[violence.prevention] Provided by: GLSTN 122 West 26th Street, Suite 1100 New York, NY 10001 USA Tel: (212) 727-0135 Email: glstn@glstn.org Web: http://www.glstn.org/respect/ VIOLENCE PREVENTION by Warren J. Blumenfeld and Laurie Lindop (written in consultation with Anne Greenbaum, LCSW) PART OF A BIGGER PROBLEM: VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS Nationally, approximately three million thefts and violent crimes occur on or near school campuses annually. This, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, equates to nearly 16,000 incidents per school day, or one incident every six seconds. Anti-gay violence is simply one part of the overall problem of violence in schools. According to a Massachusetts Department of Education survey of 2000 students, more than one-third of the state's high school males carry weapons. Seven percent of girls report arming themselves with guns, knives or other weapons. In addition to the startling number of students carrying weapons to school, 40% of students report that they have been in physical fights. These problems are not exclusive to inner city schools. Robert Munnelly, Reading Schools superintendent told the Boston Globe, "We are seeing in suburbia the same phenomenon as in the city. For whatever reason...kids feel the need to protect themselves and they have the knives for personal protection. It is not good and we are concerned." Schools are becoming more and more violent and gays and lesbians are disproportionately victims of violent incidents. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that "The most frequent victims of hate violence today are blacks, Hispanics, Southeast Asians, Jews, and gays and lesbians. Homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims." Many schools across the Commonwealth are beginning to develop violence prevention/conflict resolution strategies to insure the safety and well-being of their students. Addressing anti-gay violence and prejudice is an important part of any school's overall plan to combat violence. After all, homophobia makes schools unsafe for all students, not only those who are gay and lesbian. Anti-gay prejudice and homophobia can make any student who defies the narrowly defined gender-roles a target for violence and harassment. Randy Driskell, a senior at Wareham High School, stated, "Being anything but a cool jock is socially unacceptable." Boys who do not fit this stereotype are open to harassment. Randy stated that because he was different, he was called "Queer and Faggot." Girls who are athletic, strong-minded, independent, may risk being labeled as lesbians or "dykes." Anti-gay prejudice imposes restrictive gender-roles on both boys and girls and the punishment for stepping outside these boundaries can be threats and/or acts of violence and harassment. This section will look at the ways in which homophobia can contribute to violence in schools and the role prejudice can play in conflicts in schools. The section concludes with outlines for workshop trainings you can use to make your school safer for all students. ANTI-GAY PREJUDICE CONTRIBUTES TO VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS There are many factors that contribute to the overall problem of violence in schools. For example, sexism can lead a boy to think its permissible to hit his girlfriend in the face when she tells him she doesn't want to date him anymore. Racism can lead to conflicts between students who don't want "those" kids moving into their schools. Homophobia is yet another factor that can cause explosions. It is at the root of violence and harassment inflicted upon young gays and lesbians. Homophobia can contribute to violence in three different ways: * People may become violent towards gays or lesbians or anyone whom they perceive to be gay or lesbian. * Gays and lesbians may become violent to selves (suicide). * Gays and lesbians may become violent in response to homophobia. PEOPLE MAY BECOME VIOLENT TOWARDS GAY AND LESBIAN STUDENTS. The impact of homophobic violence on gays and lesbians is staggering. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force surveyed 2000 gays and lesbians and found that over 90% had experienced some form of victimization on account of their perceived or actual sexual orientation and one in five gay males and one in ten lesbians said that they had been 'punched, hit, kicked, or beaten.' (National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Survey, 1984). Schools are not immune from anti-gay attacks. Steven Obuchowski, an 18 year old, testified that "each year the hatred towards me grew and escalated from just simple name-calling in elementary school to having persons in high school threaten to beat me up, being pushed and dragged around on the ground, having my hands slammed in lockers, and a number of other daily tortures." Concord-Carlisle's Gay/Straight Alliance surveyed 849 students in their school and found that more than half of the students reported that physical harassment occurred yearly to students who are gay or lesbian. Anti-gay violence can manifest in numerous ways, from physical assaults to verbal harassment. The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth distributed a survey to all students at Lincoln-Sudbury High School in February of 1993. They found that 97.5% of the students heard anti-gay comments in school. At Concord-Carlisle, 36% of students