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GLSEN and NSSP send bullying message to Congress |
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| GLSEN and NSSP send bullying message to Congress | ||
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by Shaun Knittel -
SGN Staff Writer A federal anti-bullying bill, the Safe Schools Improvement Act, was introduced to Congress last Tuesday. California Rep. Linda Sanchez, joined by lead cosponsors Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, introduced the bill along with 40 other bipartisan cosponsors. GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, joined with NSSP, the National Safe Schools Partnership, in supporting the bill. GLSEN is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. NSSP is an informal coalition of leading national education, health, civil rights, law enforcement, youth development and other organizations committed to ensuring that America's schools are safe for all children. The bill requires schools that receive Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act funding to implement a comprehensive anti-bullying policy that enumerates categories often targeted by bullies, including race, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and others. The bill also requires states to include bullying and harassment data in their statewide needs assessments reporting. "Students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach when they feel unsafe at school," GLSEN Washington State Executive Director Robert Raketty told SGN. "If we effectively make bullying and harassment a priority in K-12 instruction, we will find an increase in school attendance, GPAs and graduation rates. As important, we will see students with a higher sense of self-esteem and a decrease in youth suicides." Raketty said he regularly hears from students who have experienced bullying and harassment at school. "These students report being depressed, isolated and, occasionally, suicidal," Raketty informed SGN. "With the introduction of text messaging and e-mail, it doesn't end with the ring of the school bell," he said. Currently, federal law provides important support to promote school safety. However, the law does not comprehensively and expressly focus on issues of bullying or harassment - something GLSEN and NSSP would like to see change. "Bullying is a serious public health crisis that affects countless young people every day in America's schools, "said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard. "The recent suicides by two young boys who experienced constant bullying at school are a tragic reminder that more needs to be done to address the problem." The two boys Byard is talking about shocked many across the nation because the boys were very young. The media picked up on both cases calling them "bullycides." Carl Walker-Hoover of Springfield, Massachusetts took his own life April 6. The 11-year-old hanged himself after enduring daily taunts of being Gay, despite his mother's weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This year's GLSEN National Day of Silence was held in his honor April 17 - the same day Carl would've turned 12. Jaheem Herrara of DeKalb County, Georgia took his own life April 16. Herrara, also 11-years-old hanged himself as well. Again, the boy took his own life due to daily taunts and bullying that went unchecked by local school officials. Although both boys were taunted for being Gay, neither youth identified as being homosexual. According to a 2007 GLSEN report, LGBT students face even higher levels of victimization. In fact, the GLSEN report says 9 out of 10 LGBT students say they have been harassed in the past year. Additionally, 60.8% said they felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation. GLSEN found that students at schools with a comprehensive anti-bullying policy similar to the one required by the Safe Schools Improvement Act reported harassment at a significantly reduced rate. The schools that Jaheem and Carl attended had no such policy in place. Locally, GLSEN Washington State provides training to school staff, educators and administrators in schools across Washington State. Raketty said the organization provides training for students on how to start a Gay-Straight Alliance and how to help it grow. The work, he says, has taken them from Port Angeles to Spokane and Bellingham to Vancouver, Washington. "This bill will go a long way toward laying a foundation of support for students across the country by calling for the kind of policies that matter," said Byard. "We urge Congress to pass this crucially important bill for the well being of America's youth." Racketty believes the anti-bullying bill has the teeth necessary to hold school districts and administrators accountable - something the current laws do not demand. The problem of school-based bullying and harassment continues to be the rule and not the exception in Washington State schools, he said. "It may be cliché, but its true - human potential is a terrible thing to waste," Racketty said from GLSEN's Seattle office. "We have college scholarships for LGBT students once they graduate from high school. Too often, intelligent and creative LGBT youth don't even graduate high school due to persistent harassment and bullying." For others, such as in the case of young Carl Walker-Hoover and Jaheem Herrara, the story has a far more tragic ending - "bullycide." |
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