Chicage might get a "Gay-friendly" high school, due to the routine harrassment of students who are Gay or perceived to be Gay.
"Public school officials in Chicago, Illinois, are recommending approval of a "gay-friendly" high school because harassment and violence are causing gay students to skip class and drop out at alarming rates...."
"The national study, which the group says is the most comprehensive report ever on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students nationwide, found that 86.2 percent of those students reported being verbally harassed, 44.1 percent physically harassed and 22.1 percent physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
"This harassment, the study concludes, has affected students' ability to achieve success in school, causing their grade-point level to be, on average, half a point lower than that of heterosexual students nationwide.
"Dropout levels are higher among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students because of more frequent truancy, the study found. Almost 32 percent of those students missed a class because of feeling unsafe, compared with only 5.5 percent of heterosexual students nationwide, the study said.
"Truancy and lower grades aren't the only repercussions of anti-gay sentiments in schools, said Kevin Jennings, the founder and executive director of GLSEN. He cited the killing of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student shot by a classmate in Oxnard, California, in February after King asked to be his valentine."
Those limited human beings who would think of voting for Proposition 8 in California, the bill to overturn the California State Supreme Court's decision that currently allows for same-sex marriage, frequently use as their justification the "harm it will do to our children." What they fail or refuse to realize is that there is absolutely no evidence that same-sex marriage will in any way harm children, or anyone else for that matter, and that by their seeking to restrict Constitutional rights they are, in fact, poisoning the minds of children, all the while contributing to the increased coarsening of our culture.
It's a sad state of affairs when there is the need for a high school designed to protect kids from other kids who learn hate from their parents and other adults who profess to be "Christians" or "decent," all the while acting like ravening wolves. If these people really cared about children, they would model behavior that makes sure that every citizen enjoys the same rights and privileges as every other citizen; see to it that no group is singled out and targeted for discrimination.
To the degree that any adult seeks to limit or rescind the civil rights of others, it's to that degree that he/she is poisoning the minds of their, and our, children!
4 comments:
I'm ambivalent about this. On the one hand, it's separatist, big time! And it will only embolden the budding bigots at the 'normal' schools.
On the other hand, I read somewhere that the mean IQ for the LGBT community is somewhere around 130. Perhaps this separate school needs to be viewed as a magnet school for the gifted. There might yet be some good to come out of separating the LGBT students from normal schools.
Now if it would also be open to straight students who wish to participate...
Thanks Hazumu. You make some good points. It's just a crying shame that the harrassment and bullying of Gay kids, or kids perceived to be Gay, makes such a consideration necessary. It certainly doesn't speak well for the degree of civility in our society, no does it speak well for the rhetoric and behavior modeled by all too many adults.
Jerry,
I support Gay-friendly schools, especially at the elementary grade level. I don't like separatism or segregation, but we have no choice. Until parents train their little darlings not to brutalize classmates with blended gender identity, it's better if LGBT students can go somewhere they can feel safe and nurtured. I was a good student, but honestly, I don't know how I got any schoolwork done from the 1st to 8th grade. The threats, the beatings, the humiliation I had to endure! It was like learning in a war zone. I was terrified all the time, and my teachers didn't do much to shield me from the terrorism.
I doubt it's all that much different now, Don Charles. If teachers and principals suspended students for attacking a student for any reason, the message would clearly be given that such behavior is unacceptable in any civil society or situation. That is part of a child's education! If sensitivity to others isn't combined with cognitive skills, those cognitive skills can and will likely be used for destructive purposes when those children become adults, as we've seen among politicians, all too many clergy, and all too many professing Christians.
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