said that verbal harassment based on sexual orientation occurred at the high school on a daily basis. How does homophobia incite violence? Homophobia can be exhibited in numerous ways but invariably it denigrates homosexuals as being in some fundamental way, lesser human beings. Homophobia categorizes gays and lesbians as perverted, unnatural, evil and in doing so, establishes them as a group worthy of fear, even hate. Ten years ago, Jim Baines was 15-years-old the day he joined a group of friends harassing, and eventually killing a gay man. Now, he travels to schools with state police officers raising the issue of hate crimes, but he said that in high school, he and his friends targeted gays "Because they were homosexuals, because we thought they were much different than us and that we could get away [with assaulting them] because it was accepted. I considered this person different than I, less than I..." GAYS AND LESBIANS MAY BECOME VIOLENT TO THEMSELVES. It is difficult to grow up in this society and not internalize at least a few homophobic myths and assumptions. Without accurate information and supportive people to turn to, young gays and lesbians may give credence to the pejorative stereotypes homophobia manufactures about people like themselves. Clearly, this can lead to profound feelings of self-loathing as Lee Fearnside, a lesbian teen, testified at the Governor's Commission Hearings: "I couldn't and still can't think of a single positive image of lesbians in our mainstream society. I am forced to rely on negative stereotypes for role models. How could I identify with these images and maintain a shred of self-respect? This initiated a downward spiral of self-hatred and anger motivated by homophobia. I hated myself for being what seemed to be everyone's worst nightmare: a Homosexual." This sort of self-hate leads an alarmingly high percentage of gay and lesbian youth to inflict violence upon themselves through suicide attempts, drug and alcohol abuse or other high-risk behaviors. As Mark Ayers, a gay man, testified, "I began to realize I was gay at about age 12 or 13 when I became aware of my attraction to the other boys in my class. I attended parochial school and was well-versed in the "sinful" nature of homosexuality. I was so scared and confused; I tried desperately to bury my feelings...The biggest cost of my denial of my sexuality was a deep entanglement with addiction. It was a journey that got progressively worse an nearly killed me." Not surprisingly, students who are harassed and attacked for their actual or perceived sexual orientation also suffer from feelings of low self-esteem. The hatred others inflict upon them is often mirrored in acts of self-hate. In 1988, Joyce Hunter surveyed 500 gay and lesbian youth. Forty-one percent of these young people reported that they had experienced violent attacks, many at the hands of classmates. Suicidal ideation was found among 44% of these young people. GAYS AND LESBIANS MAY BECOME VIOLENT IN RESPONSE TO HOMOPHOBIA. In some cases, students who are feel anxious about their own sexuality may lash out at other students whom they perceive to be gay or lesbian. Instead of turning self-hate into self-inflicted violence, they attack others who are like them. This sort of violence is representative of their desire to externalize their homophobia, to put their feelings of self-loathing on some outward source. These students may also believe that committing acts of anti-gay violence will prove to their school and even to themselves that they can't possibly be gay. A few gay and lesbian students may also attack straight students who taunt or harass them. Lashing out in self-defense or anger, they become violent in response to homophobia. THE ROLE OF PREJUDICE IN CONFLICTS Anti-Gay prejudice can incite and escalate conflicts in two different ways: * Prejudice can serve as the root of the conflict. * Prejudicial epithets can be hurled during a disagreement. PREJUDICE AS THE ROOT OF THE CONFLICT Prejudice can be the reason conflict occurs. For example, the irrational hatred of gays and lesbians leads students to attack other students simply because they are lesbian or gay or are perceived to be lesbian or gay. Chris Muther, a twenty-three year old, said that his best (who eventually ended up committing suicide) and he were "were called queer and faggot and a host of other homophobic slurs. We were also used as punching bags for our classmates just for being different." Anti-gay prejudice can make schools unsafe not only for gay and lesbian students, but also for heterosexual students. Chris Collins, an Amherst student, testified at the Governor's Commission Hearings that one of his best friends was suspected of being gay, even though he was actually straight. Chris stated, "Based on the suspicion, and only on that suspicion, he was beaten up every day at school. He was unable to attend classes many days. Sometimes he would go to school, only to be beaten up during lunch or during study hall. Ultimately, his parents transferred him to another school for his own protection." PREJUDICIAL EPITHETS THROWN IN DURING A DISAGREEMENT. Conflicts can escalate when students throw in prejudicial comments or epithets during a disagreement. The insults may have little or nothing to do with the disagreement, but taunting someone by calling them a "fag" or a "dyke" can enflame tempers. Children of elementary school