Schools Work to Protect Students From Bullying

It's tough growing up. It's even tougher growing up gay. Or lesbian. Or knowing, through some sick cosmic joke, you got stuck with the wrong body.

Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old student in Indiana, knew how tough it is to grow up being bullied. The teen took his own life this month—he was found hanging in a family barn. His death is a stark reminder of how tough it is to grow up—whether one is gay or not.

Safety for teens in Santa Cruz is subjective, said Vanessa Wilson, a spokeswoman for STRANGE, a local youth-based program for queer and questioning teens.

"Different students have very different views in terms of their safety and in terms of the awareness of administrators," she said.

"For some people, (harassment and bullying is) based on their gender expression or the way they are as a complete individual," Wilson said. But sometimes, "It's kind of hard to tell what you are being picked on for."

The statistics tell a stark story: GLSEN—the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network—recently released a study showing staggering numbers of queer teens are subjected to regular discrimination, harassment and general mistreatment.

• Almost nine out of 10 LGBT students felt harassed at some point during the past school year.
• Six out of 10 LGBT students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation.
• About one-third of LGBT students skipped at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns.

In many Santa Cruz City Schools, tolerance is not the goal.

"I'm not a fan of tolerance because that implies 'putting up with,' " said Ron Indra, adviser for the Harbor High Schools Gay-Straight Alliance. "We should practice acceptance, especially in schools."

Even statements like "that's so gay" that echoed through the halls of high schools everywhere for decades are taboo on the Harbor High campus.

"It's not permitted," said Indra. "If an administrator or teacher hears it, they will intervene." And not just with a warning, either. Verbal harassment can mean a trip to the vice principal's office.

At the middle-school level, gay-straight alliances serve a different purpose, said Valerie Quandt, principal of Mission Hills Middle School. She sees high-schoolers as more politically active. In middle school, the goal is safety.

"Middle school is a tough place to be, so we want to makes sure kids have a safe place to go," she said. "What we find with the middle school students is they go through daily life trying to figure out who they are, where they belong. The GSA at the middle-school level is: Come here and be who you are."

GLSEN's survey found that having Gay-Straight Alliances available to LGBT students made a considerable difference in their outlook. The recent suicide of Lucas, the Indiana teen who was harassed regularly by his peers, shows just how detrimental that bullying can be on the psyches of teens, whether they are gay or straight. Students with access to GSAs hear fewer homophobic remarks on campus, have fewer missed days of school and greater academic success. Yet, less than half of the schools across the country have GSA organizations.

"California has some good anti-bullying harassment laws in place that include sexual orientation and gender identity," said Dave Reynolds of the Trevor Project, a national suicide hot line for LGBT youth.

The Five Ws

The Trevor Project recommends that students report and document any incidents of harassment. These are the most important questions to have answers to:

• Who was involved?
• What happened?
• Where did it happen?
• When did it happen?
• Who was it reported to?
• Were there any witnesses?