May Newsflash
Teachers trained to respond to harassment of gay students
Marking a first in Philadelphia, staff members at all 276 District elementary, middle, and high schools received training on how to make schools safer, more welcoming environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students during a two-hour April 23 professional development workshop.
The workshops – facilitated by two specially trained staff members at each school – taught the District’s 11,000 teacher corps and other school staff members how to respond when they witness anti-gay harassment in the classroom.
The required teacher trainings are part of the District’s efforts to respond to local LGBT advocacy groups that have been pushing the District to do more to ensure that the District’s anti-discrimination policy, Policy 102, is effectively implemented in schools. The District’s Policy 102 working group has also produced a teacher’s curriculum guide for a ninth grade required reading selection about LGBT and gender issues.
In addition, the School Reform Commission approved a $50,000 contract with the Mazzoni Center, a local LGBT health services provider, to better coordinate efforts to beef up school safety for LGBT students at an April 21 public meeting.
Over 80 percent of LGBT students say they are verbally, physically, or sexually harassed at school because of their sexual orientation, according to the 2003 GLSEN National School Climate Survey, demonstrating the need for teacher trainings on LGBT student safety, says Eliza Byard, deputy director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).
“Teachers are not playing the role that they could on a consistent basis,” she says, noting that 83 percent of LGBT youth surveyed by GLSEN said teachers rarely or never intervene when present while a student is being harassed.
At Strawberry Mansion High School, English teacher Maureen Howells said the training was a good first start at raising awareness about the importance of helping LGBT students feel safe in school.
“It was important to bring up the issue,”
said Howells, who has taught at Strawberry Mansion for five years.
“We’ve never devoted a whole meeting to discussing [it].”
Danny Horn, education director of the Mazzoni Center, designed the
recent Policy 102 workshop in cooperation with the District. Horn
said these citywide workshops have sparked interest among teachers
across the District.
There are “definitely…people in each school who [were] heartened by this training,” he says, adding that he expects the number of high schools with gay-straight alliance clubs to double from 10 to 20 by next fall.
To learn more, contact Danny Horn at 215-563-0663 x 219 or dhorn@mazzonicenter.org.
To get a copy of the “Resource Guide for Teaching Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence” (book edited by Marion Dane Bauer), contact the District’s Curriculum Office at 215-299-8912.