age commonly insult each other using epithets rooted in anti-gay prejudice, terms like "fag" or "dyke." Even though they may not know what the words mean, children learn early on that they can be used to hurt someone. SPECTRUM OF ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE Homophobic violence can be manifested in numerous ways. Students report that they have experienced a spectrum of violence that includes everything from shunning to repeated physical attacks. The continuum could be envisioned as: * Shunning/ostracizing * verbal insults/name calling * threats of violence * single acts of violence * repeated attacks Gay and lesbian students may be shunned or ostracized by other students. Rosanna Orfield, a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin said, "My friend came out...She called me the night after it happened. She said she had been at a party and had accidentally revealed [her sexual orientation] to someone...The next day the rest of the school knew. Some of her friends ignored her; some people talked behind her back. Everywhere she went, she was treated differently by people although she was the same person." Many other students ostracize themselves from their friends and families because they are afraid that someone will discover that they are homosexual or that like Rosanna's friend, they will accidentally let something revealing slip out and then become targets of abuse or harassment. Devin Beringer said, "I was always an outcast at school...I ostracized myself form the rest of the world because I felt as if I could trust no one, not even my parents. The pressure of feeling so alone manifested in fits of manic depression, hysterical outbreaks, and eventually, suicidal tendencies." Stevie Wilson graduated from Framingham High School and testified at the Public Hearings. He said, "I go back [to Framingham High] and there are so many gay youth there and they're just so closeted because of the fear of being beat up, the fear of being rejected and all of that." Students who are shunned because they are gay and lesbian and those who remain closeted and hide their true feelings are at a greater risk of attempting suicide, having poor school performance, and/or dropping out. Matthew Flyn, 18, testified that "During junior high and in my freshman year of high school, I was very depressed. Feeling alone and isolated from the rest of the world, I managed to fail three of my five majors that year." Although they may have no physical scars, the violence inflicted upon students who are shunned and ostracized is no less real, and no less damaging to their psyches. Similarly, many students are profoundly hurt by being targeted by anti-gay harassment and slurs. A survey conducted by the Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) and the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth which was distributed at seven community-based gay and lesbian youth groups and eight Gay/Straight Alliances in Massachusetts, found that 43% of students often hear anti-gay or anti-lesbian remarks at their high school, 51% sometimes hear these remarks, and only 6% said they never hear these sorts of remarks. A student at Concord-Carlisle reported that he's regularly called a "freak" because he's gay. These sorts of remarks can make students feel the same way as Randy Driskell, a senior at Wareham High School, did after he was harassed and abused for being gay. "Through the last few years I had become conditioned into believing gay is wrong. After three years of conditioning, I forgot all the things my mother taught me [about feeling good about myself and liking myself]. I lost respect for myself and wanted to die." Sometimes teachers and school personnel are verbally abusive to gay and lesbian students as well. The BAGLY survey found that more than half the students reported that they heard teachers in their high school make anti-gay and anti-lesbian remarks. Arthur Lipkin, a former teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin, said, "I was standing at one end of a fairly quiet corridor and at the other end two male students were wrestling, just horsing around I think. I saw the school security person approach these two boys...To get the two kids to stop fooling around she bellowed at them, 'Break it up, you homos!' The corridor echoed with her words and I was horrified." Anti-gay slurs and harassment demeans a student's sense of self and their sense of self-worth. In fact, the insult is so profound that students who are not gay or lesbian, students who might just be horsing around in the hallway, can be threatened into conformity simply by being called homosexual. Sometimes gay and lesbian students are victimized not by actual violence, but simply the threat of attack. Zoe Hart, a senior at Lincoln Sudbury testified at the Governor's Commission Hearings that "Last year at my high school, there was an incident which shocked everyone. Two female students were standing in the hall with their arms around each other. Students began to encircle them and yell profanities, until a group of about thirty kids surrounded them." A few gay and lesbian students are physically assaulted once because of their sexual orientation, but far more are routinely victimized for being homosexual. Guy Smith, a 22 year old Brandeis student, said, "From fifth and sixth grade, before I even knew what being gay was or what the word meant, I