The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's mission is for all students to be valued and respected and to feel safe in schools regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. The GLSEN website provideds tools and tips for educators to use in thier classrooms and schools. Some available resources on the site include lesson plans, curricular tools, information on training programs, and booklinks.
http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/
This website provides information of the effects of "Damaging Language" being used in schools. The site stated that LGBT students are more likely than others to feel unsafe, miss school, receive lower grades, and not attend college because of the verbal and physical harassments they encounter in school. "The 2007 National School Climate Survey revealed that 86.2% of LGBT students experienced harasssment at school, 60.8% felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and 32.7% skipped a day of school in the past month because of feeling unsafe." This site also has stories and videos shared from people who are reminding others to "ThinkB4YouSpeak" One story I found interesting was from a teacher who had students that always said "that's so gay" in class, this teacher asked them if they would ever say "that's so Hispanic" or "that's so black." These students who had friends of different races tried saying it was different but eventually stopped using the phrase "that's so gay" in class because they felt uncomfortable to be questioned like that.
http://www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/
This website provides tip sheets for educators and school staff on:
How to intervene
Providing support to children who are bullied
Steps to address bullying at your school
Documenting bullying at your school
http://www.nonamecallingweek.org/
I visited the Think B4 You Speak website. There was a running tally of the number of times someone used the phrase "That's so gay" on twitter. It is amazing to see how many times that phrase is used. I also liked that the site offers ways to stop damaging language. Thanks for the links to the informative web sites.
ReplyDeleteMy kids at school use the "That's so gay" a lot. I like the intervention of "That's so Hispanic"or "That's so Black" as another way to deal with this issue.
ReplyDeleteI have worked with students who have significant disabilities in the past. Whenever I hear, "That's retarded," I cringe. I can only imagine how people who are gay may feel when they hear "what a fag" or "how gay."
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