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Largest Study Ever of Anti-Gay Harassment In Schools DOCUMENTS AN EPIDEMIC and Effective Steps to Reduce It
The California Safe Schools Coalition, in which the ACLU plays a leadership role, this January released the largest- ever study of anti-gay harassment in schools. The coalition is a statewide network of experts and advocates working to implement the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act, enacted on January 1, 2000, which prohibits harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Despite this law, the report illustrates that harassment and bullying based on sexual orientation remain persistent and pervasive in California schools, and it identifies key strategies schools can take to counteract it.
Every year, over 200,000 California students in grades 7-12 are targets of harassment based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, according to the Safe Place to Learn study. The study, the first statewide examination of harassment in California schools based on actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender non-conformity, analyzes data from two sources: the 2001-2002 California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) and the 2003 Preventing School Harassment Survey (PSH). The data were analyzed by the California Safe Schools Coalition and researchers at UC Davis' 4-H Center for Youth Development.
"When over 200,000 students are being targeted each year, school officials and educators can't ignore the problem any longer," said Molly O'Shaughnessy, Director of the California Safe Schools Coalition. She urges state and local school officials to use the study to direct immediate attention to the epidemic. O'Shaughnessy identifies the heightened levels of health, emotional, and educational risks as the most disturbing consequences of harassment based on sexual orientation.
Data from the CHKS show that in comparison to students who were not harassed, the 200,000 middle and high school students harassed on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation are more than three times as likely to carry a weapon to school, to seriously consider suicide, to make a plan for attempting suicide or to miss at least one day of school in the last 30 days because they felt unsafe. They are also more than twice as likely to report depression, to use methamphetamines, or to use inhalants. Students harassed based on actual or perceived sexual orientation are also more likely to have low grades (Cs or below), to be victims of violence, to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, binge drink, or use marijuana.
The Safe Place to Learn study also found that school climates are unsafe for LGBT students, students perceived to be LGBT, and gender non-conforming students. According to the PSH, 91% of students reported hearing students make negative comments based on sexual orientation, 44% reported hearing teachers make negative comments based on sexual orientation, and 46% of students felt their schools were not safe for LGBT students. Two of every three students who identified as LGBT reported being harassed based on actual or perceived sexual orientation.
The study not only demonstrates the scope and seriousness of the problem, but also proves that schools can take a series of simple, specific steps that have a statistically significant impact in reducing levels of harassment and improving the health and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. The steps include establishing and publicizing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies that explicitly include sexual orientation and gender identity, training teachers and staff to intervene when they hear slurs and negative comments, encouraging and supporting the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance or similar student club on campus, ensuring that students know where to access resources and support related to sexual orientation and gender identity, and including LGBT issues in school curriculum.
Orange County student Vanessa Coe recognizes the change in attitudes and actions of fellow students and teachers following the establishment of a campus Gay-Straight Alliance. "Since the GSA, the student awareness level has dramatically increased." In addition, she points out that teachers are now more aware of homophobic slurs and will stop them from continuing. "Just the presence of having GSA has had a deep impact," she continued.
"Every student deserves to learn in an environment that helps them reach their full potential," said O'Shaughnessy. "It is encouraging to know that there are simple steps that schools can take to improve conditions."
"The Safe Place to Learn study sets the stage for addressing this issue on the national scale. California is among nine states with laws against discrimination or harassment in schools based on sexual orientation or gender identity. As more states pass similar nondiscrimination laws, and as lawsuits successfully challenge harassment and discrimination, the Safe Place to Learn report provides research-based solutions to this national epidemic," noted the ACLU/SC's Christopher Calhoun, one of the study's authors. To download a copy of the report, go to www.casafeschools.org.