was widely hated by students and ignored by the teachers and administration...I was regularly beaten up in the halls by upper school students." Guy's experience is far too common. Lesbian and gay students are routinely subjected to a spectrum of violence, and they are not the only ones being hurt by homophobic violence. Homophobia contributes to the overall problem of violence in schools, impacting on the lives of all students. It incites violence, it escalates conflicts, it forces students to deny who they are and what they want to be for fear of being labeled, harassed, or attacked. Schools must begin to address anti-gay violence and harassment. The following are various violence prevention models schools can adopt to better insure the safety of all students. TYPES OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION MODELS The following are four different models schools can use to implement violence prevention work: * Workshops * Teacher training in Conflict Resolution/Violence Prevention * Mediation Programs * Teacher Training in Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues WORKSHOPS Conflict resolution/Violence prevention facilitator leads a workshop for teachers and students in diversity training and conflict resolution. These workshops teaches a large number of students basic skills. The workshops focus on: * How we see the world, our assumptions and mis-assumptions about race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.; * The role of prejudice in inciting conflict and violence; * How conflicts escalate. * Strategies for conflict resolution. TEACHER TRAINING USING VIOLENCE PREVENTION STRATEGIES Conflict resolution/Violence prevention facilitator holds a training seminar for teachers to teach them concepts and activities they can do with their students. It would include discussion of the following: * Context of violence; * Information about conflict; * How conflicts escalate; * Ways to de-escalate conflict; * Roles prejudice plays in conflict; * Seeing the world through different lenses/perspectives; * Next steps to a more peaceful school. MEDIATION PROGRAMS A select number of teachers and students are trained to mediate disputes and resolve conflicts that occur within the school. Mediators will be equipped with the skills and information to respond to immediately to acts of harassment and violence, intervene in disputes and resolve conflicts, and increase school- wide understanding and tolerance. This program reaches a small number of people and gives them a good amount of training. TEACHER TRAINING IN GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL ISSUES Teacher training workshop(s) are held to increase awareness of issues facing gay, lesbian and bisexual students. Workshops could be held on each of the following topics, or could include a combination of the following: * Gay and Lesbian Issues for Schools * Homophobia 101 * Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution Training The following sections detail the content for each of these workshops. WORKSHOP ON GAY AND LESBIAN ISSUES FOR SCHOOLS This workshop would include discussion of the following: * Issues affecting gay and lesbian students; * Introduction to the Massachusetts Department of Education Recommendations on the Support and Safety of Gay and Lesbian Students; * Strategies for implementing the recommendations in your own school. * Drafting of a work-plan for implementation of recommendations. HOMOPHOBIA 101 WORKSHOP This workshop would serve as an introduction to homophobia and Heterosexism. It would include discussion of the following: * What is homophobia? What is Heterosexism? Definitions and origins of homophobia; * How homophobia impacts on gays and lesbians; * How homophobia impacts on heterosexuals; * Strategies for reducing homophobia in schools and society. WORKSHOP ON VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the basic strategies of Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution. It would include discussion of the following: * Context of violence; * Information about conflict; * How conflicts escalate; * Ways to de-escalate conflict; * Roles prejudice plays in conflict; * Seeing the world through different lenses/perspectives; * Next steps to a more peaceful school. CONTACT INFORMATION: Warren J. Blumenfeld PO Box 929 Northampton, MA 01061 Tel: (413) 585-9121 Fax: (413) 584-1332 E-Mail: blumenfeld@educ.umass.edu .................................................................. This document is one of the many practical resources available online from GLSTN's web site at http://www.glstn.org/respect/. The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network (GLSTN) is the largest organization of parents, educators, students and other concerned citizens working to end homophobia in K-12 schools and to ensure that all students are valued and respected, regardless of sexual orientation. To fulfill its mission and to raise awareness of these issues, GLSTN produces audio, visual and text-based educational materials, provides training, produces community programming and conferences, and organizes a growing national network of over 40 regional chapters. Membership in GLSTN is open to anyone -- regardless of their occupation or sexual orientation -- who is committed to seeing that the current generation is the last to suffer from homophobia. 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