Peeperann
October 29th, 2008, 11:17 AM
News
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 6:15 AM
Constantly bullied and afraid, many homosexual students miss school or attend just to have classmates direct slurs at them.
Even supportive classmates often lapse into derogatory slang.
"I've never witnessed physical bullying," said Kaitlyn Skrzypczak, a 17-year-old Midland resident and co-president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Bay City Central High School. "A lot of verbal bullying goes on, though. Kids are called names all the time and put down. They're called gay, faggot, lesbo and all these derogatory terms, often. It's constant. Every class every hour, I hear it."
Skrzypczak used to utter "that's so gay." Now she realizes its effect and wants others think before they speak.
"Gay is not a synonym for stupid or lame," Skrzypczak said.
This month, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network released the "2007 National School Climate Survey" in conjunction with a new advertising campaign it created with the New-York-based Advertising Council Inc.
The Network has released an updated report every two years since 1999, and the most recent data was collected in 2007.
"It allows us to get a picture of what's going on in schools in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, and, unfortunately, it shows a pretty dire situation for most LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students," said Daryl Presgraves, media relations manager for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in New York.
The campaign focus is to reduce homophobic language by informing students what the words they use actually mean and urging them to "say something original."
One print advertisement uses the example: "That's so jock, who can complete a pass but not a sentence," showing that using a noun identifying a person as a substitute for a negative adjective is hurtful to members of that group. The campaign sponsored Web site is thinkb4youspeak.com.
Since becoming the publicity director for the alliance at Bay City Central last year, Skrzypczak has increased her advocacy against the bullying of gay, straight, bisexual, transgender and questioning students around the nation. Selected to become part of Jump-Start, a group that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Alliance sponsored, she attended summits around the country and applied her training upon returning home.
Tim Marciniak, the 40-year-old principal at Bay City Central High School said, "kids nowadays are more accepting of all students." He views the Gay-Straight Alliance as a proactive measure and said bullying is not a significant problem at the school.
As a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance, Skrzypczak joined the Campaign Advocacy Team for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network where she lobbied legislators to pass Matt's Safe Schools Law.
State Rep. Glenn Anderson, a Westland Democrat, introduced the bill, intended to mandate that school staff act on reports of bullying for a list of reasons, including sexual orientation or gender expression. March 28, the state House of Representatives passed the bill 59 to 50, but the Senate has not voted.
"Nobody should be bullied for any reason," said dissenting Republican Rep. Ken Horn of Frankenmuth, who represents the 94th District and voted against Matt's Safe Schools Law. "It was redundant in a way that was alarming to us, creating classes of bullying," because it doesn't encompass all students.
Horn said the law would unjustly remove power from the locally elected school officials. He said that individual school districts already have policies in place to protect those that are bullied.
"It passed the House, and it will probably not go anywhere in the Senate," he said.
I really love the fact that Kids are not so ashamed these days and that there are clubs in the schools where they can go to get support! As the mother of a gay son who went to high school in the bible belt of Kentucky and came out in his junior year, I was always afraid for him.
But he stood proud and never paid the idiot homophobes any attention. He is my hero above all!
http://www.The SaginawNews.com
Wednesday October 29, 2008, 6:15 AM
Constantly bullied and afraid, many homosexual students miss school or attend just to have classmates direct slurs at them.
Even supportive classmates often lapse into derogatory slang.
"I've never witnessed physical bullying," said Kaitlyn Skrzypczak, a 17-year-old Midland resident and co-president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Bay City Central High School. "A lot of verbal bullying goes on, though. Kids are called names all the time and put down. They're called gay, faggot, lesbo and all these derogatory terms, often. It's constant. Every class every hour, I hear it."
Skrzypczak used to utter "that's so gay." Now she realizes its effect and wants others think before they speak.
"Gay is not a synonym for stupid or lame," Skrzypczak said.
This month, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network released the "2007 National School Climate Survey" in conjunction with a new advertising campaign it created with the New-York-based Advertising Council Inc.
The Network has released an updated report every two years since 1999, and the most recent data was collected in 2007.
"It allows us to get a picture of what's going on in schools in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, and, unfortunately, it shows a pretty dire situation for most LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students," said Daryl Presgraves, media relations manager for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in New York.
The campaign focus is to reduce homophobic language by informing students what the words they use actually mean and urging them to "say something original."
One print advertisement uses the example: "That's so jock, who can complete a pass but not a sentence," showing that using a noun identifying a person as a substitute for a negative adjective is hurtful to members of that group. The campaign sponsored Web site is thinkb4youspeak.com.
Since becoming the publicity director for the alliance at Bay City Central last year, Skrzypczak has increased her advocacy against the bullying of gay, straight, bisexual, transgender and questioning students around the nation. Selected to become part of Jump-Start, a group that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Alliance sponsored, she attended summits around the country and applied her training upon returning home.
Tim Marciniak, the 40-year-old principal at Bay City Central High School said, "kids nowadays are more accepting of all students." He views the Gay-Straight Alliance as a proactive measure and said bullying is not a significant problem at the school.
As a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance, Skrzypczak joined the Campaign Advocacy Team for Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network where she lobbied legislators to pass Matt's Safe Schools Law.
State Rep. Glenn Anderson, a Westland Democrat, introduced the bill, intended to mandate that school staff act on reports of bullying for a list of reasons, including sexual orientation or gender expression. March 28, the state House of Representatives passed the bill 59 to 50, but the Senate has not voted.
"Nobody should be bullied for any reason," said dissenting Republican Rep. Ken Horn of Frankenmuth, who represents the 94th District and voted against Matt's Safe Schools Law. "It was redundant in a way that was alarming to us, creating classes of bullying," because it doesn't encompass all students.
Horn said the law would unjustly remove power from the locally elected school officials. He said that individual school districts already have policies in place to protect those that are bullied.
"It passed the House, and it will probably not go anywhere in the Senate," he said.
I really love the fact that Kids are not so ashamed these days and that there are clubs in the schools where they can go to get support! As the mother of a gay son who went to high school in the bible belt of Kentucky and came out in his junior year, I was always afraid for him.
But he stood proud and never paid the idiot homophobes any attention. He is my hero above all!
http://www.The SaginawNews.com