Gendered Harassment in Secondary Schools (hyperlinks)

In this article Meyer talks about teachers' perceptions and responses to gendered harassment issues in Canadian secondary schools.  Six teachers within one urban school district were interviewed for this study to discover why teachers fail to respond to these types of situations effectively.  It was found that educators experience various external and internal influences that act as either incentives or preventatives.  The teachers expressed a lack of support for both colleagues and administration, the fear of parent responses to interventions, and inconsistent consequences for students.  It is important for both students and schools that administrators, teachers, and parents work together to develop a plan with will provided consistent, effective responses to gendered harassment so as to create a safe environment for all of our students.

This strong video was created to remember all of the children that have taken their own lives because they were being harassed due to their gender or sexual orientation.  This issue needs to be seriously addressed as the title of this video very well states enough is "Enough".

Bullying and harassment are significant problems in schools and it is happening at all ages and levels.  Harassment is affecting students behavior and education.  Students might not be able to concentrate in class or may even skip school to avoid bullying.  Ignoring the problem is not helping our students. 

President Obama and the First Lady support the LGBT community.

The Annual Day of Silence is a youth-run effort using silence to protest the actual silencing of the LGBT community due to harassment, bias and abuse in schools.

Gendered harassment needs to stop, children need to know that they are supported and be able to feel safe within their schools and communities.  We as teachers need to work together in an effort to make this happen for our students so that they can live their lives free of fear.