In 2005, when GLSEN conducted its first “From Teasing to Torment” national survey, nearly 62 percent of U.S. middle and high schoolers reported that students at their schools were victimized based on sexual orientation. In 2015, when GLSEN collected data for this follow up report a decade later, that figure was still just shy of 50 percent.
Other decreases in anti-LGBT bullying were similarly gradual. From 2005 to 2015, the percentage of students who reported witnessing victimization based on gender expression fell from 60 to 49 percent, and the percentage who reported hearing the word “gay” used in a derogatory fashion dipped slightly from 89 percent to 75 percent.
Even more disturbing is the fact that race-based victimization remained flat, with nearly 38 percent of students reporting it 10 years apart. [...]
Fifteen percent of the students even said teachers and administrators were making homophobic comments. Nearly 13 percent reported hearing “negative remarks about transgender people” from school staff. And less than 20 percent said staff intervened “often” when they heard negative remarks about gender expression, which is especially concerning given that nearly a quarter of the students did not identify in a strictly gender-conforming way. [...]
“What our research shows is that [bullying] doesn’t toughen you up and get you ready for the ‘real world,’” said Villenas. “It actually leads to poor psychological outcomes. It leads to lower educational aspirations. It leads to more likely experiences with school discipline and higher absenteeism. We see no evidence here that it prepares students for the ‘real world’ or for college. Quite the opposite, actually.”
No comments:
Post a Comment