Safe Spaces by Vaccaro, August and Kennedy

 

We NEED anti-discrimination laws in schools!

 



The Senate shot down an amendment to the "Every Child Achieves" Act which would have put LGBT anti-discriminatory policies in schools. LGBT students are harassed by other students, teachers, administrators and parents in the community. This video mentions 84% of LGBT youth are harassed at schools because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. What's worse is that of the 26 anti-LGBT slurs these students hear every day, 1/3 of them are heard from school staff members. Students are being harassed by the people who are supposed to be protecting them.

With all the changes in today's society, one thing that still hasn't changed when it comes to LGBT is the acceptance and education of it in schools. As August mentions, "Otherwise, the traditional curriculum typically ignores the experiences or contributions of LBGT people," (August 85). In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of making same-sex marriage legal in the United States. This was a huge step and yet, we are still not talking about LGBT in schools.

August talks about the different ways some teachers are breaking barriers to try and teach about LGBT in their classes. "In the end it seems that the best way to deal with students' complaints that [LGBT] materials are just 'too much' is to integrate more of it into our courses. [If LGBT] issues are repeated often enough, they become commonplace. Then, as the issues become commonplace in the classroom, students may be better prepared to accept, support and appreciate gays, lesbians and bisexuals out of the classroom as well," (August 92). Many children get their socialization from school. They meet people outside of their families and close friends and are introduced to new ideas and experiences. If they are not from a LGBT family or have not grown up around it, school is a way they can learn about it and understand it is a normal lifestyle. However, the opposite of this is the children that have grown up in a LGBT family. Going to school and not hearing anything about it or meeting children who don't understand can make them feel isolated. This disconnect and lack of education is one of the reasons many LGBT youths are harassed.

 

 

Another concern is that of transgender children. After Caitlyn Jenner publicly changed from a male to a female, transgender became a HUGE topic. Schools are now having to face the issues of transgender students when it comes to how the students should be addressed, locker rooms and even restrooms. With these new topics coming about in such a quick fashion, school policies need to be updated.

 

 

 

I believe August understands this when he talks about communication. In the video above, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft talks about getting parents to communicate with schools. Some people may feel their transgender child should only express themselves when at home rather than out in public, including school. This teaches them to hide their true selves and to be ashamed of who they are. Instead, parents must advocate for their children. This includes going to school and communicating your child's needs and how the school can help. This advocating can help stimulate discussion and education on the LGBT topic in schools and make it seen as a common occurrence.

 

 



While reading Safe Spaces, all I could think of was SCWAAMP. Some of the schools and families in this reading were against educating students on LGBT because it was not an "appropriate" topic. LGBT goes against the straight ideology that is taught in schools subconsciously. When discussing families, they talk about single parents, adoption, divorces and heterosexual marriages. This leaves out those children who are raised in LGBT families or who have friends that are LGBT and even the students that are LGBT which continues the straight ideology being pushed on the new generations.