I attended two sessions at the Pacific Regional Leadership Conference that turned out to be very closely related. As a member of the San Gorgonio Civil Rights Committee and a member of the State Council Civil Rights in Education sub-committee I chose to attend sessions relating to creating safe schools for all students.

The first session, "Bullying, Prejudice and Name Calling: Practical Strategies to Making Schools Safer," addressed the underlying causes of school violence such as the shootings at Columbine.

NEA Presenter, Jerry Newberry, Executive Director of the NEA Health Information Network identified the "Chain of Violence":

Ignorance

Fear

Anger/Hatred

Violence

Citing evidence gathered in the aftermath of school violence, Newberry reported that in every case the perpetrators had been subjected to years of bullying and name calling, often with no intervention on the part of school personnel. In addition, nationwide surveys of public school children have shown that the Number 1 epithet used against students perceived to be different is "fag."

Newberry showed a video clip of a fourth grade class addressing the issue of name calling, and specifically the issue of the use of the word "gay." The teacher had groups of student write down their reactions to the word, then compiled the responses on the whiteboard. She then asked students to identify where they got their ideas. Students cited television, older siblings and peers as among the places they got their information. The clip did not show the next step, which would have been to lead the students in a discussion of the effects of name calling and eliciting commitments from the students to cease the behavior.

The second session, "Taking a Stand: Creating Safe Schools for All Students," addressed the problems face by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth in our schools.

According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center:

92 percent of GLBT youth reported hearing homophobic remarks frequently or often,

84 percent reported being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation

39 percent reported being physically harassed because of their sexual orientation; and

64 percent reported feeling unsafe at their school

In addition:

83 percent of GLBT students reported that school personnel never or only sometimes intervened when homophobic remarks were made when they were present; and

61 percent heard school personnel make homophobic remarks

Clearly, schools are often unsafe places for GLBT students and those perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. In fact, studies have shown that:

GLBT students who experienced verbal harassment frequently had a GPA almost half a grade point lower than those who experienced it less frequently, and those who experience physical harassment had GPSs two-thirds of a grade point lower; and

Nearly one-third of GLBT students drop out of high school due to harassment, violence and isolation; nearly three times the national average. GLBT students of color are at even higher risk for missing school.

It is up to us, as educators, to confront bullying and name calling whenever and wherever it occurs. In addition, if every educator would take a proactive approach and address the issues of name calling and bullying in their classrooms before they become a problem, it would go a long way towards making school a safe place for all students and ending the culture of violence that pervades our society.