would take them seriously. This claim may hold some validity as statistics also show that less than 30% of teachers or other staff intervene when they hear derogatory remarks used in the school setting. This is thought to be because teachers are worried that if they do choose to intervene they could risk their own job security or that others may think that they are LGBT themselves.

One of the most shocking things I learned at the seminar is that there is no federal law prohibiting harassment or discrimination against those who identify as LGBT. There have been numerous cases where people have lost their teaching job once their sexual identity was disclosed and their termination could not be fought. Although the Michigan law states that every school must have a harassment policy concerning sexual harassment, this does not include LGBT issues unless the specific company incorporates gender and orientation in their personal harassment policy. The “Matt’s Safe Schools” bill has been passed by the Michigan House of Representatives and is waiting for a hearing in the Senate. This bill calls for anti-bullying policies to be adopted in schools. If the bill is passed it is expected to help the unfair discrimination and treatment of LGBT members of the school community.

I was not aware that there is currently no law prohibiting unequal treatment of those who identify with the LGBT community. The fact that firing people based only on their sexual orientation can be justified makes me very angry. Our society has progressed so much over the years and I don’t understand how after the struggles of African Americans and women to gain equal treatment in society (although there is still much progress to be made in those areas as well) our culture continues to deny rights to human beings just because they may be different than what is seen as the “norm.” This seminar opened my eyes and made me realize how far our society has to go. As a teacher, I will make a point to address harassment that occurs in my classroom and not push it under the rug and allow students to continue to ridicule one another using homophobic terms. I will make it clear to my students that that language will not be tolerated and will work hard to create a respectful classroom environment.