What should schools be doing to better address bullying based on sexual identity or orientation?
Schools can have in-service training for teachers to address how to handle instances of bullying. Educators need to intervene and have things they can do to make sure the individual that’s being victimized by the bullying is protected. Educators need work with the bully themselves to say “this not appropriate in our school. We will not tolerate those things.” Other resources we try to pitch to schools are being more inclusive in their curriculum of LGBT issues. For example, include examples of writers who have LGBT themes in their works or include the gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the context of the civil rights movement in social studies classes. Students in these schools feel the school is more accepting of them, so it’s not as foreign or stigmatized in the school district itself. RESOURCES: Houston Area Teen Coalition of Homosexuals (HATCH) HATCH is dedicated to empowering Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) adolescents, ages 13-20, to become respo
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